Joseph's Playing Violin!

He's playing right now, as I type this. Mommy is soooooooooo happy!

This was not exactly an impulse purchase. He's expressed interest in trying violin before, but he's never wanted to play MY violin. He really wanted something his size, not knowing that existed. Once he knew such a thing really DOES exist, he kept talking about how great that would be to try someday.

(Oh my goodness, right now he's teaching Daddy how to play. I'm dying of cute.)

So today was a happy batch of circumstances: I had to make a Baxter-Northup run for another student of mine, and Matt recently got a bonus at work. So we took a look to see how a 1/4 size violin would fit him. Too big! So we tried a 1/8 - just right! As was the price. As was his joy at holding a Joseph-sized violin. Who can resist that?

He opened the case the second we got in the car. We told him he's have to wait till we got home. The SECOND we got home he was ready for his first lesson. He learned how to hold the instrument and pluck the strings. He learned the parts of the violin and how to treat it. He learned the names of the strings AND REMEMBERED THEM (something even my older students struggle with occasionally). But, said Mommy, no bow for now. Bow comes later. Now Mommy needs to rest.

My "rest" consisted of me lying in my bed and trying to snooze around "[knock knock knock] I made up a new song! Want to hear it?" "[knock knock knock] Can I go do some more plucking?"

Post-rest, Joseph brought his fiddle into my room to show me (again) the song he'd made up (it's called the ABC song, and goes G A D E) and used his giant Dondi eyes to persuade me to let him learn the bow. (First I made him clip his nails and learn all the parts of the bow, of course.)

Here's his first time holding the bow:



Holy crap! He's a natural!

Here's his first time putting bow to string, and hamming it up for the camera a little:



Excited!

Then he started playing, and I got a more candid shot:



Still so happy. :)

Then I remembered my cell phone camera does video! Delight in the open-string scratchy wonderfulness!



*Sniff!* Oh my goodness. I am SO happy!

P.S. Matt - these are Dondi eyes: