I think it's killing me.

Antionio Vivaldi. Born March 4 1671. Died July 28 1741. Famous for writing The Four Seasons....

and also a slightly less well known song: Concerto in A minor.

So, yeah, some people haven't heard of it, but I have. Over and over and over and over.

Not only have I heard it, but I have played it.

500 times.

That is Five Hundred times

FIVE HUNDRED!

Not the whole song, of course. It is in three movements; I played the 1st Movement in a solo recital and for Federation. Now I'm on the 3rd movement. It's a fairly easy song. Except for one part.

One part, people. 16 measures. That is nothing, right?

Wrong. It is impossible. Okay, not impossible. I can play it, well even.

But 500 times? I think playing it more makes me get worse and worse and worse and worse. And. Worse. Because I hate it a little more every time. And I play it a little more carelessly every time. Yes, faster (I've gone over the recommended speed by 25 BPM), but with much less quality. MUCH.

Today I played it for the 300th time. It may not seem like a lot, but believe me. It is a lot.

Here is the song. The waterfalls part is 1:55 into it.

Do you know how easy it looks? How simple? I mean, the kid is 10 years old. But, believe me. It is nowhere near that simple. It has caused stress, almost-tears, and my sanity.

I don't know why I watched this. I mean, my self-esteem drops down to about -4 on a 1 to 10 scale. The youtube videos are always of little children, child prodigies, and an orchestra in the background with pictures of trees and flowers and such. (the trees ones aren't really that bad.)

Well, if I'm going to be great at the violin, I'd better start with practice. 500 times practice.

At least I don't have to play with the 1little bow, right?

And I really, really, really hope you didn't watch all of those videos, because I doubt anybody who doesn't devote their life to the violin could watch those and stay sane.

1the little bow is an instrument of torture given to me by my teacher. It is like 6 inches long, and it supposedly helps me play by the frog. Really, it just makes me want to jump out of my window (luckily, my room is in the basement)

xoxokatie