About Studying the Violin and Practicing/Starting a Musical Instrument as an Adult
Ever since my teenage years, I have been listening to classical music.
However, I was always listening and never really gave much thought to the idea of playing an instrument myself.
However, when I started college, one of my classmates played the violin and was in the college orchestra.
I heard a lot about the orchestra and learned that it was possible for beginners to join as well.
Although I had absolutely no experience on the violin, they allowed me to join.
I took private lessons from a professional violinist for about three years but had to give it up because of academic demands.
give thought to something
give much thought to
I never gave much thought to…
Some 30 years later, I wanted to play the violin again.
The main reason why I didn’t play the violin during the intervening years was that I was busy with my job.
The other reason was that during that time, I returned to my hometown of Gifu-shi.
Since it is not a large metropolis like Osaka, where I went to college, it was challenging to find a violin teacher. However, I have luckily found a teacher.
In a provincial city like Gifu-shi, learning the violin is not very popular to begin with.
Therefore, there are very few violin teachers and it is difficult to tell wether they have good teaching skills.
I am not sure about the situation in other countries, but in Japan, there is no such thing as a license for teaching piano or violin.
In addition to the fact that there is only a limited number of teachers, there is little information available about them, one needs to select a teacher based on their résumés and other people’s opinions.
The reason why I decided to study with my teacher is that she lives nearby and that she attended a well-respected conservatory and also studied at the Liszt Academy.
This particular teacher was more than twenty years my junior.
She was very kind and I was able to enjoy taking lessons from her.
She lived nearby and came to teach at my own home.
Although I gained a lot from attending many of her concerts with my wife, I began to feel that there was something missing about her as a teacher and I stopped studying with her after two years.
1~10, 1~12
one~ten, one~twelve
freshman, sophomore, junior, senior
20 years
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When I was in junior high, I listened a lot to classical music.
I listened a lot, but never thought about playing anything myself.
I had a friend in college who was a member of the college orchestra.
He started the violin as a child/kid so he was fairly experienced.
I heard that the orchestra lets you join even if you can’t play an instrument so I took their word for it and joined.
I took private lessons from a professional violinist for about three years but had to give it up because I had to spend more time studying.
After about 30 years, I wanted to play the violin again.
I hadn’t played for so long because I was too busy with my job.
I also moved back to my hometown of Gifu-shi, a much smaller city than Osaka where I went to college.
It was difficult to find a teacher but I’ve been lucky enough to find one.
In a little city like Gifu-shi, not a lot of people want to learn the violin.
There aren’t many teachers here and it’s hard to tell if they are good teachers.
I don’t know about other countries, but in Japan, there’s no license for teaching instruments like the piano or the violin.
Not only are there very few teachers, there is also very little information about them.
You need to choose one based on résumés and what other people say about them.
The reason why I decided to study with my teacher is that she lives nearby and that she attended a very good conservatory and also studied at the Liszt Academy.
This teacher was more than twenty years younger than me.
She was kind and I enjoyed taking lessons from her.
She lived close by and came to my house to give me lessons.
I attended a lot of her concerts with my wife.
Even though I enjoyed listening to her play, I started to feel like there was something missing about her as a teacher.
I stopped studying with her after 2 years.