Reflection 4

I have a tendency to break things. Stored in my mind are very vivid memories of little kid me dropping bowls + ripping socks, teenage me cracking phone screens + breaking shoes, and this tendency was bound to catch up with my if I was to be handling a fragile violin. It was simply inevitable.

It's true, I broke my violin. 

But just one string. 

As I said last week, while I attempted to play Disney princess songs, the notes sounded not in tune. After an impulse decision to tune the D string myself (without any experience in tuning instruments), the string snapped from the overwhelming tension that I applied. At first very, very, very anxious as to what I'd do for the rest of the semester/tell my friend who gave me the violin/tell my parents who'd scold me for breaking something else, I began searching up replacement strings. To my relief, they only costed an inexpensive $4! I was saved! No one would have to find out what I did! 

So on Friday afternoon, my cousin and I took a short detour to the Sam Ash Music Store on Route 22.Entering the store, I was immediately overwhelmed with an atmosphere that I've only seen in the movies: cool, laidback, talented, diverse? Those are all the words that come to mind. The decor of the place was much more intricate than I previously believed to be: a warehouse floor, lined with rugs, covered head-to-toe in music. On the left, a long expansion of electric guitars on the walls, amps elevated on a stage, piano keyboards cascading down the aisles. On the right, orange and yellow trumpets free for the taking, infinite amounts of sheet music, a recording studio, trumpet mutes, violin rosin, obscure instruments I've never heard before.

I was greeted with incredibly helpful employees and a notice that all the strings on the violin were extremely worn out. Luckily for me, the employee at the counter changed and tuned all my strings for free, with the only payment that I pay for the new set of strings. While I waited with my cousin, another employee strolled through the aisles playing the flute to whatever in the world played over the loudspeaker- which was not, in the slightest, mainstream music (a banjo version of "Superstition"?). I'm always one to go to new environments and experience different atmospheres, which is why I'm thankful I broke one of my strings. I got to visit an extremely chill place. I even showed off a littke bit of piano in the center of the store! I'm definitely going back there for my musical needs.

In addition, I've started recognizing the notes easier and playing them. If I feel comfortable enough during twenty percent time this week, I will bring my Disney princess book and practice some songs! I'll talk more about that next week. See yaaaa!