midlife crisis

It must have been! What else could have pushed me to try and learn how to play the violin? People say that's it's one of the hardest instruments to learn... I'm beginning to see they're right. Aside from the fact that I know nothing about the violin, I only know the very basic when it comes to reading music. My only saving grace, my ears are so sharp that I hear every single note that someone missed, including my own.

All is not lost, though. My honey's mom taught me how to get the right sound from the violin, the "do re mi" as I call it. She also taught me how to hold the violin, which of course I'm having a terrible time of doing. Not to mention that my wrist is now bandaged because it hurts from the un-natural way it's twisted just to hold the violin right. But in all, some good came out of it. I got "Mary Had A Little Lamb" screaming out of the violin, sometimes sounding good most times sounding like a cat trying to sing while it's tail is being stepped on. And all this, I'm proud to say with less than half an hour of informal lesssons. I even got part of "Silent Night", though I keep missing one note since I could not figure out which spot I should put my finger on. I never realized how hard it is to try and remember where exactly I've placed my finger while looking on something so close and horizontal in my line of vision. Of course, I still haven't mentioned how hard it is to hit one string at a time with a bow.

Hah! I knew this sudden desire to learn the violin cannot be considered normal, much less sane, seeing I never have a day off and don't have time to do anything but work. But then again, I can just hear my friend say, "since when have you ever been normal?" And that would settle the issue.

Hopefully, I'd have one song under my belt in a month's time (I mean play it like I'd like to listen to myself play). Then I can decide if I really want to continue this madness. Is it midlife crisis? What do you think?