Need a Change?

New decade... and perhaps you are thinking about trying something new?

After all, you are never too old to learn something new if you set your mind to it, right?

While the scene above looks quite old, it actually is a fairly recent bit of art painted on the side of a building three blocks from where I work.

It serves to advertise the business that is undertaken inside the building's wall.

Quite eye catching advertising, no?

Inside the building: a violin making school.

Bet you've never seen one of those before.

Bet you never even thought about such a school before.

Bet you are now sort of thinking about how it would be to be a violin making student.

You'd sit at a bench....

Working with wood and glues and shaping tools.

I imagine that while focusing on the task at hand time would disappear...

Each completed instrument would feel like part of you. Your memories of the time in which you created the instrument would arise every time you saw it. You would remember selecting the wood, making sketches, applying the stain color to the grain that would suddenly come to life.

The profession of violin making is centuries old. Modern technology has figured out why some violins have such remarkable sound each time they are played, century after century, while other violins, while equally well made, deliver a less lush tone.

(Hint: it has to do with the growth ring size of the tree that the wood comes from....)

Next door is a shop where violins and similar stringed instruments could be purchased.

While the school does not allow visitors, the shop is happy to show you around.

The tiny child size violins are just amazing...barely larger than a paper back book.

They look like toys...but they aren't. They are finely crafted musical instruments, and are priced to reflect that fact.

Next door to the shop...well, why not a recital hall?

The musical artist needs a place to demonstrate their skills, or to debut new musical compositions before family and friends, and interested music lovers.

I'll be watching for the January calendar to be posted.

A short walk over a lunch break and maybe I could take in a recital from time to time.

Just for the joy of listening to those who choose to play.

I'm not looking for a career change to violin maker this year (although SLC has TWO such schools...image that!)

But I do think I would benefit from more live music.

I think that would be a change I could really enjoy.