Approach

Q and I have different approaches to learning the voilin and I'm hoping to adopt some of Q's tactics. He will make up riffs and play melodies from songs he likes like Neon Lights by Kraftwerk or bits of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box and the like. He plays with the violin. I, on the other hand, use a book and am learning songs in the key of D, A, and G for starters. I play scales, arpeggios, and try to sight read the songs in the book while naming the notes in my head whilst trying to pay attention to the bowing cues. I'm learning jigs and polkas and hornpipes. Q says he can't stand the word polka let alone the sound of a polka and can't understand why I would want to play this kind of music. "It's hokey!" I don't really care too much about the melodies though I find them charming. I just want to be able to sight read so I can play other music and even write down some of the tunes Q makes up. He also has a percussive attack to the violin (as well as the keyboard, bass and guitar). Q has a inherent sense of tonal space and makes dignified, and poised rhythms and melodies. I'm more like Tina in "Broadway Danny Rose" who says, "I dunno - look at my work and I think it's ugly." Having said that, I am also like Danny Rose too - I don't have a problem with ugly. Ugly's just another schtick.

If you, dear reader, are contemplating getting a violin, get one. Get one and get a lesson book with a cd in it that you can play along with. The instrument is warm and haunting and it will encourage you to create the mental space necessary to listen to your fingertips. It's a non combattive instrument, portable, cradled, and tougher than it looks. The rosin is derived from pine sap and smells sacred. And, to my neighbours, I think the screetching of the e string is the sound of a civilized address.