Cami Shaskin

Violin Blog


About


This blog is about all things violin. It is meant to educate, inspire, and provide resources for parents, teachers, and students. The author takes full responsibility for the viewpoints expressed here. In instances where she quotes ideas from others, she pledges to cite her sources as fully, responsibly, and accurately as possible. Topics will include book reviews, technique tips, entertaining anecdotes, quotes, jokes, educational findings, instrument care suggestions, violin in the news, repertoire lists, etc.

Cami J. Shaskin graduated with her master's degree in Music Education in 2008. Violin has always been her primary instrument, since beginning private lessons at age five. See camishaskinviolin.com/info for her music résumé, or click on Spotlights for historical recordings. Cami has enjoyed an array of experiences in writing, from penning award-winning articles as a journalism staff writer in high school, tutoring peers at BYU's Writing Center, earning a Writing Fellows scholarship and a minor in Language and Computers, and later becoming a published author. She recently picked up web programming as a hobby, earning a certificate in Web Programming and Development from the local community college. This blog has been a collaborative effort between her and her husband, who is a Web Developer by profession. Together, they designed and coded this blog and its original content "from scratch."

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2021
    Jan
        16 - Welcome to My Blog
        23 - Violin Teaching Kits
        30 - The Power of Inspiration
    Feb
        06 - Valuable Techniques
        07 - From the Top
        13 - In Honor of Valentine's Day
        20 - Violin Jokes
        28 - Beginning Orchestra Teaching
    Mar
        06 - Singing in Orchestra
        13 - Nurtured by Love
        21 - Helpful Websites
        27 - Unique Case Uses
    Apr
        02 - Favorite Music Quotes
        10 - All About Tone
        17 - Unique Composer Stories
        24 - Teaching Values
    May
        02 - Believing Teachers?
        15 - Violin in Art & Architecture
        23 - A Solo Repertoire List
        29 - Our Quartet
    Jun
        20 - Theft and Other Lessons
        26 - Violin Bridge Tips
    Jul
        07 - Clever Violin Memes
        20 - Horses and Lions
    Aug
        04 - Music During Covid
        16 - Favorite Music
    Sep
        12 - Being There
    Oct
        16 - Sight Reading Tips
    Nov
        05 - Why It's the Frog
    Dec
        20 - Bach on the Brain
        30 - Impact for Life
2022
    Jan
        23 - Tendonitis Helps
    Feb
        21 - An Old Performance
    Mar
        23 - Cars3 & Coaching
    Apr
        28 - Buying a Violin for Dummies
        29 - Preferred Brands
    May
        27 - Love: A Calling
    Jun
        20 - Gratitude for Idaho Shop
    Jul
        19 - Violinist Interviews Books
    Aug
        08 - Music Opens Doors
        23 - Top Classical Tunes for Violin
    Sep
    Oct
        11 - 100 Days of Listening
    Nov
        27 - Useful Analogies
    Dec
        28 - A Humorous Anecdote
2023
    Jan
        14 - Favorite Concertos & Sonatas
    Feb
        15 - Our Commonality
    Mar
        10 - Extras
        18 - Autopilot
    Apr
    May
    Jun
        06 - Motivation
        07 - Starting Lessons Again
    Jul
        08 - A Tale of Three Cloths
    Aug
        26 - The Ink
    Sep
        23 - Raw and Real Recital Reactions
    Oct
        18 - In Honor of Halloween
    Nov
        26 - Music Copyright
    Dec
        13 - Memes: Fun Facebook Finds
2024
    Jan
        15 - Fame and Fortune
    Feb
        05 - Details and the Big Picture
    Mar
        14 - Intermission
    Apr
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Posts


Raw and Real Recital Reactions
23 Sep 2023

You can learn a lot about yourself from recordings—particularly videos. I typically look forward to giving recitals every now and then. I recently gave a monster solo recital: after all the dead space and intermission was edited out, it was 94 minutes of music, half of it memorized. I was pleased with it, overall. But it wasn’t flawless. One piece I was DETERMINED to perform brilliantly was Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. It's really fun music, not to mention it was my dream piece in college. I practiced and practiced and practiced, nearly every day for months, until the recurring comment from the peanut gallery [my kids] whenever I got to a slight breath of silence in the music, such as a quarter note rest, was, "Are you done?"

