Violin Love Hate Relationship

There are moments where we get this disappointing feeling that probably our instrument (the violin in my case) is not the right instrument for us. Intonation goes awkward, melody gets dried of emotion, the bow suddenly gains weight and fingers don't respond as quickly as we trained them to do and playing a familiar passage becomes some kind of weak sight-reading... It's like the whole thing doesn't work anymore!

On the other hand, we know that we dedicated zillion hours on practice, we felt like we had control over the instrument and only few days ago, the violin was sounding like never before and we felt proud of ourselves and our achievement.

Those moments where you think the relationship is coming to an end are luckily rare. Giving each other a second chance after a short brake becomes a natural behavior and the communication with the instrument returns to normal usually quickly.

I always wondered if professional musicians have those moments too or is their relationship with their instrument strong all the way.

Before the relationship ends on a sad note, the violin remains a very seductive instrument, hard to live with and hard to understand but willing to sing again.