The Fiddle

Cameron decided to take up piano and took lessons with a patient woman named Rita. We encouraged the interest and went so far as to purchase a nice electric piano with a full keyboard. Interest in that pursuit eventually dwindled as Cam went on to pick up the guitar.

Kristen wanted to play an instrument like none of the rest of us could, a signature skill that was hers alone. She had dabbled with the recorder in grade school, and plinked at the keys of the electric piano we bought for the family when our son was taking lessons. Then in middle school she had chosen to take up band. Besides learning to play the trumpet, which was her instrument of choice, she learned to read music. To this day I still envy her ability to decipher notes on the page and translate them to the positions of her fingers on the keys or the strings of an instrument.


After completing middle school band Kristen was ready to move on to another instrument. Uninterested in guitar, she decided to take violin lessons. The acquisition phase of the process began again and we were able to locate a man in Winston Salem who was an actual luthier. Brian sold instruments but also rented instruments to students. A suitable instrument was secured and lessons began.

Kristen’s first violin teacher was Carrie. Carrie was young and enthusiastic, if a bit scattered, and proved to be a good fit for Kristen. Kristen enjoyed the time she spent under Carrie and progressed steadily. Carrie was able to feed into Kristen’s desire to learn to play music in the minor keys of the gypsies. We had not seen Kristen so proud of herself as when she demonstrated one of her gypsy tunes for us.

Michelle was a technical master on the violin. Kristen’s second teacher took her further into the realm of technical application of her skills. While a bit more tedious with her student than Carrie’s easygoing style, Michelle helped Kristen advance.

In parallel to Kristen’s process of learning to play violin, I tried to seize the opportunity to take up fiddle playing. I pestered Kristen to let me use her instrument, pretty much to no avail. She was very territorial about it, and didn’t want me messing about with it at all. The violin was to be her exclusive domain.

Naturally, I resorted to sneaking about. When I would come home for lunch, I’d devote a little time to the attempt. Of course, during summer vacation when Kristen was out of school, access was a problem. Still, I managed to acquire a bit of seat time with the instrument.

The sneaking about went on for roughly six months until I went online and purchased my own violin shaped instrument. I had it delivered to my workplace. When I took it home, I put it up in the hall closet where I knew she would never discover its hiding place. It only came out when she was not around. Eventually, however, I found myself dissatisfied with the limited availability of practice time. I realized I could advance no further and simply would have to come out of the closet about my clandestine fiddling about.

Kristen was furious. I had not realized how serious she was about having sole proprietorship of the pursuit of the violin. No amount of cajoling about how the two styles were so dissimilar and how we would be pursuing different musical paths would sway her. She felt violated, and I felt like a big idiot. It took several months for her to break over and forgive her daddy for trespassing her domain so.

Yesterday I overheard Kristen saying to her mother that she might like to learn to play the guitar.