Playing the violin, like many other instruments, can have many benefits. Scientific research suggests that music can improve linguistic sensitivities and word pronunciation because of the high demand for accuracy in musical intonation and articulation. It can also help with mental performance because playing music is a high-intensity workout for every part of our brain. It involves hand coordination, memorising, expression and improvisation.
Music can help to slow down the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. It also improves our motor skills, which go beyond the hands and eyes, as musicians are required to multitask using almost all the senses of our body. There are so many benefits to learning music – one can simply google the topic for more information.
For me, there is no doubt that the violin is one of the most difficult instruments to learn. It can take years of practice just to be able to play a beautiful sound. There will be a lot of screeching and buzzing noises at first, but yet it is not impossible to achieve mastery. The key is patience. A lot of patience! I remember how frustrated I would get when I couldn't get my intonation, fingerings and bowing right at the same time. It is like trying to master a tongue-twister while you are juggling! It needs an endless amount of hard work, concentration and patience.
Let's face it – not everyone is born a musical prodigy, and even prodigies need to put effort into practising in order to play well. The question is, why go through such hardship to play one of the most difficult instruments? It took me many years to answer this question but it is actually quite simple: because it is a beautiful-sounding instrument that I can express my feelings with. I enjoy it because I can use the violin to convey emotions that I am afraid to show in real life. It is one of the most expressive instruments in the world, and there is so much music written for the violin that I can use to express all these feelings. Suppressed emotions of grudge, frustration and negativity can accumulate and lead to ill health, depression and anxiety, and being able to find a way to release these can help reduce the chance of being affected by such conditions.
The violin also gave me the opportunity to meet friends who share the same hobby. We gossip about our teachers, share tips on how to play and just share a passion for music. You can also learn how to work as a team and play as one entity. Performing in orchestras is also a great stepping stone before having a chance to perform solo. I now have over 20 years of violin teaching experience, and students who join an orchestra or ensemble improve faster and show more passion for the instrument than those who just play on their own. I encourage any instrumentalist to join an orchestra or ensemble where there is a community to share, play and practise the language of music together.
As they progress, many music players lose sight of why they wanted to learn an instrument in the first place and start playing pieces that are more challenging. It becomes a task rather than an enjoyment, or a fear that certain grades cannot be obtained. As a fellow musician, I also went through stages where I had to pass grades, do compulsory performances, and on top of that try to gain good grades at school. I even stopped learning the violin for a while when I had to focus on my university exams. It was during that period that I came to know how much I missed my instrument – how much it meant to my life because it never fails to help me express what is inside. Most importantly, it made me remember why I want to learn an instrument, because the feeling of playing music that you love is just wonderful. No one else can play a piece of music the way you like it to be interpreted. The violin, being one of the most expressive instruments of them all, can do just that.
