The Life of a Violinist

One of the most interesting aspects of the career of a musician is how early it begins. For most careers, the real journey begins after high school as college and work experience begins to enter people’s lives; but for me, and as well as most musicians, it started at the age of four.

My love of music came from watching Boyd Tinsley, electric violinist of the Dave Mathews Band, shredding away on my family’s old tiny tv. It may not be the most obvious inspiration to birth a young boy’s fascination for the violin, but it was what did it for me. Despite every musician having their own story, each seems to take them down a similar path that begins their long careers - a young child falling in love with music.

What happens after this, though? How do we transform from young kids with a hobby to world class artists?

Again, we all have our own stories…but that’s why I’m here. I think we all struggle for much of our lives searching for the “path” to success - the “orchestral path”, the “soloist path”, the “teaching path”.

While it is great to concentrate your efforts and define your goals, I have found extraordinary liberation in understanding that the “road to pro” (whatever that entails) will not be direct, will not be the same as someone else’s, and most especially cannot be done on your own.

So, again I ask, how do we become professionals?

In my mind, we grow by taking from the experiences of others. Life is too short to experience everything we need to have as wholistic view of life, music, and the world as possible. Therefore, we have to approach our peers and mentors with open minds to live the parts of life we won’t get to have through them.

That is why I am here; I have learned so much in my short, nineteen year old life from other people being generous enough to share their stories with me, so I feel that it is only right to share my journey with you.

So far, becoming a violinist has meant being extremely resilient, accepting of your weaknesses, open and kind to everyone you meet, and most of all, showing gratitude for you everything you are.

My goal for this blog is to simply document a lot of the experiences and lessons that I have learned thus far and will continue to learn over the course of my career. I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I hope one of you will find at least one thing to take away from each post I write.

Be curious, not judgmental

~ Walt Whitman