A Love of Music

I have always wanted to play the violin. It is also true that I have always felt this strange almost magnetic pull towards it. When I hear the music from a violin I often just shut my eyes and let my heart really feel the sounds that dance through my ears.

Unfortunately when I was a child it seemed like that was the sort of thing I would never have. I moved around a lot, and was just happy to have a place to live and family to love me, so much to the point that I did not feel comfortable asking for things. Let alone ask for a very expensive instrument, so I never did.

All these years later while chatting with my Grandma as I always do, we got to talking about violin music. I expressed to her how I have always felt this intense yearning to play the violin, and that someday when I had enough money I was going to buy one and teach myself how to play. She asked me why I had never mentioned this to her before. Then she proceeded to tell me that she had three in the attic and that I was right in that it was never too late to learn, so when I went to visit her this summer she was going to give me one.

And she did.
It amazes me how much I love it. Even in it's coffin case (if you look close it is one of the old wooden ones, which in truth I think is cool) and admittedly less than prime condition, but I really love that violin and it's mine.

I think what I love most about the violin is it's history. You see, it was my great great grandfathers. My grandmother says that he was a wonderful violinist and that he played by ear. My great great grandmother bought this violin for him when his old violin was lost to a house fire in 1917 at a second hand store. So it is most likely more than a hundred years old.

As you can well imagine I was very anxious to start playing with my violin, but when I went to see my Grandmother it was more than four or five weeks before we found the violins, they weren't exactly lost she just wasn't sure where they were. She recently had all the electrical and plumbing redone so things had been shuffled around to the point that she really didn't know quite where anything was.

So when we finally stumbled upon two of them while rescuing a kitten that had gotten lost under her bed, it was an undescribably exciting moment for me. When we pulled out the violins, only one of them still had any strings on it, and it only had two. Both of the bows needed to be rehaired and admittedly had maybe more than half of the hair they should have had on them still. Neither of those two elements stopped me from trying to play that violin. For the first 15 seconds I could not get it to make any sort of pleasant sound, then my couzin who does not know how to play the violin (but played in the orchestra) pointed out that I was holding the violin wrong. I quickly readjusted my hold on the violin and again went about trying to make music from those two strings. Too everyones surprise (including my own) I was able to produce a very nice sound as I drew my bow across one of the strings for the almost the first time. It was wierd as I continued to play those two strings and they continued to produce a quite lovely sound, it was almost as if I instinctively knew how to wield the bow like some sort of second nature. I of course started laughing since everyone was so shocked that it didn't sound like screaching cats (my cousin swears that what it should have sounded like) and announced that it was probably some of our great great Grandfathers blood that runs through my veins helping me.

I had read that it is quite difficult for beginners to get the hang of holding the bow properly, often those stories painted disturbing pictures of screaching and screaming cats in your head. But because I was able to do it so easily, I honestly thought that those stories may have been a bit exaggerated. At first it didn't really seem like a big deal, but then my cousin and then my brother tried it, and I was able to understand where all the screaming cat stories come from. It was pretty funny. My brother just laughed and my cousin shook his head and remarked that he would stick to his bass guitar. When I looked at my Grandma after the exchange, it became apparent to me that I have more than undoubtedbly been blessed with another musical gift that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of. In that moment I was so happy I almost cried.
I had wanted a violin for so long but I had never really truly understood why I was so drawn to it. I have even dreamed of playing beautiful music on a violin since I was a child.

My Grandmother and had a new set of practice strings on it the next day. We even attempted to have the bow rehaired, but bought a cheap one for the meantime since we couldn't find anyone in that area to do it. I practiced with a violin book that is probably as old as the violin is (as it's pages are yellowed), and I picked up a book of beginners songs for the violin and have begun to teach myself how to play Greensleeves (which is one of my favorite folk songs). Since returning home I found a man who I could trust to rehair my bow for me, and repair a few things on the violin that needed to be done. I even let him convince me to upgrade from the practice strings (which he and his assistants spent quite a lot of time telling me how terrible they were), and I am very happy for the changes. I am most excited for the rehairing of my bow. The other bow we had bought for the meantime was just a cheap and non-extraodinary bow. The bow I had rehaired I am told is an excellent bow. In fact Jeff (the man who rehaired it), pointed out my bow is worth more than my violin. Which i think is kinda funny. Especially because I am just elated to have a violin at all let alone an awesome bow. I have also attained a really cool set of books to enable my skill with my violin to grow, an awesome birthday present I received from my Jeffrey (my equally awesome boyfriend). Now as I continue to learn to do more and more different things on the violin, it makes more and more sense why I have always been so drawn to it.



If your wondering why I am blogging about it right now rather than practicing with it, in short I blame Jeffrey. Hehehe, I spent the majority of my day with him for his birthday. I picked up one of his friends earlier in the day and then proceeded to the local gamestop (Alex has a discount just like Jeffrey) and picked out Jeffreys gifts.
We then went out for pizza (Alex's treat), and quickly returned back to Jeffreys' so he could try out his birthday gifts.
If you're curious I gave him the new Wii Sports Resort and an extra motion plus controller. I know pretty swanky, huh?
In short-I didn't return home until it was too late to not feel guilty about practicing. Admittedly we really did have a great time together, it was a lot of fun and I don't regret it I just miss not having been able to play my violin today. So I am filling the void I have because I have not been able to practice with my violin, by blogging about it.



I really really do love my violin.