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This is going to be a quickie, mostly because I'm distracted in a so-not-good way tonight.
In my third post of this series, I mentioned how I had already decided by the end of Grade 8 that I would not be taking Choral Music when moving to my high school (Bloor Collegiate Institute), and knew I'd be in the instrumental program.
How did I get to that place in my mind and why on earth did I choose an instrument that sounds like cats being tortured (aka the violin)? Let's face it, the sound a beginner makes is dreadful. Even a viola or cello sounds ten times better.
But ... I'd seen a movie on the life of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and, when I heard the violinist launch into The Flight of the Bumble-bee, I was enchanted. I turned to my parents and declared, “I'm going to take Violin next year.” They just nodded and replied, “Uh-huh.” Gee, a tough audience to please!
And, so I did. No, I never reached the heights of brilliance. But, by Grade 13 (alas, another relic of my ancient past), I was the Concertmaster of the Senior Strings and First Desk (sitting next to the Concertmaster) of the Senior Orchestra. Not bad for someone who had never touched the instrument until Grade 9.
It was traditional at our school for instrumentalists to be in the Junior groups for Grades 9 and 10, moving on to the Senior ones in Grade 11. Well, I was really proud of the fact that I was promoted into the Senior groups in Grade 10, though I started out in the Second Violin section (where the slackers were). However, with persistence and industriousness (not to mention practice, practice, and more practice), I finally did make it to the First Violin section, moving up year by year until I hit the first desk.
However, as a First Violin player, I was also a mischief-maker. You see, because First Violin players were on the ball and really good (meaning we didn't make mistakes), we didn't get much attention paid to us in rehearsal. So, whenever we had a substitute teacher filling in, we would make mistakes deliberately so that we'd get a chance to play during class. I know. I know. We were so immature. But we really loved to play.
As well as belonging to these two groups, I also set up a string quartet, with four of us meeting in the early mornings to play some amazing music, either for a quartet or a string orchestra. I think I recall some Benjamin Britten.
In any case, I was thrilled that I got the opportunity to learn to play an instrument that has had much glorious music written for it. So, yes, a very fond memory.
In my third post of this series, I mentioned how I had already decided by the end of Grade 8 that I would not be taking Choral Music when moving to my high school (Bloor Collegiate Institute), and knew I'd be in the instrumental program.
How did I get to that place in my mind and why on earth did I choose an instrument that sounds like cats being tortured (aka the violin)? Let's face it, the sound a beginner makes is dreadful. Even a viola or cello sounds ten times better.
But ... I'd seen a movie on the life of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and, when I heard the violinist launch into The Flight of the Bumble-bee, I was enchanted. I turned to my parents and declared, “I'm going to take Violin next year.” They just nodded and replied, “Uh-huh.” Gee, a tough audience to please!
And, so I did. No, I never reached the heights of brilliance. But, by Grade 13 (alas, another relic of my ancient past), I was the Concertmaster of the Senior Strings and First Desk (sitting next to the Concertmaster) of the Senior Orchestra. Not bad for someone who had never touched the instrument until Grade 9.
It was traditional at our school for instrumentalists to be in the Junior groups for Grades 9 and 10, moving on to the Senior ones in Grade 11. Well, I was really proud of the fact that I was promoted into the Senior groups in Grade 10, though I started out in the Second Violin section (where the slackers were). However, with persistence and industriousness (not to mention practice, practice, and more practice), I finally did make it to the First Violin section, moving up year by year until I hit the first desk.
However, as a First Violin player, I was also a mischief-maker. You see, because First Violin players were on the ball and really good (meaning we didn't make mistakes), we didn't get much attention paid to us in rehearsal. So, whenever we had a substitute teacher filling in, we would make mistakes deliberately so that we'd get a chance to play during class. I know. I know. We were so immature. But we really loved to play.
As well as belonging to these two groups, I also set up a string quartet, with four of us meeting in the early mornings to play some amazing music, either for a quartet or a string orchestra. I think I recall some Benjamin Britten.
In any case, I was thrilled that I got the opportunity to learn to play an instrument that has had much glorious music written for it. So, yes, a very fond memory.
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