Practicing Musette

(Disclaimer for benefit of violin teacher / grandmother: Yes, we know she's not really been assigned to learn Musette yet. She's supposed to be polishing Gossec Gavotte, and she is! But she loves Musette, so what can I do? And she's learning the right bowings, I promise.)

Look what we can do now, on a warm June day? We can practice outside, because there's no Abominable Dog to own the outdoors, to jump up, knock down and traumatize any four-year-olds. Every few days someone in our family remarks "I so don't miss Freya," and everyone else laughs and agrees.

So Fiona takes her violin outside. She stands on a big log round. It makes a perfect stage for her. It's in the shade, it's stable, and is at a good height. It's actually the log that the kids stand on to grab the Big Rope (tethered high in the trees overhead) for a swing. She plays a repetition of Musette. She fixes a bowing and practices it four times. Then she passes her violin to me for safekeeping.

Then it's time to use the stump for something else -- a swing on the Big Rope! Out she goes, way out over the lawn. The rope is 20 feet long, so it carves a marvellous slow arc. Fiona's dress flies, her legs splay, out, out, out she goes. And then, after a weightless instant, back, back, back she comes, right back onto the log. She takes her violin from me, and plays Musette again, and works on another few repetitions of an exercise.

And so it goes, over and over.