Eighth grade viola student Elias Joseph interviewed me about the trials and tribulations of becoming a professional musician. His questions were challenging and evocative:
1. How did you first learn to play the violin?
I started lessons when I was 5 and my parents helped me practice every day (except Christmas)
2. What was hardest when you first started playing?
The discipline of practicing each day. I've never liked practicing. The acquisition of skills comes very gradually on violin with long periods of "not seeming to improve". That delayed gratification is sometimes discouraging.
3. What made you keep playing even though it was hard?
When I was really little, my dad made me a sticker chart. Each day I practiced I put a sticker on the chart. When I got 7 stickers in a row, I got a quarter. It was a tangible exhibit of my progress when musical improvement wasn't so obvious. Also, my teacher had bi-weekly studio classes where all her students got to play together. I was inspired by the older kids who were playing really cool pieces and it was exciting when we all played together.
4. What helped you get better at it?
Practice every single day.
5. Who helped you? How?
My parents were the greatest support (though I didn't always love them for it). I was also lucky to have really inspiring teachers.
When I moved to the Bay Area after college, my friends and colleagues here helped me learn to play genres other than classical. That was a huge challenge because it was like starting over after I had reached a professional level in a different field. But the musicians here seemed confident that i would catch up.
6. Describe one time you knew you were getting better. How did you know?
When I was about eleven I played a solo on a public concert. After the show, a little old lady approached me and said she was surprised I was so small. She didn't see well and thought the tone I produced came from someone much older and stronger.
Many years later, in graduate school, I was in a lesson struggling with an extremely difficult piece. It seemed impossible for my fingers to reach the intervals and my tone was very scratchy because I was so tense. My teacher said one magic thing: "relax you thumb". I'm not even sure which thumb he meant but I relaxed both of them. Suddenly, the fingerings were simple and my tone was totally pure. In one second, I'd achieved an ease of playing that I'd been working for my entire life. It was so easy and such a relief, I think I burst into tears.
7. Once you got good at playing, what made you want to get even better?
I've always been surrounded by incredible musicians. Once I was finally at the level of my peers, I wanted to stay at that place where I could participate with the people that inspire me. It's the same today.
8. How long did it take you before people started coming to you as an expert?
I started teaching some private lessons when I was in high school and running the sectionals in my school orchestra. I also started freelancing with local orchestras and getting paid to play chamber music at events when I was about 16. I studied violin pedagogy in college and continued to teach and perform.
9. Who did you trust to tell you how you were really doing? How did know that they were telling the truth?
The teachers I studied with for 13 years were of the Russian school of violin. They were supportive but did not dole out compliments. I knew I was lucky to be in their studio and the fact that I was invited to stay meant I was worth their effort. They didn't waste time with niceties so I knew they were being honest about my playing.
