I have fallen in love . . . with the fiddle. I had a lesson with my teacher, Gary, tonight and he is such a hoot. He asked me who some of my favorite performers are and I mentioned Keith Urban, Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks) and Allison Krauss. He played some Dixie Chicks and Allison Krauss tunes on my violin so I could hear how it sounds on my instrument which was very cool. I'm an early beginner, but he seemed pleased tonight that I could do well with this. He was intrigued (and very surprised) when I told him that I was hearing impaired, which I'm sure is an unusual quality in a musician. But, I did inform him that I wear digital hearing aids and can probably hear better than a lot of people. Haha. He has me practicing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb for next week - it will be a while before I can ever play Charlie Daniels' Devil Went Down to Georgia - haha! He invited me to see his band perform locally Friday night which could be fun and a great opportunity to introduce him to my husband. As I get to know my teacher better, I hope to hear stories of when he toured with Dolly Parton. He was using a violin tonight that looked to be approximately 30-40 years old - I asked him about it. He said it was made in 1618 and appraised for $40,000! Wow, I would be terrified to play something that old and valuable, but the sound quality was beautiful. My daughter asked me tonight why I wanted to play the fiddle - she had looked at me weird when I announced a while back that I wanted to do this. I explained that I've wanted to learn for many years but didn't have time when she and her brother were little. Now that they're getting into their own activities (photography, karate) I wanted to do this for myself.
I'm making good progress on my book. I've finished a 1/4 of the book, but I need to tweak some of the chapters before I post anything. I also need to confirm some details from my childhood with my mother to ensure accuracy. She'll certainly remember things better than I did when I was five years old and she has an excellent memory.
The temperature tonight is down to 27 degrees - my kids are praying for snow. I love the cold weather and love watching the snowfall, but I HATE driving in it, especially when my driveway is at a 45-degree angle. I'm always paranoid one of these winters I'm going to plow into my neighbor's living room leaving for work one morning. We live on top of a mountain and the ice can make steep roads/hills scary.
The title of this post is courtesy of a dear friend who said I need to use it sometime since I've taken up fiddling (Thanks, Nancy!).
Sounds like you have a good teacher. It's fun to learn something new.
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@Ann - It has been a lot of fun taking lessons. My teacher makes learning the fiddle a lot of fun which further encourages his students to want to succeed. I enjoy learning his history, too.
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