Spring is definitely here

May 6, 2008 at 11:22 PM

Where did the winter go? I realize I haven't updated in four months. Fortunately, my practicing habits are far better than my blogging habits!

I'll have performed Vivaldi's "Spring" three times in three weeks by the end of this season, for progressively tougher audiences: my daughter's preschool, my church's talent show, and finally my teacher's studio recital this Sunday. It sometimes takes a little while for a teacher to know a student well enough to direct him or her to appropriate repertoire, and this time I think we've got it. I've really enjoyed and learned a lot from working on this piece. It's popular and at just the right difficulty for me---not so easy as to be boring, but not so hard that I have to focus exclusively on technical matters at the expense of musicality.

I've learned things that I'd never even thought of before, such as the importance of bow distribution and the fact that playing forte by bowing slowly near the bridge gives a really different sound from bowing fast and with lots of pressure farther from the bridge. And that when you're in high positions on the E string, you really don't have to press hard at all to get the notes you want!

The only sad part to all these revelations is realizing how much I missed out in my childhood violin education, where the only goal ever imposed on me was to play most of the notes mostly in tune and vary the dynamics once in a while. To anyone who questions the importance of a good teacher, I am living proof that it DOES MATTER. But better late than never, I always say, and I'm grateful for the opportunity now to work toward my full potential.

On another subject, I've written before that I hope one day to have a family string quartet. My three-year-old daughter has caught on to this idea, albeit with a twist. "Mommy, you and Kiera [5-year-old sister] can play violin, and Daddy can play the cello, and I will play...DRUMS!"

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Welcome back! I'm glad you've had fun and made progress with your violin. I've missed your blogs. Please don't make us wait so long for another one.

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 1:25 PM

Hi Karin, I'm also glad to see you back. How did the church talent show go?

Since I've been playing again over the past couple of years, I've also had some of the same feelings about my childhood violin experience--like, what on earth was I thinking back then? (Or, more like, what was I NOT thinking??)

But people mature at different rates, and if I'm honest with myself, I realize I would not have been able to absorb back then a lot of what I'm absorbing now. Adult-like expectations would have just rolled off me like water off a duck's back (and maybe in fact, that's what happened. It's hard to remember).

The preternaturally mature are celebrated to such an extent in our society that I think sometimes we forget that most children are just kids who are going to play "Lightly Row" badly for a few years until their brains mature and they get a clue.

Like you said, "better late than never," but are you really actually late or is the rest of society just overly focused on the early?

From Karin Lin
Posted on May 7, 2008 at 6:34 PM

Hi Pauline and Karen, thanks for the warm welcome back (though I don't really feel like I've been gone, since I've been actively lurking).

The church talent show went well. I only played the first movement, but I felt really good about it and I was flooded with compliments afterwards. It's always a friendly audience, but several people told me they could tell that I've reached a new level since starting with this new teacher.

Karen, you have good points about expectations on the young. I don't think I would have been another Sarah Chang or anything, but I do believe I could have reached at least the level I am now much earlier. I had always wondered if I just lacked some fundamental talent for the violin, because I always did poorly at competitions and couldn't get into decent orchestras in college, even though I thought I was a decent musician (and had done quite well as a child on piano, which I also studied). When I started again as an adult, it was shocking to realize how much I was never told about the violin---about the importance of the right hand, how to practice slowly...I do believe I could have absorbed these concepts as a child, or at least a teenager. It's depressing to think of the time I wasted playing the violin so badly. But at least my childhood teachers didn't quash my love for the violin, and as long as I have that, I have a lot of years to make up for lost time.

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Spring is definitely here

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