Usually, when people are asked who have inspired them to pick up whatever music instruments they’ve chosen, they will mention a famous musicians. Or they may mention their musician parents. But me? Nobody in my family plays violin. My younger sister has ever played drums, but she did it for fun, she wasn’t serious at all. Both of my parents have played guitar when they were still young. My step dad, though, is very musically talented. He can play piano, saxophone, clarinet, and guitar. But he’s a long time (jazz) pianist, he likes it better than any other music instruments he can play. I can tell he’s musically talented as when my new flute just arrived, he knew how to blow it without even spending about 15 minutes to figure out how to play it. And me? ’til now I don’t even know how to play flute properly. I don’t exercise it often, my free time is spent exercising violin. I’ve purchased a flute only because I wanted to try to change my perspective about wood and brass wind music instruments. Which has failed. I still don’t like such instruments, they don’t fit me, I don’t like to play those instruments. They’re kind of nightmare for me. You can guess that I also don’t like to sing, which is totally true. Both singing and playing wood/brass wind music instruments require breath control. Which I can’t, don’t like and don’t want. When I was a teenager, I played guitar. But I played it not because I was deeply in love with it, but because my friends around me could play it. I don’t like guitar either. For I have to pluck it and it produces lots of sounds my ears can’t handle *LOL* (what I meant is, my ears and brains will be confused from hearing lots of sounds in once).
Then, who has inspired me to pick up violin? Nobody. No, seriously. People tempt to think that Vanessa Mae has inspired me because we both shared the same name. But no, I’m not a fan of her. What has inspired me to pick up violin? The violin itself. And the orchestra. If I listen to instrumental music, only violin can hypnotize me (harp, too, but I can’t afford it yet LOL).
IMHO, if one started playing something because she’s inspired from a musician, it’s not a good foundation to be a serious player because one’s interest may change from time to time. But instead, you gotta love your music instrument first and then you may be inspired by someone because s/he plays the same music instrument as you do. A YTSO musician once said,”I play violin because my body asked for it.” I’ve actually been loving violin for ages, but I haven’t had my own initiative to look for information such as: where to buy, what kind of violin, etc. Maybe because the idea of playing violin might sound weird in my family, especially in my mother’s ears as I’m a graphic designer and in a sudden wanting to learn it. This year I thought I’d purchase a violin, but first I searched for any information about what kind of violin I had to buy.
I’ve just been playing violin for about 2 months now. My violin costs 600 Euro, but I’m already expecting a new one I just bought from a luthier. It’s a German violin (from Saxony) and it’s made in 1890. The next problem I have is, I want a new violin bow. Right now I have 3 violin bows: 1 carbon fiber, 1 brazil bow, 1 Baroque style bow. My first violin has high tension, the strings are from Warchal Ametyst. The back of the violin’s body has 2 pieces. My carbon fiber bow is light, but it’s hard to scroll (straighten the hair) and the lightness itself makes it sound weird. I also have to hmmm …. kind of push the bow to make a louder sound (when it’s required, obviously). My brazil bow sounds better than the rest, but few of the horse hair have fallen off. My baroque style bow is made of snakewood, it’s light, elegant, but, just like carbon fiber, I have to give an extra push. The difference is, baroque bow is shorter so? Legato makes harder.
The violin in the picture I’ve taken is my first violin. Here’s my attempt of playing La Valse D’Amelie.