Enter: The Viola

Mr. Trouble on Feet has been asking about playing a stringed instrument for a couple of years.  He tags along to all The Banana’s orchestra concerts and violin recitals and has long been aware that kids who play string instruments get to have their instruments in hand at a much earlier age than kids who play wind instruments.  He landed on the viola because The Banana didn’t want him to play the violin, and I’m already learning the cello.  Also, he found out how violas are always needed in the orchestra.  He was super persistent about asking and asking to play the viola, so I finally just said yes, if The Banana’s violin teacher had room for another viola student.  She did, and now we have a viola in the house.

Honestly, it was hard for me to say yes to this viola!  All the kids in the house groaned, saying that Mr. TOF had no idea what he was getting into, that he’d give up right away because the viola was hard, he’d fuss about practicing, and that Mr. TOF wasn’t an orchestra-kind-of-kid, he was a band-kind-of-kid.  He truly does love a band, especially a marching band, but as Mr. TOF put it, there is nothing wrong with learning to play a string instrument now and learning to play a band instrument later.  Why not?  Even Dr. Peds was in a bit of disbelief that I said yes to the viola, because learning a string instrument means that a parent is highly involved in all matters of practicing, and takes so much dedication all around.  There were a lot of talks with Mr. TOF that basically went, “Are you sure?  Are you really sure?  Do you know that this will be a lot of hard work?  You understand that sometimes you are going to feel extremely frustrated and you are going to have to be nice about it?”

But, I have to say, we are about five weeks into the viola, and it’s really going great!  His teacher is so good about explaining just what to do.  Mr. TOF is genuinely excited to get that instrument out of its case every single day, and he’s been super cooperative about getting help from both myself and The Banana (who is actually a better helper than I am since she understands more about holding the instrument than I do).  He’s making great progress and he’s super proud of himself.  He’s especially excited about all the opportunities to wear his suit at upcoming recitals.  He has important goals about playing in youth orchestra, and so far, he’s willing to work super hard to get there.