Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 14, 2023 – (Cont.) While listening to the Bartok on the drive to the Red Cabin, I reacted as I always have when listening to a “war horse” of the violin repertoire[1]: “Hmmm, now that passage [or movement, even] I could play . . . with a little practice” and . . . “Uh …
DECEMBER 13, 2023 – Today marks my 38th consecutive day of practicing my violin. I know this statistic is as interesting as my record of days-in-a-row of dental flossing (14,697), but for me work on the violin has special significance. First, it follows months of zero practice. Second, it’s produced results. Third, it’s driven by …
JANUARY 20, 2023 – When I was a kid, I couldn’t bear being inside on a nice day, especially in the summer. That was half the reason I hated the violin. Whether Mother was nagging me to practice or Dad was dragging me to a Saturday lesson, I couldn’t stand being indoors when I could be …
NOVEMBER 6, 2021 – I don’t want to divulge to anyone—me, in particular—even an approximation of how long I’d gone without practicing before yesterday evening. The long passage of silence shattered what the famous Polish pianist (and president), Ignace Paderewski (1860 – 1941) said about practicing: “If I miss one day’s practice, I notice it. …
JANUARY 31, 2021 – Grandpa Nilsson would’ve turned 130 today. He died long ago, but his influences thrive. The greatest was musical, with hardscrabble origins. Grandpa’s mother died when he was 18 months old, a month following his infant sister’s death. Grandpa’s immigrant father, Johan, carried on, working 16-hour days as a Minneapolis streetcar conductor …
DECEMBER 21, 2020 – I’m currently studying a piece (Anton Dvořák’s Romance for Violin) with the marking molto espressivo (Italian for, “very expressive”) at the violin’s initial entrance. I’ve always been amused by such a marking, for it implies that only when you’re told explicitly should you be . . . expressive. But isn’t all …
DECEMBER 12, 2020 – Recently I re-instituted a daily discipline: practicing my violin. This consists of scales and arpeggios, a movement of a Bach partita, then 20 minutes of new repertoire work—currently, Dvorak’s Romance. Who knows—maybe the pandemic will end and my piano collaborator and I can work up the Dvorak to house concert quality. …
OCTOBER 3, 2020 – I discovered escapism at the Gilombardo School of Music. The “program” every Saturday of my sixth and seventh grade school years involved a 40-minute drive to Minneapolis for classes in solfege and music theory, a private lesson, orchestra rehearsal, a brief visit with my grandfather, who lived nearby, and the trip …
December 9, 2019 – Yesterday I came off a satisfying practice session with my good friend and piano collaborator, Sally S. As I drove away, I said to myself, “That piece is coming along.” We plan to perform it at our annual house concerts—this time in the spring. “That piece” is the Mendelssohn violin concerto. …
JULY 23, 2019 – Yesterday, after the usual entanglements at work, I went home and wrestled with our overgrown shrubbery. After giving major haircuts and gathering up, then piling up the clippings, I was ready for something more relaxing . . . like practicing my violin. What was I thinking?! On my scale, so to …
MAY 20, 2019 – I don’t know of a single accomplished string player, however gifted or endowed with genius, who didn’t practice. Hard. Just as every NBA star has practiced 10,000 free throws, so has every string star practiced 10,000 scales. Jascha Heifetz, among the most extraordinary violinists ever, once quipped that if he were …