Developing a Healthy Physical Relationship with the Violin. In my first few weeks of playing, I distinctly remember feeling dizzy and sometimes even a bit nauseous from the strain of standing for long periods of time with my arms held aloft (25 whole minutes), struggling to concentrate on a thousand different things that all felt … Continue reading Not Taking Pain for an Answer
Category: Philosophy
Thou Shalt Not Be Selfish
Overcoming the Guilt of Indulging in Self-Enrichment I don't know exactly when it happened. It wasn't a singular moment, I know that. It didn't even dawn on me all at once. It was more like the process of paint fading and cracking so slowly that you don't even see it. Only after passing through the … Continue reading Thou Shalt Not Be Selfish
But Why, Though?
One really surprising thing that I have discovered through this is that being an adult starter on an instrument isn't actually that strange. More surprisingly, it isn't strange to be an adult violin starter. Which is insane considering that it's arguably the hardest instrument (along with the whole bowed and non fretted string family). I knew it would be hard, and I knew that I was up against something as someone who didn't benefit from any kind of music lessons as a child. So I never thought that there would actually be a tribe of people all over the world who also share this journey given what a feat it sounds like. This makes me want to write in ways that others can discover as opposed to in a diary. (Haha! Writing in a diary after getting home from a violin lesson, that would really make me feel like I'm 12 again). This is un-isolating, which brings so much in itself.
