The Violin Has Arrived

The Banana asked “When I am I going to get my violin?” every day for three years.  Three years is a long time when you are seven.  For years I mostly  set the notion of her starting violin to the side on a shelf.  I thought she might change her mind.  I thought another instrument might capture her attention.  It’s not that I don’t like the violin, it’s just that sometimes preschoolers are apt to change their mind.  Frequently.  However, she is one persistent girl, and she knew from the start that the violin was what she wanted to do.

Unlike a lot of other musical instruments, I have practically zero experience with stringed instruments, and they operate entirely different from all the instruments I play, so there was no way I could help her try something out on the violin.  The violin was going to have to be a commitment.  I groaned at the thought of how difficult it was probably going to be to find a violin teacher who was open to teaching on the days that I didn’t already teach or wasn’t carting YaYa off to oboe lessons.   The Banana has been doing so well with piano all the years she’s taken lessons, and she works so hard.

So, about a month or so ago I randomly came across a sign advertising violin lessons.  I researched the teacher and found out that she plays in the symphony and has a LOT of experience teaching violin in schools and privately.  I decided to make a phone call, and it turns out she was willing to teach The Banana on Friday afternoons, which works out perfectly with our family schedule.  It was unbelievable how things were perfectly orchestrated, and two days later I was in the beautiful violin store downtown with The Banana, sizing her for first violin.  Since she’s monstrously tall for a first grader, her first violin ended up being a half size violin.  It’s old and beautiful, and I can’t tell you how excited The Banana was to carry it home.

It was excruciatingly hard for her to wait five days with the violin in the house before her first lesson, but somehow she made it.

Because of the family schedule during the school week, The Banana gets up at 5:45 every morning to practice violin before school.  She doesn’t complain a bit.  I say the word “Violin” and she hops right off the top bunk bed and zooms downstairs.  Sometimes if there is time after she practices piano in the evening, the violin comes back out a second time.  That’s dedication.  Violin is hard work, but she’s doing amazingly well.  The first week, when these images were taken she was practicing pizzicato to learn some notes on the strings.  This week we have added bowing, which is so complex, yet she’s improving so much so quickly.  She’s so focused and has such a great attitude.

Because we now have several pianists, an oboist, a violinist, and I often am practicing a couple of other instruments around the house, I believe my very patient husband may feel like he lives in a music department.  Luckily he has a great attitude too.