Violin

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Briggsie,
Too bad my husband isn’t at his old church anymore, because we could have gotten your stuff played there (FUMC Burlington, VT). He was handbell director there but now he’s at an Episcopal Church much closer to home. The long commute, esp. in the winter time was getting to be too much. They don’t have a handbell choir at his new place. They have a historic tracker organ with a flat pedalboard. I was never able to adjust to those! I much prefer electro-pneumatic touch, and radiating concave pedalboards. Then I know for sure where everything is!

I used to belong to the AGO but left last January. I wanted to do some new things with organ, and the way I wanted to do it was all studio recording work, my own arrangements, and not historical repertoire (unless Gregorian Chant counts as such). But I hear you about getting over the organ thing, because I just needed to go in a new direction with it. I don’t know if the word is getting bored with the traditional repertoire and style of playing, it was just that I could hear something different in my head, and I wanted to get that out, but it wasn’t something easily done live – not easily anyway, unless you have a vast cathedral conveniently located nearby – and I wanted to add in a lot of extra sounds as well, plus my harp. Sometimes I think the harp world is growing in some pretty exciting ways, but the organ world has just stagnated. And I don’t know why that is.

[Allison Stevick]

My first instrument was piano, then I picked up guitar and flute, next was west African percussion–especially djembe– and finally the harp. I still play all of these, but harp is my main love now (djembe and piano are probably next in line). I think it is lots of fun to have variety. 🙂

[deb-l]

I played flute, mandolin and cello. I lost interest in the flute and mandolin and was torn for years between cello and harp. I wasn’t able to get to the level I wanted to be at with either instrument trying to divide up and hour or two a day between them. I don’t want to spend more time than that practicing after sitting at a desk all day, so chose my favorite, the harp! To live a balanced and healthy life, and to cope with stress, I need to be more active when I’m not working so ballet and modern dance have been a better way for me to express myself musically and artistically. If my job were more physical and I had the time and energy I would probably play more than one instrument and pick up the cello again. Who knows what the future will bring. There is something about bowed instruments, they are so expressive (and challenging!) but they are almost meditative, you have to be relaxed but very focused, and it’s a different part of your brain that you use to find the right intonation on that fret-less fingerboard. One thing for sure though if you have any interest in classical on violin you will need years of lessons, don’t try to teach yourself or you will plateau and have lots of work to undo bad technique. That holds true for harp to some extent as well but not as much as for bowed instruments, IMHO. Fiddle and folk can be self taught though.

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