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My first love. I was classically trained on violin from age five and pursued it quite seriously up until I was smitten with guitar in high school. All those years of intense violin study made learning to play the guitar a breeze, and I soon discovered that being a guitar player was far more impressive to the babes than my violin chops. Thus ended a promising young violin career. :-)
That said, I never lost my passion for classical music (particularly chamber music for strings) and I still rate Johann Sebastian Bach as my favorite artist/composer/musician of all time. No one else comes close. Bach's music is the perfect blend of rich, thoughtful composition with technical viruosity. When played by the right person, I don't think there can be a more soulful expression of music. My all-time favorite Bach piece is the 3rd movement (Gavotte en Rondeau) of Bach's Partita No. 3 in E major. There is perhaps no more perfect musical composition in existence. If you want to hear somebody absolutely tear this tune up, do an internet search on Hillary Hahn. It's just her with her violin. Simply transcendent.
I've recently picked the violin back up again. Seemed a shame to let that beautiful instrument sitting in my mom's closet go to waste. It's certainly not like riding a bicycle... I can't believe how much I've lost it! The left hand skills are still decent because I've been playing guitar all along. But my bowing technique is virtually gone, which is incredibly frustrating. I can't do so much of what I used to be able to do! But... it IS coming back, slowly but surely. I've been toying around rather unsuccessfully with Celtic stuff, Natalie MacMaster and modern bluegrass (Nickelcreek). At this point, I've pretty much given up on trying to bone up my classical skills again (which would take at least couple of years of pretty intense practice to get back).
In any case, it's fun to be sawing at it again!
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