I just wanna play, all the time...

February 17, 2006 at 8:41 PM

Last year I watched the movie "Ice Princess", which was a halfway decent tween flick despite the irritatingly bogus physics. Anyway, there's one scene where a bunch of teenage figure skaters are discussing their sport, and one of them who clearly loves it asks, "Don't you just want to skate ALL the time?" Her friend gives her a strange look and answers, "Nooo..." I think the message is that this friend has been pushed into figure skating, whereas the first girl does it for herself.

Anyway, that question comes back to me a lot as I've returned to my violin studies. I do want to play all the time. At least I think I do; unfortunately, I get tired easily, and I'm not a person who deals well with physical discomfort so I usually stop as soon as I feel weary. That, plus the demands of a full-time job and two little children, means I don't practice anywhere close to the amount I'd like to. But I make progress every time I pick up my violin, and I remind myself that as with almost everything, quality matters more than quantity.

I'm making steady progress on the Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. The last Più Allegro section is really starting to come together, even though all that fast stuff way up in 7th position or whatever (I lose count after 5th) seemed impossible when I started. And the Kreutzer is definitely helping my shifting, so I'm glad I brought up the subject of etudes with my teacher. I just started Ševčík Op. 9 double stop exercises, too. The 1-4 octaves with a low second finger are awful for someone whose hand is as small as mine. Ouch! My childhood violin teacher didn't teach me much, but one thing she said which I keep in mind was "No pain, no gain, but also too much pain, no gain." So I'm taking it slowly.

The small UU church I attend has four or five rotating pianists, of which I am one. John, who is undoubtedly the best of us all, only attends when he's the pianist. So even though I've played violin in church about six times in the last three years, he was totally unaware I was also a violinist until I happened to email to the group that I was taking a break from piano until April but would be happy to do violin/piano stuff in the meantime. This led to some email exchanges between us, and we're going to try playing the Mozart E Minor Sonata (K. 304). I'm excited about working with someone I respect so much as a musician, even though my husband warns me that the artist personality might not be the easiest to work with. ;)

From Colleen Russo
Posted on February 17, 2006 at 9:53 PM

That is so true about the movie comparrison thing! Yay for liking violin! :) It just makes everything better!
And you should definately take a picture of your daughter playing! It would be so adorable to see !! And she will love them when she's older!

From Terez Mertes
Posted on February 19, 2006 at 2:37 AM

Karin, wow, I have such respect for you for handling such a demanding endeavor as the violin, while working full-time and having 2 kids. (My child is 6, how old are yours?)

May life hand you many free hours so that you can play to your fulfillment...

From Karin Lin
Posted on February 23, 2006 at 2:31 AM

Hi Terez, my girls are 3 and (almost) 1. Lots of work, but oh, so rewarding! :)

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