Learningfiddle.com

Am i really too old to start playing music?

The idea that people should start to play an instrument at a tender age if they want to stand a chance in music, is a by-product of the musical rat race. Only an extremely competitive environment will actually care about how young you were when you started, or how many hours you’ve spent practicing scales. It all boils down to myth. The myth needs to talk about someone who was deprived of all childhood pleasures in the past, and that he/she has spent thousands of hours of patient practicing, so that you are now lucky enough to listen to this great musician. This is a convenient process through which we all inflate our egos. However, music should be all about having a normal life and leaving our little vanities aside. The notions of the ‘lost train to success’ and ‘hard work’ have shaped our conceptions about playing, learning and teaching music. They are the great obstacles between us and the enjoyment of music.

Old-Time Fiddling – Playing the wrong way

There are two striking habits that appear among a considerable number of old-time fiddlers: their tendency to hold the fiddle against their chest rather than the classical way, and their tendency to hold the bow in all sort of weird ways, often gripping it away from the frog. For a classically trained violinist the image of someone playing this way is alien. However, these habits among old-time fiddlers should not be seen as restricting or simply wrong. I believe they are deeply meaningful and rooted in legitimate stylistic and musical aspirations.

Busking is great

There is nothing more fun than playing music in a beautiful street corner with a few people around you enjoying themselves. There is actually no strong tradition of busking culture in Greece. However, good weather and the relaxed summer atmosphere -especially in tourist destinations- provide a great context for busking. In Greece there is no clear legislation or policy on busking and nobody is really authorized to issue a busking permit. The course of your performance in practice depends on whether someone decides to call the police on the grounds of being disturbed by your music (or ‘noise’ as a nearby shopkeeper once said of our playing while we were busking a few years back). However, whether people welcome your performance mostly depends on the quality of your music and basically, you social skills.