musical adventure

i have been pondering for a couple months now about taking some sort of music lessons. in the forefront of my mind were violin lessons. and i even have a friend who has a violin she is not using anymore. and there was a music store where she bought it that also gives lessons--she took lessons there before. so i pondered this for some time, but hadn't actually gone to the store to research lessons or borrowed the violin from my friend yet. then one day, this same friend locked herself out of her apartment and came to stay in the warmth of my apartment (with her baby) for about 30 minutes while she waited for the person who could come unlock her apartment. we had a nice unexpected chat, and during that time we talked a bit about the violin, and she happened to mention that this music store gives lessons for every instrument that they carry that they sell. and then she told me they have cellos. now i don't recall that i'd ever mentioned to her that i was interested in the cello, but for some reason she said that, and in that moment i got so excited, way more excited than i had felt about the violin, and i guess from that moment on i knew my research would be about cello lessons, not violin lessons. i've always loved the way the cello sounds, and while the violin is pretty great too, there is just something about the cello. i love lower sounding things (i used to wish i could sing the bass part when i was in choir, but obviously that is impossible) and i just think the cello is awesome. but it's so big, and i would have to carry it around, and maybe cellos are more expensive. plus my friend already had a violin that she was willing to lend to me. but, if i ever could have played another instrument besides the piano, it would have been the cello, if that was ever possible (it wasn't--until now!), so i was pretty sure i was going to research cello lessons, unless it was super expensive.

so, i went to this music store, and they told me about the lessons they offer, and they did have a cello teacher, but their cello seemed more expensive than what i thought it was going to be. so i went to another music store nearby, and they had a cello that was cheaper, but they didn't have a cello teacher. actually they did, but this cello teacher was at a different location. i spoke SO much chinese on this day, by the way. yay me. i found out how much lessons cost, when i could take them, how much cellos cost, and finally understood even where this other cello teacher was (rather farther away than i wanted to go). so someone from the music store took me to this other place where this other cello teacher teaches though, so i could actually meet the teacher and see how far away it was (the other music store told me to come back the next week to meet the cello teacher). so, this other place was really far away. like on the other side of the city. this teacher only gives 30 minute lessons, while the other teacher gives 45 minute lessons. why would i travel all the way to the other side of the city for only a 30 minute lesson? also, this music lesson place was off of a main street behind some other buildings, it was a very old building that did not look inviting on the inside or the outside, except it had what looked like piano keys painted on the front steps. inside, i was taken to where the teacher, a rather elderly man, was giving a lesson to a middle school aged girl. this girl was in the lesson with her mom, her mom's friend, and her mom's friend's daughter. they were all sitting there watching her painfully try to play a scale. and then she tried to play a song. it was kind of sad. the teacher wasn't even really paying attention to her, he just kept talking to the two moms. and i was wondering, "is this really a lesson?....is he really going to teach her?" i finally just told the person who had brought me that this place was too far away. i didn't know how to actually ask anything else about the teacher, and i was pretty sure i didn't want him teaching me anyway. after all that, it felt like an unsuccessful day of researching. i didn't have a cello or cello lessons after all that.

but the next week, i went back to the original music store, actually met the cello teacher, who it turned out was very nice and about my age and speaks some english too. and her friend was with her who spoke really good english. and they even went with me to the other music store to help me buy the cello that was cheaper. and so her friend who spoke really good english could explain everything to me, and the cello teacher tuned and played the cello for me before i bought it. it's obviously not a very high quality cello since i bought the cheapest one, but i doubt i will know the difference since i'm only just learning. it seemed like a reasonable investment though, since i will be here for at least 1.5 more years in which i will be able to reasonably afford to take lessons and have some time to practice.

yay i'm learning to play the cello!!!!