December 2006

A Late Start

December 7, 2006 11:55

A little more than a year ago, I took up the violin--at age 52. A foolhardy venture, no doubt. But it's worse than you might imagine, since I operate under the delusion that I will one day be able to play like Nathan Milstein. This would be pathetic, of course, except that it's a useful delusion; it keeps me hopeful and dogged and not easily disheartened by those times, all-too-frequent, when my playing sounds just about as far as possible from anything resembling music.

I'm on my second violin-teacher, having driven my first one into early retirement.

My first teacher wisely had me doing nothing the first two months but open bowing. I came to love those meditation-like practice sessions where I did nothing but bow open strings, and they stand me in good stead now that my new teacher has me learning my first Bach gavottes.

And this is the other wonderful thing about taking up the violin: after all of these years of being a prisoner to rock-and-roll, I am just now discovering these wonderful Baroque composers like Bach and Vivaldi and Corelli and Biber, and violinists such as Milstein (ah, Milstein!) and Menuhin and Heifetz and, my current favorite, Andrew Manze.

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