Vlog#4: A 2021 update – My come back after 4 months of no practice

I hope you all had a Happy Holiday season and I wish you all the happiest 2021. Now that 2020 is over it is time for me to log another video with an update on my progress.

Unfortunately, I fell into a difficult time since around last September. Which means I have not practiced since then. To be honest it’s really difficult for me to open up when it comes to my personal life, but I will do my best to explain a nutshell why I abandoned my violin for so long, and for good reason.

My dear mom who I’m very close to became extremely sick. I was told that it was not COVID19 related. But I did notice that in early January, everyone I knew including myself caught what we thought was a common flu virus. So did my mom. Unfortunately since then she was not the same. She was 94 years old at the time, had a lingering cough that would not get better. After several doctors visits and consultations with a lung specialist, she was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. This condition kept progressing and it hit a very hard point by September. She was hospitalized many times and in the end, my family had to make the difficult decision of putting her under hospice care in hopes that she will either get better or at least be as comfortable as possible if the worst were to happen. Unfortunately the worst did happen. She passed away on November 2nd.

As a result and I think with good reason I abandoned my violin practice for a long time. I had to take a hiatus from work as well. My mourning would not allow me to pick up the violin. After several weeks of my loss, I was able to find therapy through music. And it has been a great part in my healing. I
noticed that I typically cannot create music when I’m extremely sad. It just doesn’t happen. I’m also a singer and I find inspiration in good moments to even sing sad songs. I noticed that I’ve been able to sing a tune here and there around a month after my loss and since then I’ve used music and singing as a source of healing.

I think I’m ready to resume my violin journey and I’m very much looking forward to it. I left off when I was starting to learn a few new songs from Suzuki book 2 and I was also starting my vibrato training. So I plan to begin where I left off and I’m hoping that I will not have too much catch up work to do. If that’s the case, so be it. I’m ready. I also have a couple of videos I prerecorded before my hiatus, both being about scales. I will be releasing those videos in the next coming weeks and in the meantime I will refine the next song that I plan to record which is Las Mananitas. I also have three more pieces to refine and record from the Suzuki Book 1 repertoire which are Minuet 3, the Happy Farmer and Gossec’s Govotte.

So there’s much to do and I hope to to them all within 2021. A big thank you to all those who subscribed to my YouTube channel throughout 2020, I was so surprised to see that I finally have my first 100 subscribers – Yey! I really appreciate the support. Also thank you for all the comments, likes and dislikes. I really enjoy the interaction.

I’m going to end this vlog with a small dedicated voice performance of a very beautiful piece by Andrew Lloyd Weber – Pie Jesus. This is for my dear mom who will always live in my thoughts and my heart. But at this moment and from here on I hope that she is resting in peace. So here it goes. Thank you for watching and don’t forget to subscribe! I’ll see you next time, Bye!