I’ve
been playing violin (バイオリン
in Japanese) for somewhere around 20 years now. It all started when my parents
took me into the study at our house one day and explained, “here’s a violin,
Robert.” And so it began. I took violin
lessons all throughout elementary and high school, participating in orchestras,
duets, concerts, recitals, plays, school assemblies, civic orchestra
performances, you name it. My crowning achievement, I guess, I wrote about a
few years ago: playing in an orchestra that performed at the Walt Disney
Concert Hall in downtown L.A. (twice).
Recently,
I accidentally left my violin in my car on a hot day and parked outside. BIG
mistake. First rule of violin storage: always store in a cool place. The violin
fingerboard (the long black part) warped, and now I need to bring it in for
repairs. Yikes. My violin is the closest thing to a family heirloom that the
Yans have. We bought it when I was in high school for $7,500 as an investment
into my future.
I
guess just a parenting lesson for my future self: Don’t’ forcefeed our kids
into doing what the parent wants them to do. My dad is a big violin fan and
classical music fan and played violin himself, so it’s natural that he wanted
to me to play violin and become good. And it was very well intentioned; totally
understand why he did that. However, those years of training me to become a
violin prodigy did not match with my interests nor my ability: I was never terribly
musically gifted and didn’t want to be a violinist; I would have done better
during that time to hit a million tennis balls, or get better at chess (my real
high school passion, although it certainly looks pretty nerdy now) and really
allow me to compete during high school. (Note to future self: Don’t force-feed
kids into doing competitive spelling, if that’s even around by then, in hopes
of winning the National Spelling Bee just because I didn’t get to do it).
I used
to think this one and blamed my parents. However, my violin ability is really
good and I can at any point pick up a violin (if it’s not warped and deformed
due to my own negligence, that is) and play in a semi-decent orchestra, partly
because there’s always a need for more violins. I can play various scales and
have various music from all kinds of performances I’ve given. I’ve met various
other violinists, cellists, violists, drummers, singers, and other music people
that have similar stories and learned a lot from them. I cherish the times I
played violin in high school and played an essential part in the high school
musicals that they performed (I was part of the pit) My fondest memory of
playing violin is not necessarily the grandest stages or the most
nerve-wracking solos or recitals playing by myself, but giving holiday benefit
concerts at hospitals for kids to enjoy, playing Christmas songs and whatnot.
That’s what it’s all about, and I owe a lot to being able to play violin.
I currently
don’t play violin much anymore and have not played in any orchestras for a
while (including the most recent L.A. Lawyers Philharmonic) due to pursuing
other things (like learning Japanese, for example) and playing dodgeball. I
think I’ve made the right choice there because my athletic ability will wane
much earlier than my music ability (and sitting ability), and to a lesser
extent my ability to learn language, but it’s also good to take time off to
really miss doing something. However, no matter what, I’ll always remember my
violin-playing days (kinda sounds like the Wild, Wild West) fondly and come
back to it when the time is right.
What’s
something that you used to do as a kid/ didn’t really like but now cherish? Have
you thought about getting back to dabbling in it?
Fantasize
on,
Robert
Yan
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