November 19, 2004 at 10:24 AM

First lesson last night. Seemed far too short, so much to ask, to see, to hear etc.

That the teacher loved my violin was obvious, from hearing him play it for 10 minutes and then loathing to hand it back. Have to say I was a little jealous, MOP-J in the hands of a complete stranger, violins are so fragile, so intense, so personal, I didn't breathe until he handed it back.

We went through holding the bow and the instrument. Noone has actually shown me this, bar the very kind Prof. Sassmannshaus on vm.com :) All in all I hadn't done a bad job, my bowing near the tip needed correcting as I took the easy route and was collapsing a little at the elbow, downward bowing toward my body, which apparently is very common as it is the path with the least resistance.. I mean.. who needs resistance? isn't it hard enough :)

Bless him (the teacher) he had out a little "your first violin" book. So we took a look. I was expecting to be on open strings for a while to be honest, but anyhow we worked through the book from front to back. Pretty decent job of the intonation (courtesy of MOP-J who just makes it so damn easy) although my bow changes were awful, funny they sound smooth at home. I put it down to first date nerves. I have a real thing with C and C#, just hearing them spot on, just seem to be the ones I need to slide into at the moment.

All in all it was a good start. I think the teacher is going to be a little soft with me. I guess it's not a bad thing with an adult student I guess, but I do want to get it right. Early days though.

Don
PS: I have had some nice emails from people on here, thank you, that I have inspired anyone is such an incredible compliment. We can do this together right :) :)

November 19, 2004 at 10:24 AM

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