So,
I was looking around for at-home workout tips the other day, and I stumbled upon this article on mental well-being by the UK’s NHS (National Health Service) and the 5 pointers they offered in their article made me think that the violin is a one-stop cure for mental well-being! Ok, maybe it’s a bit of stretch to make a bold statement like that in public (although I actually felt my head nodding in agreement as I scrolled down the article), so we’ll just say that the violin is a magical instrument with musical properties. Or, did I mean to say, a musical instrument with magical properties? Same thing, but someone had to say it. 😍
Here were the 5 tips they highlighted, and here’s my own thought process about it that kept my head nodding like a bobble-head character…
1) Connecting with other people (brings us happiness)
Whether we’re talking about going for lessons, or coming to our music+food bi-monthly class meetings, or simply looking for a tip online (by the way, be careful about what you copy from Youtube - always check with your teacher about what you’ve found!!!)… the natural presence of physical human contact, and the dynamism of communication between people at any music-motivated meeting is simply undeniable. It’s been said before but bears repeating: making music is a community endeavour - it always has been and always will be like this, and we’re al very grateful for it!
2) Being physically active (brings us happiness)
Uhm.. yeah! On the violin (or any other instrument for that matter), there are a lot of muscles pumping in unison, in a very specific order and quantity. Don’t get me wrong though, playing the violin DOES NOT REPLACE EXERCISE (ergo my original intention of getting online for workout tips for the home, now that it’s getting cold outside), although it does keep your body constantly active. Mentally, too. So, don’t go abandoning your habitual workouts just yet, but keep in mind that working on upgrading your violin-playing skills beats mindless scrolling on your phone EVERY-SINGLE-TIME !
3) Learning new skills (brings us happiness)
Enough said. Moving on.
4) Giving to others (brings us happiness)
Play for someone, or join us in our intimate bi-monthly class reunions, or, even better, now that Christmas is on its way, brush off the cobwebs between your fingers (haha, JUST KIDDING!!!) and sign up for a Christmas-carol group and offer to keep their rhythm and intonation in check! Just remember to first work a lot on scales, with some serious counting and bowing patterns, and varying metronome speeds, before committing to a task like that!!! 😜😜😜
5) Paying attention to the present moment with mindfulness (brings us happiness)
Between you and me, I think we can agree there’s plenty of that involved in playing the violin. The sheer mental concentration required to perfect that one specific muscle control at last week’s lesson probably didn’t even give us the satisfaction of a decent outcome. But we keep at it because the reward is too great to renounce… No further explanation required here!
🌹🌹🌹
SO interesting, isn’t it? That’s of course not to say that we should all pick up the violin ONLY as an escape from sad days, although feeling better at the end of a tough day as a result of shutting out the noise in order to focus on a specific finger drill on the violin certainly can be a happy consequence too, but I prefer to take this article on mental wellness as a surprising reminder how multi-faceted this gorgeous, complex instrument really is. The surprises never end, I promise, and I’ve heard the same expressions of awe and disbelief from some of the wisest people I know, so we’re certainly in good company. And amazingly, despite all of our cultural and personal differences, the one common denominator for all of us is that, between our heads, our hands and our violin, we’ve got a fully-equipped laboratory for the search of all things good and whole. And, looking ahead to the coming winter months… I’m going to say it already - HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
Until we meet next, keep warm, safe, and well, everyone…
and of course…
