Learning the violin, a lesson in obstinate rigor

Back in October, I decided to learn the violin. With the downtime from quitting my job, I was eager to learn a brand new skill. I’ve wanted to be able to play the violin for at least a decade but never made the time for it. With all that spare time and the desire to acquire a new skill, everything’s coming up Milhouse¹.

Here’s the thing though: my only musical education was in elementary school. There was a semester where we played the recorder. It was a Catholic elementary school, so I’m sure my parents were wondering why hell had been brought to their house.

Beyond tooting on the recorder, every kid had to participate in choir at the school. My vocal talent was, umm, not great. I vividly remember a lesson where I was practicing as a part of a trio where the teacher pointedly asked me to “move back from the microphone.” That was a real confidence booster Mrs. N!

Coming back to reality and away from trivial childhood trauma, here I am at 36, wanting to learn an instrument without knowing how to play any music, read music, or generally having any understanding of musical instruments. I mean, I did understand harmonies of stringed instruments, but that was because of my physics classes. By all accounts, this was a bad idea.

Not to mention the seemingly constant barrage of information that said the violin is the hardest instrument to learn. Not just hard. The hardest².

And wow, the violin is difficult to play.

There are just so many damn things to keep in mind. You have to move the bow at a constant speed. The angle of the bow should remain constant. The bow shouldn’t slide up and down the strings. The muscle groups you use to move the bow change about the midpoint of the bow. Don’t press too hard, but the G string needs to be pressed harder than the E string. When you stop, stop all at once; don’t gradually stop and definitely don’t go in reverse³. Don’t grip the bow too tightly, or your hand will start to shake⁴.

And that’s just one hand!

The other hand is doing some wild contortions as if I’m casting a spell. This hand is generally easier to figure out since there isn’t constant motion; it’s all about positioning. However, when you’re first learning, those positions are brand new, so it involves conscious thought.

And of course that takes your mind away from the bow hand, and now the screeching starts. And the cursing. And the sweating because you’re paying someone to listen to this madness. And then thoughts of, “Is this really how I want to spend my time?” kick in.

And while you’re standing there, simmering in frustration and the physical inability to multitask, the instructor says, “Now remember, we need to play this to the beat. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4”. For fuck’s sake, I forgot about the beat! And crap, that note needs to be played for two beats.

Did I mention that you need to learn another language while doing this too?

Yeah, this definitely classifies as hard to do.

But I am getting better at it. As my friend said, “Hey, that almost sounded like music!”

I’m thankful for my teacher. One lesson, I had already been pushed to my edge, and he wanted to introduce a new topic. I told him, “I will, but I’m pretty uncomfortable right now.” He responded, “That’s what we’re here for.” And with that, my edge was pushed much further out. Did the sweating stop? No. Did my frustration abate? Absolutely not. But did I want to come back next week? Heck yes.

And that’s where I’m at today. I’ve made the choice that for any one of my “work days”, I will play the violin, read a professional development book (and take notes), and exercise for at least 20 minutes. No exceptions. My streak is up to about ~23 days.

The results of consistent practice are pretty evident to me. There’s less scratching. There’s more consistency in the half and eighth notes. When I play the songs right, it feels good. Things sound right.

That’s not to say there isn’t cursing, shouts of “Come on, Tim, this isn’t that hard!” and frustration-induced back sweat. But there’s improvement. And perhaps more importantly, I can see the future where it’s feasible for me to play an actual, modern song⁵.