Zachory

...is my grandson in Urbana. He’s 9. He is using my first violin - ¾ size. He seems to have a real, permanent interest in violin, but like most kids I’ve ever taught, he just doesn’t practice. If not practicing and his mom were paying for the lessons, he wouldn’t last long. But we are paying. That’s a different issue & we aren’t going there. I don’t mind paying for lessons as long as Zack wants to play. It’s just that he will take forever to learn if he doesn’t do something at home in between lessons. He even sees that himself when he hears the other students, often younger than himself, who are way ahead of him. He says there are Korean kids there who play “better than you, Popo.” Fine; I wouldn’t be surprised, but I doubt it.

Since I’m staying with a friend in Springfield this week, so as to play in the IL Symphony this weekend, I went to Urbana yesterday to pick up Zack from school and take him to his violin lesson. It was the first time I’ve seen Zack since before he started violin last Fall. I thought his teacher was doing a wonderful job working with him. I just felt a little sorry for her, not getting very good results for her efforts. I knew her from when I lived in Urbana and we were both students at U.I. at the same time. In fact when I left Urbana to move to Korea, she took some of my students. I feel she is the best teacher for Zack, and she even lives very near Zack‘s school and house. So, I quietly observed Zack’s lesson. His mom showed up at the end. We went to eat Chinese. I took them home, but before leaving, I played violin with Zack for 20 minutes and gave him a little pep talk. I wish I could see him more regularly to do just this. We played Twinkle - var.1 a few times in a row. I worked with him to get the bowing more correct, and in several repetitions, it was evident the tune was not securely in his head. Hmmm. And then we learned a little pattern from “Batman,” assigned by his teacher, involving low & high 2nd finger. That was not hard to learn, but can’t say he’ll still remember it tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow (which is now today,) just before I left yesterday, Zack asked if he could come to my concert. So I got it worked out with his mom & dad, who live in two different places, 30 miles apart. Mom will bring him to me in Normal after school. I will take Zack with me to visit some old friends in Bloomington for supper. That family is going to the concert and can sit with Zack. After the concert I will take Zack back to his dad’s house in Paxton. Then I will drive ’home’ to Springfield. So today I will have another chance to work with Zack on his violin homework. I hope the concert is not way too heavy for him: Vaughn Williams “Sea Symphony;” but also “Victory at Sea” by Richard Rogers and “Titanic.” Zack will be worn out by 10:00 I think. I don’t mind all this driving if I can have some positive influence on him. (I figured out that I’m driving 478 extra miles so that I can see Zack these two days. If I had stayed strictly with the IL Symphony agenda and skipped seeing Zack, I’d ride the orchestra bus up to Normal and back twice - about 200 miles total commute.)

Besides the side trips to see Zack, all I have to do is practice my 2nd violin part, go to the gym and hang out with my friends here in Springfield. Peggy is just now arriving at home with our big red truck, loaded and ready to deliver to Wheeling, WV on Monday. Next week we will drive two trucks, so as to help out our friend Floyd who is recovering from chemo and can’t drive for a couple more weeks. So tune in later for more notes from the road, from the Trucking Fiddler!