Mary Tries the Violin

Miss Mary loves her Latin choir . . .

and her folk songs singing class (both of which last only the summer) . . . 

and her piano lessons (which she is continuing) so much . . . 

. . . that we're letting her try taking violin lessons as well! Who knows if this will 'take,' but we said we'd give her through August as a trial.

Mama could just eat her up!

Violin on her back

After renting her size 1/8 violin last week, she had her first lesson on Tuesday. She was so excited that she picked out her "first lesson outfit" 36 hours ahead of time, then the night before surreptitiously changed out of her pajamas and slept in her daytime outfit so as "to be ready."

My understanding is that learning to play the violin requires much patience because of all one must learn before one can even create notes, then how long it takes to make notes before being able to combine them. I was pleased to see that Mary maintained rapt interest through the first violin lesson, which consisted of: learning how to open the violin case, how to rosin the bow, how to hold the bow, the names of the notes of the strings, all the names of the parts of a violin, and finally--for the last three minutes or so--how to run the bow across the violin strings.

Despite all that necessary teaching before she could make so much as a note, Mary's reaction was an enthusiastic and repeated, "I can't wait until my second lesson! I love it!"

Violin holds a special place in my heart because my mom played it, so I would find it lovely if her granddaughter turns out to enjoy playing it as well.