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December 27, 2006

Violin Status Report -- One Year Out!

I sent this to the Begining Adult Violin Study email list on Yahoo Groups.

In the sprit of the discussion of what people are working on, thought I would share where I am as I ended my first year with the violin. I received the violin last year from Christmas and have been taking lessons for a full year. I will definitely be continuing in the new year and enjoy it very much.

I am not sure if this is slow or not, but I am about to start the Suzuki Volume 2 book with my teacher next week. Volume 1 was not all I did during the year, but also picked up a number of easy Christmas songs via Virtual Sheet Music and my cellist son is arranging things for me from time to time. For Christmas, he gave me a set of Carols for Violin and cello or piano (his two instruments) and it has been fun to play. What I have been trying to do is not to number the fingers in the new music to see if I can do it. I find myself still thinking about the numbering a great deal and need the visual clue from the music to really play. But hopefully I will be able to pick that up during the first half of the year.

The hardest part is keeping going. I am balancing stuff around the house, the kids (13 and 11), and work. I just received a great office at work (along with a bigger job), but it is not soundproof (quite the contrary as it shares a heat vent with another office) so I cannot play at work during breaks. I also do not want to be compared to Nero, but maybe Jefferson! Because of scheduling conflicts, I am already missing two lessons on January.

I will be moving to Volume 2 in Suzuki this year and hope to finish by next Christmas. My goals is to be good enough by fall 2008 to either run for president OR audition for one of the community orchestras around here. There is a community orchestra in Dexter (a town not that far from me) and two at the University of Michigan. My cats (both around 7 months old) love when I play violin because they like to jump in the case. So that is another incentive!

Thanks for letting me indulge. I know if I used this time with the violin and bow, I would be getting better, but it is nice to provide a base-line for 2007.

Best wishes for your musical pursuits in 2007.

Corey

Corey Seeman
Saline, Michigan
cseeman@umich.edu

This entry was posted in the following categories: Completely Off Topic! , Violin

Posted by cseeman at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)