I have a lifetime membership to an online learning platform for violin, the idea is that normal people, at a variety of skill levels, can get access to information from world-class instructors. Since I’m not rich or well-connected, beginning at the usual starting age, or the second or third generation of musicians, Julliard, the Curtis Institute, and the like weren’t in the cards. Tonebase1 has a violin festival in Muenster coming up starting next Monday, and I was sure I was going to go to it. It was exciting. Finally, I could have a music school experience as an adult, it was going to be so enriching and valuable.
Not so fast, said my subconscious, which by some miracle, kept me from putting in my credit card for the deposit. Phew. I ran the numbers for how much it would cost, and started to investigate hotels and flights for two weeks there. It became clear once I investigated it further that it would cost much more than I am willing to spend on a two-week holiday. Alas that “can” and “should” are different. When the schedule was released, I realized that the workshops and lectures looked to closely match material already on the platform, for the most part. So, I created my own DIY festival schedule, where for the next two weeks, I’ll watch the corresponding video on the platform, at corresponding times of the day (this festival is in Germany and I’m a night person, I’m not getting up at 6 am to play scales). Every two-week intensive that I’ve done with Tonebase so far has raised my level playing the violin, so we’ll see how this goes. I’m sure the actual experience of being there in person would be far better, but I’m not made of money. We’ll give this a try.
- I describe it as like if Youtube, Udemy, and Julliard had a baby. I highly recommend it – but wait for Cyber Monday.