Violin Audition

William brought his violin with him to New Zealand in hopes that he could play at his new school. We signed him up for “tuition” (which means lessons) at school, but alas the teacher was from a former Soviet Block country and was afraid that she could not teach William properly in the “American” style. We were a bit disappointed, but it did give us the impetus to enrol him in some private lessons. We were directed to the Christchurch School of Music (CSM), located conveniently right next to the Catholic Cathedral!

Today William had an “audition” (it’s interesting to ponder the use of these words in different contexts) to determine his ability. He was a little nervous to be playing one on one with the Violin Supervisor for the CSM, but I think he felt better seeing lots of other kids walking around with various stringed instruments. Mark and I sat in on the audition. He played a few pieces of music that he knew, sight-read a few pieces, and was given instruction on how to better hold the violin and bow. He even came away with music to practice before next week. The teacher felt he could do very well with individual lessons which would help him to play all of the notes more in tune and hold the instrument properly.

Practising later at home, I’m amazed at how he knows where to place his fingers for all of the different notes he has to play. The violin is not like a piano (which I dabbled in as a child) with carefully mapped out notes, discrete and rigid. Stringed instruments play the correct sound only if you place your fingers at the correct distance along the neck of the instrument. Guitars are a bit easier because of the frets clearly marking that distance along the neck, but violins are unmarked except, at times, by temporary means by an instructor with masking tape or stick-on stars. We’re excited that William will be taking his playing to the next level and he’s quite keen to improve.