The Craftiest Workshop

Something you may or may not know about me is I went back to school when I was 40 to get a diploma in Early Childhood Education. The learning was not hard but navigating the online courses and technology I had not explored before was daunting. The thing I decided recently to learn is hard for me but in a different way.

My friend Tasha, who is the conductor of our handbell choir, is quite a good fiddler. She has been playing since she was a child, her mother plays and she is teaching her son; it is a family affair. I heard her play at one of the church services and I was impressed.

She is a school teacher and, due to the on going strike, she was looking to make a few more bucks on the side so she put it out there asking if anyone wanted violin lessons. I decided to take the bull by the horns and ask her if she would take me on as a student.

Renting a violin was as easy as going down to the music store, signing some paperwork and heading home, in this case, with a brand new violin. I am thinking they don’t give their better instruments to children. I am renting by the month and can return it at any time.

Some of you may be asking yourselves…didn’t you say that Tasha plays the fiddle not the violin? It is the same instrument but the name changes based on the style of music you play!

Another reason I was hesitant about taking on an instrument from the string family was that I was under the assumption that I would have to learn a new clef. Not so with the violin. Any music specifically written for it is written in the treble clef with notes spanning from G below the staff to B above the staff or, G4-B6. I am used to the treble clef having played the alto sax for so many years. To play the cello, you need to learn the tenor clef.

So, why is this a different kind of hard for me? It involves getting muscles used to new movement. Last Monday, I practiced twice and then had a lesson. The next day my neck was so sore that it hurt to swallow. It slowly got better as the week went on and today I can’t feel it anymore. I made myself play each day this week.

I have to get used to wearing my progressive glasses to play. Where the bow hits the strings is almost too close so it’s blurry and without glasses I wouldn’t be able to read music on a stand. As you can see in the photo, not reading music, I took off my glasses for the first few days.

It is also very frustrating to know the notes and the rhythms but not be able to get it out on the instrument. I need to practise basic bowing techniques before diving into sheet music. My musical brain wants to dive in full blast but my muscle memory is not ready for that yet. I am good with plucking the strings with correct notes for now to practice my fingering.

Did you know that the bow is made from horse hair? You add a sticky resin to the horse hair to get it to resonate on the strings. You actually apply a fair amount of pressure as you move the bow, a lot more than I thought it would be. Holding the bow properly feels pretty awkward too.

The great thing about learning an instrument as an adult is that you can choose to play what you want. I don’t plan on learning all the scales aside from using them as a warm up maybe. I want to play songs that I know and love.

If I keep with it and am enjoying myself, I will likely purchase my own violin. It makes me a bit leery though when most of the ones I see for sale on market place are broken in some way. They are fairly delicate and don’t weigh very much.

If you afford to learn something that you’ve always wanted to, why not go ahead and make it happen. Learning new things is how we grow and challenge our minds.