Brief History of My Violin Efforts

So, I'm starting another online log for myself to keep track of my violin practicing and stuff.

Quick history - my daughter Sophi started violin in August 2018 at my husbands request. I was approaching the 3rd trimester of pregnancy with our 12th child, so I was not about to take on more things to do. So I told him that was fine, but he had to be the one making it happen - aka the one taking her to lessons and helping her practice. Cause I didn't have energy for it now and wouldn't have the time after the baby was born. Plus I don't know anything about violin. Corey picked her up dutifully from school each Thursday and then outsourced the teaching to Melodie, my then senior in high school. Mel would meet them at the teacher's house and would sit in the lessons with Sophi so that she could help her. Summer of 2019, Mel was getting ready to leave for college and it dawned on me that she wouldn't be around to help Sophi. Corey also wanted Natalie to start lessons. My baby was now 6 months old, so I'm still nursing him but we're getting a handle on juggling life, so I felt I could take this over now. I took it upon myself to prep to be their new parental instructor. But since I had zero knowledge of violin, I thought I better learn a little bit. On a whim I looked up used violins on the classifieds, saw one that was less than $100, and so I got it so I could start to learn a little. That one wasn't great, so I got a few more and I really enjoyed fiddling around with it! And that's how and why I started to learn violin as a 43 year old.

I caught up to my 2nd grader pretty quickly in the Suzuki book and our violin teacher says that I'm her best student at practicing, yay for me! We have lessons on Mondays, and after Sophi and Natalie get their instruction, I jump in for a quick 10 minute lesson.

I played in the group Christmas recital with my girls on 19 Dec 2019.

The web address of this blog is amaviolinist - which wasn't my first choice but it was available. I was going for a "Mom violinist" or "Too old to begin practicing violin"-ish kinda name. The idea behind AMA cause that is an acronym that describes me, or did during my last pregnancy, cause AMA stands for Advanced Maternal Age. So I'm an Advanced Maternal Age violinist. It kinda sounds like "I'm a violinist", it's also kinda fun, cause it's almost like "I love" in spanish - amo. I don't know if it will lead to anything amazing, but I like it and it brings me joy, I think it will bring me more joy the more I practice and the better I get.