Is There a Violinist in our Future?

We sure hope so! Erik and I have always wanted our children to learn how to play the violin. It's an instrument we both wished we could have played growing up. We both took piano lessons but only I stuck with it for the long haul. Close to 13 years to be exact. Ella had been on a waiting list at a local music school for quite some time until we got the call right after Christmas that a spot had opened up. We were so excited. I took her to the big city and we rented the tiniest violin! It was so funny. And I did say rent--even the smallest violins are $600 (at least) to purchase.

Ella has not started practicing on the real violin yet. There is so much technique to be learned. I had to laugh as we left our first lesson and I had visions of The Karate Kid swimming in my head. Ella is learning muscle memory skills that will help her shoulders rest, her elbows relax and her wrist move in ways it is not accustomed to moving. She does several "wax on wax off" maneuvers that make me laugh as I think of Ralph Macchio practicing with Mr. Miyagi.

She has a Mrs. Melanie instead of a Karate Guru and practices with a butter box taped to a paint stir stick instead of doing kicks in a floating boat. She was told tonight that if she continues to practice all week, she might get to play on the real violin next week. She is so excited!

This is Ella the day we went to get her violin. She smiled for hours just thinking about it.

Ella standing on her foot position mat practicing her violin hold.

The "practice violin" as we call it. She has to be able to hold this in place with her neck and shoulder muscles for 6 minutes. You should try it. It's not as easy as one might think!

Our future concert violinist honing her performance skills.