Wednesday, November 18, 1998

Erin's Violin Blog 13

We began the fall by establishing a routine of regular weekly lessons with Erin's grandmother. For a few weeks this worked quite well. Erin struggled a little with the bow distribution in Allegretto. Andantino came easily. But the first phrase of Etude arrived about the same time that the novelty of weekly lessons wore off. Lessons began to get silly and passive-aggressive. One week Erin was particularly limp and unco-operative, and her grandmother said "It doesn't look like you're ready for a lesson this week. I think that's all we'll do today. Thank you. Goodbye." I departed for home quickly and efficiently with a very disappointed little girl. Both her grandmother and I had hoped that this experience might make her wake up and realize it was time to start working in a focused fashion. It didn't happen. She was no longer keen to practice. We have a new baby due. Everything is sliding right now.