November 2013

Feeling childish. A rant.

I’m short. Not simply “need to hem all pants” short, but “need to hem and restyle all pants, blouses, and everything else” short. My feet swing when I sit in a chair. It takes forever to shop for cars because I have to find one where I can reach the pedals and see over the dashboard without the steering wheel digging into my pelvis. When my 6’3” husband and I designed our home, we compromised on getting normal height kitchen counters, but hung the overhead cabinets four inches lower than standard so I could reach the dishes without a step stool. I simply don’t fit in a standardized world.

So when I showed up for my first violin lesson, I was disappointed, but unsurprised that I ended up with a fractional instrument. Finding the decent intermediate instrument that I have now took over a year of searching. That part was fun. I love shopping for violins, even if the nicer fractionals are difficult to find. They are out there though. Those child prodigies have to play on something after all.

My nice violin is something that I don’t want banging around when I travel. To that end, I purchased a cheap used Chinese instrument (shhh! on Ebay) for those times when I’m on the road. It comes with a bare bones case with no suspension. My plan is to use my existing low end student case for the inexpensive violin, and buy a nice luxury case for my vintage baby. I love shopping. This should be fun, right?

In my initial internet search last night, I discovered that the cases most attractive to me are not offered in fractional sizes. Sure, I’m picky. No velour for me, or bare bones tech cases that look like they should be toting drills, not violins. I want a beautiful case, with plush red velvet, a well manufactured wood shell, and good suspension, with amenities. The case should be a joy to look at. Sadly, the cases I like are only offered for full size violins.

I vented on Facebook about this and got a lot of helpful advice. However, I think the respondents simply don’t understand. If I wanted to spend a ton of money on a case, I shouldn’t have to retro fit it, or settle for something that’s good enough to do the job. It appears that there isn’t enough of a market for case makers to produce fancy cases for fractional violins. After all, most folks grow out of them too quickly to care. But I’m not going to grow out of my violin next year, and I don’t need to choose function over form. This is my forever size. It would be nice to have a forever case to go with it.

And yes, it is a petty first world problem. I should get over myself.

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