It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. I am afraid my playing days are over. It is not that I am “out of practice.” The problem is that my the small motor movements
are now not easily controllable [my handwriting, or even printing, is now so
bad that I can scarcely read the shopping lists I make out.] Oh well, it was fun, and I will always have
the memories.
As regards what it takes to learn to play the viola, I am
afraid I am expressing the traditional resentment of string players toward
pianists. I can tell a little child or a
tone deaf adult to sit in front of a piano and hit any eight white keys in
succession. The notes will all be in
tune, and if the tyro happens to start on a C, he or she will play a major
scale. What is more, it is no harder on
a piano to play three octaves of ascending notes than to play one. On a string instrument, it takes a long time
to learn simply to make an acceptable sound.
Playing a scale in tune is an accomplishment. Playing a three octave scale is more so,
involving shifting to the third position.
Oh well, we violists don’t get no respect.
7 comments:
I'm 10 years younger than you are and that's happened to my handwriting too. And now I tend to fumble when trying to fish coins out of my pocket to pay for something.
Well, at least we can all easily tell when you are playing out tune...
(For those who do not know, the answer can be found here
Marcel Proust, I only read page one, but I was laughing so hard I could not go on. Thank you.
Have no experience w playing string instruments, but I played the flute for a fairly long time (from roughly age 9 or 10 through college). I also took piano lessons for a few years as a kid. I was a pretty good flutist (I was certainly not the next J. Galway or Rampal or anything like that, but if I'd had a different temperament and had wanted to take that path, I might have been able to become a professional -- there was probably a bit less competition in those days than now, for one thing.) By contrast, I never really made much progress on the piano -- found it somewhat difficult to read two lines and coordinate two hands. So I've always thought of the piano as more difficult than the flute; it was for me. Sure, it's not hard to produce an acceptable sound on the piano by simply striking the keys, but of course that's only the very beginning. Btw, I don't think I'd have been much good as a string player, but I never tried.
Btw (again), I've always liked the oboe, perhaps partly b.c I had a serious crush on an oboeist whom I sat next to in an orchestra many years ago. But [cough!!] that's another story.
Can'[t resist repeating this joke about the oboe: "an ill-wind that nobody blows good" (Danny Kaye).
It's difficult, true, but the joke of course overstates...
About those scales....Like every piano student, I hated the exercises involving 3 octaves, both hands. One hand, either one, for 3 octaves no problem, but both hands is easier to screw up because about half the scales have different fingering for the left and right hand. It is remarkable how the skills drilled into you last. Recently I was learning an Aretha Franklin song, Day Dreaming, that starts with a 3 octave chromatic scale (right hand only). When I tried it my fingers somehow remembered what to do, and I am sure I had not played a chromatic scale in over 50 years. The 2nd time I screwed it up!
It has been my experience that the vast majority of string players are confined to the classical repertoire. Pianists are much more likely to know music theory, chord structure, and most importantly, improvisation. While the piano may be in tune, you can't bend notes, smoothly slide up to a pitch, etc., which plays a huge part in jazz and blues.
And thanks for the link to the jokes, Marcel Proust. I bet pianos can hold more beer than any other instrument!
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