I had nailed the whole thing a couple of times in my preparation. But in looking at a video of the crucial performance night, I noticed an interesting change in my face from the rest of the program, as the pianist played the opening notes of the introduction—a deer in the headlights kind of look. . . . Granted, it's a tough piece. My friend in the Utah Symphony and another friend with her doctorate in violin performance both referred to the Carmen Fantasy as a "beast." But I believed in myself. I had strategically programmed it at the end, so as to hopefully leave a last impression of impressiveness.

Yet there was no denying upon seeing my mood written clearly on my face, recorded for all time, that I wasn't just uncomfortable with the piece; I was actually afraid of it! Maybe more so because I had played it so much, so I knew all the places where it could fall apart! I had heard that Richard Elliott, famed Tabernacle organist, once said, "If you’re not at all nervous, you haven’t practiced enough." There were inadvertent mistakes made in the actual performance—probably only about eight to ten measures of memory lapse. But that was more than enough for me! The recording engineer, like me, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, pointed out, "It’s never as bad as you think." And the audio portion, for the most part, did seem pretty decent. But the video told a different story. In fact, in watching myself, I could still feel the anger I was feeling at times: the anger that only comes from "botching" something you’ve invested yourself into so deeply!

Seeing my expressions reminded me all too clearly of exactly how I felt in a relationship I had had once upon a time. For privacy purposes, I'll change the fellow’s name and refer to him as John. From the first second I laid eyes on him, I was completely smitten (much like I was when I first laid ears on the Sarasate). Over the course of the 11 dates we went on (yes, I counted), I was just expecting the inevitable—for him to break up with me—because I felt I had finally met my match and it was almost certainly too good to last. I felt similarly about the Carmen Fantasy—like it was too amazing for me to be able to make it stick.

After the breakup with John, even though I had expected it, as time went on, I was heartbroken! And frustrated and angry at myself for mistakes I made, like getting too personal about my life too quickly: the reasons that "must have been" why he broke up with me. But in all honesty, I knew I had never been completely comfortable in the relationship anyway! I felt like I always had to be at my very best when I was with him to try to impress him. I could never make a mistake!

Playing the violin is the same way, sometimes. It shouldn’t be! But it is. Take performing Sarasate: I should have exhibited joy and a sense of fun in my performance. But I was clearly uncomfortable. Similarly, I was mad at the mistakes I made the night I performed it. These were raw and real emotions. I had invested so much of myself into this piece, almost like it was a relationship! I wanted it to be perfect! (Did I mention I'm a perfectionist?) Normally, when I mess up in a performance, I feel embarrassed, but this type of mistake went further than that, because I had worked so hard. My mistakes "shouldn’t have happened" like that! My triumph seemed to be slipping through my fingers like sand. In a way, I was angry that I had met my match and it was too good to be true.

But despite the anger I felt at botching those few passages, I am pleased to relate that most of the concert turned out very well. I wish I didn't wear my worried heart on my sleeve at the wrong moments. However, in the right moments, I am glad that I'm a sensitive person and can show my expression to others! Sometimes I could feel the music lifting my spirits and healing my worry, letting a little extra light into the room.

Here's to more performances and enjoying them and not feeling like they have to be flawless to be inspiring! The irony is, we can all triumph despite frustration! For example, for some miraculous reason, I didn't have to be flawless for my husband, but he loves me dearly anyway. There will be more performances. But I don't have to look any further for love! When my hubby played "The Search is Over" by Survivor on his phone at the dinner table tonight, I felt happy and at peace. Aren’t we lucky that our mistakes don't disqualify us from the blessings or—dare I use the comparison?—from the music of a wonderful life . . . full of angst, but equally importantly, full of beauty?

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