I’ll never forget bringing the rental violin home from school in the 5th grade. It was slightly dinged up, but it was still a lovely piece of wood, of several different kinds. A lustrous brown body accented with nearly black ebony (or similar dark wood) neck and tuning pegs. Inside the case was a bow made of horsehair and a box with a cube of fragrant and sticky rosin. The whole package was organic and sensuous.
I wanted to play an instrument. There was a whole range of musical instruments that was available to us in school, but education in strings was offered in 5th grade while instruction on the band instruments wasn’t offered until 6th grade. I wanted to get started as soon as I could.
The fun really started in junior high, when the four grade schools came together, and instead of lessons once a week, all of the string players practiced playing together every day in orchestra class. Once we hit seventh grade, most of the violinists, violists and cellists would all play in the orchestra through the whole six years until graduation. (Bass players were hit or miss.)
My mom purchased a piano for herself when I was around 12, and later I took lessons. One of the major regrets in life is not digging into that more. But I did nail the first movement of The Moonlight Sonata, and Für Elise, among other easy pieces.
I was initially stuck in the second violin section, playing the supportive harmony to the first violin section. They were the better players and as such, they got to play the main melodic passages…and I wanted to do that. In orchestra as in life, sometimes you have to get aggressive to achieve your goals, so I started a campaign of challenges until I rose up into the first violin section. I settled into the 3rd or 4th chair (depending the status of the friendly rivalry between me and my stand-mate). The two best players were completely beyond my talents.
Music was an integral of school for me...It was a wonderful experience playing as part an ensemble in concerts, the most satisfying was being a part of the pit orchestra for one of the high school’s musicals. I was fortunate to attend a month-long music and arts camp on the campus of Washington State University for three summers running (Boy, were those kids really good!)
One fun experience happened late one spring. The band teacher asked a bunch of us orchestra kids to help fill out the ranks of the school’s marching band for an out-of-town parade. He felt that more bodies would create a sense of a larger sound…Isn’t that cheating?
So some of us borrowed band instruments and we practiced the marching routines with the band, while pretending to play. (I used my sister’s clarinet.) We did the parade, and camped out on the ground in a nearby state park. The next day I and one of the band guys were picked up by a state trooper hitching back from a country store after buying some smokes. The band teacher didn’t see us being let out of the back of the patrol car, a lucky break.
I wasn’t all that bad. But I had a disability that held me back from true success…I hated to practice. Learning new pieces was always exciting, but playing the same thing over and over to a point of perfection was just too tedious an exercise. I continued playing through my sophomore year in college before moving on to concentrate on my other studies…
…and with that my musical career ended, save for those few moments here and there, strumming guitar cords, with reverb.
Do you play a musical instrument...now or in the past?
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