My First True Love Affair

When I was 8 I begged my Mum to let me join the instrumental music program at school. I wanted nothing more than to be able to play the violin. I was told, like I had been told many times previous, that I would be able to learn the piano when I turned 10. I have to admit it was such a torment having my great-grandmother’s upright piano in our formal lounge just sitting there and I couldn’t play it. Sometimes one of my grandmothers would play old dance hall music when she came over, and this would continued to make me want to learn to learn.

Time went by (as it often does) and I was able to start piano lessons. A lovely old dear who was a spinster in her 60’s or 70’s (who knew except as a 10 year old she was extremely old to me). However through my early teenage years I continued to hound my mother to let me learn the violin. That was the instrument I so desperately wanted to play. When I was 15 I was finally given the green light. My mother took me to a violin teacher. Except as is the way of the world, that teacher introduced me to a different string instrument. This instrument was the viola.

I still remember when I first heard the melodious, rich, deep sounds of the viola. The power behind that sound! I instantly fell in love with that sound. We were in my music teachers parents house. She had only just moved back to town. My mother and I were crammed into a little side room with a couch, lots of music piled everywhere, a piano, instruments strategically balanced atop of sheet music and a cat that wandered in and out. All of my music teachers have had cats. And not just any breed of cat but always a Siamese or Burmese cat, sometimes both.

I worked hard at my chosen instrument and was able to achieve a standard high enough that 18 months after starting I went through the audition process for university. I wanted to study music and as pipe dreams go, I wanted to finish and then only play in orchestra’s that did Disney music soundtracks. Lets just say that I accomplished one of those dreams, that being my Bachelor of Music.

Once I left university I was hired to be an Instrumental Music Teacher, with my first permanent job in the small country town of Goondiwindi. A place where I learnt many things. Like learning how to do my job and finding love. That Love grew to be my Darling Husband. What I have learnt is that if you truely want to do something then you have to push and shove and be that dog with a bone. If I hadn’t been given the opportunity to have heard the “sales pitch” from those Instrument Music Teachers, then my life would be very different.

So let me ask you all something, what was the one thing from childhood that never left you? Did you pursue your idea or love affair? Truely, my need to make music has led me to many amazing experiences. Not all related to music but the music took me there. Whether that was new places, experiences or thoughts and feelings. I have truely been blessed. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for that first love affair when I was 8 for making music, I would not be who I am today.