{"id":266,"date":"2021-02-23T03:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T03:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2021-02-23T03:00:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T03:00:14","slug":"beginning-violin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/david.bookstaber.com\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"Beginning Violin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was four years old my parents asked me if I wanted to learn to play the violin. I didn’t have a lot going on at the time so I said yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was accepted as a student by Mrs. Primrose, a Japanese teacher of the Suzuki violin method (and wife of famous violist William Primrose). I discovered that the violin is a difficult and awkward instrument. Learning it requires patient practice, and patience was not one of my early character traits. (A fellow student was Jenny Oaks, who has made a career as a violinist<\/a>. Mrs. Primrose would often chastise me, “David: Why don’t you practice more, like Jenny?”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I lacked in patience I abounded with in obstinance. I was first born and my poor mother did not realize what a constant and pitched battle it would be to get me to practice. She was gifted with perseverance that somehow kept me on the violin for the years until I reached a level at which it became interesting enough for me to continue studying with minimal goading. (She did, however, learn from the process: My younger siblings were started on musical instruments at increasingly later ages, and the last three got to start with piano, which has an easier learning curve. You’re welcome guys.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n