Due to Teacher being quite busy this time of year, we had my lesson on Monday this week.  The week before, I showed Teacher that I had downloaded some simple Christmas tunes, and she suggested that we could spend a good chunk of this week’s lesson playing duets, so after playing my concerto through once that’s exactly what we did. My simple music provided only the main melody line, so she improvised deftly and together we had a great time.

Playing with others brings additional skills to bear that I don’t get to work on regularly – there are myriad benefits as it pertains to listening, improvising, and reading music accurately.  I have G major, D major, and A minor melodies in the holiday mix, so, while simple, the tunes can also help me with intonation for my most common keys.

Unlike some people, I don’t spend a lot of time in environments where Christmas music is playing non-stop, so I’m not sick of the carols yet.  It’s fun for me to play these songs I’ve known forever, songs that loomed large in my childhood.

Since starting back on the violin I’ve given a little recital for the family when I’ve gone back to Wichita for Christmas – last year it turned into a sing-a-long, and my sister’s musical family got in on the action too.  On Friday, I’ll load up my new Christmas repertoire into the rental car as we head down and we’ll see if an opportunity presents itself this year.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan