I had my first lesson without my tapes today. Great lesson! My instructor was pleased I took them off. She agreed that all I was dong was looking down the fingerboard to the tape strips. I had to use my tuner to start, just to find where I needed to be to start. She did suggest that I put a dot for the first finger, until I showed her my non-blaring red pinstripe where the little finger would go if you used that instead of the neighboring open string. It is a dull red and is not very visible on the ebony fingerboard. Kind of serves the backwards version is what she was thinking. My warped way of thinking. It just allows me to not really use the tape strip at the first finger. It is actually for a song I do that uses that E on the D string, I really don’t look at it much.

My lesson went well on a number of points. I was actually asked what kind of violin I wanted to play and what songs I can play and what songs, in particular, I would like to learn. 

I told her that I can play “Danny Boy”, and played it. Then she said we could work on that and she will teach me some trills to add. It really needs something and I don’t do vibrato yet. Great! I also told her that I do not want to do classical. I said that I am not against it, I just don’t want to be a classical violinist. Too busy sounding. I like songs like Danny Boy, When Irish Eyes Are Shining, Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra (really want to learn that, too). I really like the pretty songs. So, I don’t think fiddle is an apt description either, I keep thinking fast jiggy songs when hear the term “fiddle”. Maybe sometime, but not now.

So, she gave me a Mel Bay book to look through. I texted her a digital copy of Danny Boy that was a free download, and she is going to look for the “When Irish Eyes Are Shining” that she has. I just ordered a Hal Leonard book that had the “Look Inside” and it had slower beautiful Irish songs in it that I like, and they were easy versions.

Can’t wait to practice again.