This new year hasn't gotten off to a very good start. Both and Ron and I came down with a bad cold right around January 1st, which kept us both home for quite some time. We were both getting "cabin fever" pretty bad by the time a week had passed. Not too long after that, Ron came down with intestinal flu. Our son Stephen, who lives in Tampa, Florida was in the hospital for a few days with pneumonia. I hope that this isn't a portense of things to come.
On Friday January 9th, (before Ron got sick with intestinal flu) we drove to Issaquah, Washington to a violin shop called Hammond and Ashley Violins. We spent three hours there while I tried out over a dozen violins. The people there were wonderful.....they were so helpful in answering questions and helping me to find just the right violin for me.
Ron was so patient, and listened to every violin. I played new ones, old ones, inbetween ones, German ones, and French ones. Then the young man who was helping me, after listening to what I liked and didn't like, said, "I think you are an antique person." He brought in three more violins......a very expensive French violin (which was actually his violin), an old Hungarian violin made in 1880, and an older German violin.
My good friend Teresa came over to see my new violin. She had gone violin hunting with me a couple of weeks before.
I had already found a 1920 German violin that I liked and was comparing everything to that one. I played the expensive French violin and immediately both Ron and I didn't care for it. Then I picked up the old Hungarian violin, and we both went "wow!" this is nice! I went back and forth between the 1920 German, and the 1880 Hungarian, and finally decided that I would bite the bullet and pay a little more for the 1880 Hungarian violin. It just had a tone that was warm and "beefy." Many of the others were nice to play, but their tone was too bright, or too small. This violin is defintely a step up for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it since I bought it. I've been motivated to play a lot more too. It's amazing what a nicer instrument will do for you. It's the same with the piano.......it's SO much more enjoyable to play when you have a nice instrument. I'm hoping that I will have many years to enjoy this new, or rather old Hungarian violin.
It doesn't look 135 years old, does it? It is in really wonderful condition.
Teresa is also a violinist, so we've had fun playing together.
I hope that having a nicer violin, I will practice more, and actually become a better violinist. Even if I don't get any better, I'll sure be having a lot of fun!
1 comment:
Wow that is really really old! Imagine the lives the violin has seen and lived through, and how many people have played it over 135 years. Very cool.
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