Music and Age

The Jealous Mistress

I never thought I would be writing something like this but logic will tell a person that there comes a time when what someone has done for years will some day become no longer possible. Not that I am there yet but I have been given a foretaste of the future, that is if God grants me enough years in this world.

Dramatics aside, one of my foremost pleasures in life is playing the fiddle. Note that I said fiddle, not violin. I am a self taught, mediocre fiddle player; I am not nor never will be a real violin player. That said my current condition stems from a messed up right shoulder. For some reason, I can’t imagine why, working the fiddle bow made it hurt. To make a long story short, hopefully a trip to the doctor, some shots in the joint ( very pleasant! ), a month of physical therapy and not playing the fiddle and not working overhead with that arm for a while will  let it heal and then I can get back to fiddling around. In the meantime I have reverted back to my old past time of playing the guitar which I have done since high school. This is not a bad thing as I had gotten extremely rusty on the instrument through lack of playing it much for the last ten years. The fiddle is a jealous mistress you know. Also, a little silver lining is that instead of playing the fiddle for an upcoming dance it was decided that I needed to learn to play bass. I love it!

But, I do now understand a tiny bit what must have been in the minds of the old fiddle players I was privileged to know and play music with when that day came when they no longer could play in a way that gave them pleasure. Their sorrow was palpable. Let’s hope I have many more years of playing left and God willing I will.