I grew up not knowing what it is like if I did not pick up the violin that day when I around 5.  As I was reminded by my parents frequently that I am so fortunate, not everyone gets to learn the violin.  Well, I'm not going to get into "what's the best for your children" argument.  One thing has happened though is I have stuck to violin and been playing it ever since.  I remember starting the journey in a nursery school, and later I was referred to a teacher who plays violin for the National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan.  I guess that's how it all started, and maybe it's the way I have persisted with the violin study throughout my younger years, my parents were really excited and decided that the best thing to do is to send me to Europe, in order to deepen my violin study.

I arrived in the UK about 18 years ago.  I went through the boarding school phase, don't know whether it was luck or destiny, I found myself in London, having passed the audition for the Trinity college of music.  My experience in college was not always pleasant, even though the atmosphere does give me the idea that there's nothing to worry about but music, yet I could smell competitiveness in the air, not that I'm really competitive, everyone is constantly exposed to the performances of their colleagues or visiting performers.  And the feeling of hitting the bottleneck during my practice session was a major mental torture.  Most of the conversations among my colleagues were about the violin virtusos, how incredible these people are, and how much we would give to play in the world class level, just like them.

After working in the music unrelated field for awhile, I had stopped the practice routine.  Then one day I was approached and asked to perform in an informal setting.  I had an epiphany in the process of re-learning the violin all over again, maybe I was physically forgetting the struggle I had with the violin techniques I once tried so hard to achieve, or I was gradually feeling the benefit of yoga and meditation, I became more aware of my body and I understood the perception of climbing up the ladder to get to the top level of playing, to ultimately master the super difficult techniques, is simply creating limitation.

In the information era we are in now, it's so easy to check out stuff on streamer site like youtube for example.  Now I look at the really talented violinists, they don't perceive complexity like the most people do, there's no difference between something as simple as "twinkle twinkle" to complicated stuff like violin concerto by Sibelius.  Difficulties or mistakes don't seem to utter their mind while co-ordinating their body movements.  The result is the manifestation of pure confidence and it communicates with the audiences very well.  

What I'm saying here is not promoting geniuses.  I am saying these people might be born with the DNA from the science point of view, to allow them to master their full potential earlier than most people.  However I believe this is something that can be developed.  There's this raw energy which I think everyone possesses when one "just goes for it", let the intuition do the work, or living in the moment.  It comes from paying attention to the postures, to mindfully intergrate one's intuition, similair to this inspriring documentary I watched on BBC many years ago, it was about the study of the brain, in what way can one fully control one's body; for instance, a gymnast's dilemma for getting the routine right everytime is extremely hard, because our bodies aren't always doing what we want.  I remember the coach would send the struggled gymnast on a break, and use the break time to visualise in her head of all the sequences, since it is possible to do an imginary routine without mistake.  And it was amazing seeing the girl got back to the form that she was before, after the visualising.  In the same way with violin study, it's never too late to explore for a new approach, or start your child with the right mentality.  

Andy

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