I feel very fortunate to have had three years or so of music before the “critical period” of my brain’s development.  I know that most adult beginners struggle quite a bit more than I am struggling, and the only reason in the world for that is my earlier start, though I have almost no active memory of it; the cornerstone of my violin playing foundation was laid quite a while ago.

Teacher has definitely been adding to that cornerstone.  Yesterday during my lesson I learned a new song that helps practice beginning on an up bow.  The previous lesson, as I mentioned in another post, gave me string hopping and other joys.  I’m also very much enjoying playing with my teacher – she accompanies me by harmonizing on the strong melody lines of the still-simple tunes I’m playing.  Of course they’re not so simple for me – the new songs are more complicated and longer.

I shared with my teacher that, as an introduction to Suzuki, I had read Shepheard’s book, and she asked if I had read “Nurtured by Love,” Suzuki’s own classic work on his methods rooted in his decades of experience.  I’ve just searched and found a Kindle edition of it, so will be reading that very soon.  It looks even shorter than the Shepheard memoir, but it’s in Suzuki’s own words (translated though they may be) and is a seminal work.

Thanks for reading,

Ryan