A Long Day And A Violin

I found out earlier this week that Dad was planning a trip to Portland OR on Thursday to pick up some equipment for his business. As soon as I heard, I knew I had to go with him. The promised violin for my birthday 3 weeks ago still wasn't in my hands and I knew we would find a violin shop in the city. So, a 10 hour round trip plus six hours in Portland...let me tell you about my day.

We hit the road around 6 AM everything still frosty and snowy. While Dad drove I enjoyed the new book I ordered on improving one's piano studio. Less than 50 miles from home there was no snow to be seen and the temperature was in the upper 40s! We stopped at our favorite gas station in Biggs OR and it was there that dad realized that he forgot his wallet, thankfully he still had his cash and I had my checkbook or we may have been driving back home mission unaccomplished. I drove the rest of the way to Portland. Dad picked up his first load which only took about 15 minutes.

Next stop the violin shop, they weren't open when we first got there so we waited in the car for a few minutes with the rain pouring down. It was so much fun walking into a violin shop with violins, violas, and cellos everywhere, yes it was my first time in a violin shop. Here's what happens when you live in a small town all your life: When you walk into our local music store, what you see is guitars everywhere and 2 violins, an acoustic for $100 and an electric for $500.

Knowing I had a tight budget to work with, I asked to try out violins below the cost of $1500. If you don't know anything about violins you may think that is expensive but it is not uncommon to see violins for many thousands more. Then there is the bow which can range from $60 to thousands of dollars! Anyway, I knew I didn't want to torture myself by playing around with anything I couldn't afford. I played through a line-up of violins and one by one eliminating the ones that didn't sound good to me. After choosing one that I liked, I asked for the prices and discovered that I had chosen the most expensive one in the line-up. Then learning that it didn't come with a case or a bow and that it would go over my set limit I decided I would need to try a few more and hopefully find one that I liked that wouldn't go over my limit.

We decided to take a break at this point and head over to Vancouver to pick up Dad's other load and visit Racz European Violin Shop. Mr. Racz played us a sampling of some of his beautiful and original compositions. Here is a link to once of his pieces being played by Tatiana Kolchanova Parente http://www.youtube.com/user/Flaviflip?feature=mhum#p/a/f/0/Ydr53BVLHx4

Then he allowed me to play one of his violins which was MUCH nicer than what I've been playing on and though not expensive, was above my set limit. Mr. Racz helped me with a few tips and we played an easy duet. He complemented me by telling me "you should play the violin". Feeling encouraged I reluctantly said goodbye and we headed back into Portland to find a violin.

In the car I told Dad that my goal was to never play my old violin again so we had to find something that I liked before we left for home. Dad chuckled and asked what I'm going to do with the old violin. I told him that I will hang it back on the wall for a decoration.

Back in Portland I began the process of elimination on a new line-up of violins. At first I was at a loss, many of them just did not sound good to me. Finally I narrowed it to 2 violins that I couldn't decide which I liked better. One had a brighter tone and the other was warmer. I asked Dad for his opinion. I would play the same song on each and Dad would insist that the bright one sounded best, then I would play a different song and he would insist the warm one sounded the best. After going in circles like this for some time, I would torture myself by playing the one I had found earlier that I liked which was above my limit. We were both tired and starving and the shop was closing soon so I made my choice. I then tried many different chin rests until we found one that fit comfortably. With violin in hand we hit the road once again.

It poured rain like we haven't seen for a long time, the streets looked like rivers and there were huge puddles in the freeway. We got supper in Hood River at 7:30. Driving was a pain, I was sore from head to foot, the heated seats in the van are a blessing to a sore back. In some places there was fog so thick we could not see more than 20 feet ahead of us. We arrived safely home just after midnight. The cat and dog were both thrilled to see us back home. Mom wanted to see my new violin and as soon as I got it out of the case the cat claimed the case. I booted her out but she just sits next to it like it's her great treasure. Mom could tell right away that the new violin sounded nicer than the old one(I should hope so).

I know this was a rather long post so I'll end here but be watching for my next post which will include a photo of my new violin and maybe a video if I can polish something nice to play by then.