Anthony J. Martinez

Back to the strings

For the majority of my life there has always been a stringed instrument close at hand. Most of the time it has been a guitar, but about two years ago I decided to add the violin to the mix. The pandemic put a lot of working musicians in financial hardship as live venues became a distant memory, and so I did what I could to throw in some support: took lessons online!

The journey has been interesting to say the least. Where I thought there might be plenty of similarities, I found almost none. With the exception of my ear, and general musicality, there is almost nothing at all that translates from playing guitar to playing violin. At some point, I found myself frustrated that improving my violin foundation seemed to cost me some of my guitar skills.

Work got exceedingly busy, and my stress levels increased to the point where taking lessons was no longer enjoyable at all. I stopped and took a long break. Here we are several months, and a few injuries later, and I would like to start again. Yesterday, I tuned both a guitar and a violin. Playing both for a few minutes was a nice change of pace, so I'm going to get back into a practice routine and start my lessons again.