I know the feeling of being stuck during the violin journey. I had it too. In this post, I want to share my personal story of feeling stuck and I dig myself out of the burnout to continue my violin journey.
My very brief story
I started at the age of 38. When I started my violin journey around 2017, I was super excited to follow one of my dreams and cross off an item on my bucket list — learn to play a violin. After getting my violin, I talked with my teacher and decided that we would use a combination of Suzuki and a method book materials for my journey. We started off with how to hold a violin and bow hold. During the first 2 or 3 weeks, we did not make any noise on my violin. The focus was on holding the violin and pinky exercise. I also started listening to the Suzuki CD 1. I did learn all the songs by listening repeatedly. Then I figured out notes by ear then I looked at the music sheet after that. It was a tedious process. This might be why it took me a year and a half to finish the first book.
Say hello to burnout
Fast forward to one year and a half, I have gained many skills and my sound was getting better. At that point, I have reached Gavotte by Gossec, the last song in Suzuki Book 1. My teacher and I spent about 6 months to finish this song. I was started to get frustrated as my teacher would not let me move along to the next book. At the time, I felt bored as I had to repeat the same measures in a song over and over. I was not motivate to do anything at all but I did manage to practice every day. After I finally finished the song, I told my teacher I needed a break.
Stepping away from the violin
Thinking about it now, it was a surprise that I actually stopped pursuing my dream after a year and a half of learning. I was checked out and put violin away in its case. Everything about violin was not a part of my life for a year. I felt so bored when I thought about the violin. I stepped away from it to pursue other interests. You might wonder what I picked up during that year, I did learn ukulele by watching YouTube videos. I managed to learn basic chords and found jam sessions in my town. After I joined a few jam sessions, I started to think about the violin again. Then I met a friend who played a guitar and we ended up jamming a few pop tunes — I played the violin and my friend played the guitar and sing.
Reignite the fire – violin
After that I started to think about the violin again. Before I went back to continue with my lessons, I went to a violin shop to trade my violin. This might be one of the other reasons of my interest came back — new sounds. Of course I contacted my teacher during the pandemic so we started back our lessons via Zoom. It was not as much fun but we managed to continue with our lessons and progress through Suzuki Book 2! I was surprised that I did not develop a lot of bad habits while I was taking the online lessons.
What to do if I feel burnout again
I am sure that at some points I might have the burnout again. However, I believe I am a bit more experienced in handling it. If I feel the burnout is about to settled in, I might try to do the following:
- Talk to my teacher about it — I did not share my frustration with my teacher. If I were to talk with her, I am sure that she would be able to help me by either choosing to skip the song and come back later. She might be able to focus on other techniques to make me feel that I am making progress.
- Lower my expectations — Another reason that I felt burnout is that I expect to progress faster because I am an adult learner. Now that I have a few more years under my belt, I can see that learning a musical instrument does not work like that. There are techniques that will require time and effort to come back and practice.
- Join a group/community orchestra — This might be one of the cure for some people. I learn the violin because I want to make music for other people. When I join a community orchestra, I sit next to another adult starter who has started 9 years ago. That means he has more experiences than I have for 4 years. However, our skills are very comparable — he is much better at sight reading and speed while I can sight read and does not get lost easily. Thanks to my ear training.
Now that I am back on my violin journey, I can say that I have been really enjoying the learning process. I go back to play songs in Suzuki Book 1 and 2 from time to time. What I thought it was challenging at the time is now easier and manageable. If you have other strategies that you have used to fight with burnout, don’t forget to share them in the comment section!