The Impostor Violinist

I don't remember how I got into the elementary school orchestra, but I do remember our first practice.

I'm playing the violin, and there's a few features of this that I remember.

One, just sitting in the classroom, all the kids with their stringed instruments.

I remember seeing the size of the cello and the bass and being like, that is an unbelievably physically imposing instrument, I thought to myself.

And I'm glad I played the violin because it was portable.

I could carry it around.

The sound it made, though, not so good, for me at least, the squeaking of the bow against the strings, that was something I was like, ugh, I better get better at this.

And then like the rosin, like the dust, I remember that.

And I just remember having a music stand in front of me and the teacher kind of guiding us through reading music, the basic elements, E-G-B-D-F-F-A-C-E kind of thing, and also learning basic songs.

And when I could play the basic songs, it felt really good.

I remember.

It's like Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Good King Wenceslas or Wenceslas, right? Isn't that the...

I don't know if that's the same song, but that's what I remember.

I was at family Christmas, my mom's side, and they were like, Aaron, would you play Good King Wenceslas? And I remember playing it and just being like, yes, this is an amazing moment.

Flipping it now, being an adult, it's like some kid squeaking along in the violin.

For me, I was like...

This is a concert that could change the world.

So I performed it.

So I enjoyed being in the orchestra and I enjoyed playing the violin.

And we kept learning pretty cool pieces of music, but they were simple for me because I could follow along on the sheet music and I could start to play.

I started sounding good.

And because I started sounding good, I decided to improvise a little bit during these rehearsals, right? And then I would go, and the conductor teacher was like, she was like, bro, you can't do that.

I'm like, stop.

You gotta stick with the song, man.