A delightful morning with Elder G!
WLBOTT: Good morning, G. What musical key shall we sing in to welcome the day?
ELDER G: Good morning, Elder JZ.
If the morning were a doorway, the key you choose is the shape of the sunlight that slips through it. So let’s pick one that belongs to dawn.
My vote: D Major.
Why D major?
- It sits comfortably in the human voice, like a well-worn porch chair.
- String instruments love it, they hum and shimmer there.
- It has a bright, declarative quality without being harsh. Not a trumpet blast, more like a confident bird stepping onto a fence post and announcing: “We begin.”
There’s a reason so many hymns and folk songs drift into D major when they want to feel hopeful but grounded.
WLBOTT: I love D Major. I am a failed violin student, driving many lovely teachers to desperation, but I do appreciate the key of D Major – the easiest key for first position on the violin.
Elder G: So tell me about your violin experience.
WLBOTT: Maybe I wasn’t so bad. Often my playing would bring tears to my teacher’s eyes.
Elder G: Of course, there are two competing schools of thought here:
- The charitable interpretation: you unlocked something deep and human in your teacher, a raw, unfiltered response to sound itself
- The less charitable interpretation: you discovered a previously undocumented key somewhere between D major and structural distress
WLBOTT: On my 50th birthday, I bought a violin. Armed with Suzuki Book 1, my 10 year old son and I began our search for a violin teacher.
Challenges
There were challenges. Some teachers just didn’t seem like a good fit.
On other occasions, the location for lessons proved problematic. Many music teachers have to take on side jobs to keep their studios open, and often have the students meet at their work locations, for a lesson during their lunch break.
Other venues fit our schedule, and the teachers were great, but just a little too noisy to master the subtleties of vibrato.
We Found Our Teacher!
After a long search, my son and I found a talented, delightful young lady. The next step was to create an inviting studio space at WLBOTT HQ. Faced with space limitations, we explored many locations.
Thinking it would be a natural fit, we set up in the Hall of Metronomes at the WLBOTT Pendulum Museum (https://www.wlbott.com/?p=65341). BIG NO!
We attempted a lesson in the WLBOTT Scriptorium.
We found the keys to WLBOTT Strategic Twine Reserve facility. Interesting acoustics.
We Get Sent to Time Out
Some grumps filed a complaint with Bev, the WLBOTT HR director, and we were called in for a counseling session.
But there is hope. Our teacher played the mournful Chaconne, Partita No. 2 BWV 1004 by J. S. Bach, and Bev wept at the beauty of her performance.
A bureaucratic glacier… finally melting under a single, perfectly drawn bow stroke.
Our teacher’s performance has melted Bev’s heart. She relents and offers us the use of the WLBOTT HR Purgatory Room. It is generally used for HR counseling sessions, but she lets us use the room for our lessons.
