Staying True

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you realize that your natural state of being, of expression, of life…just doesn’t fit in with everyone else?

That was me.  For a lot of my life, in many different areas - but especially in the realms of music.  In my childhood, I was blessed to have parents who saw music in me at a very young age, and started me into classical music (Suzuki method, to be more specific).  However, being in Tennessee, where the musical culture is largely that of Old Time, Bluegrass, Appalachian, and Celtic, I was raised up playing those styles at the same time that I was learning classical technique and repertoire.  In my heart, I wasn’t a violinist - I was a “fiddler,” through and through. Getting to connect to the music of my blood and heritage was meaningful to me.

In high school, as my study and love of classical violin deepened, it was matched by a deep feeling of sticking to my roots and not losing the music that made my heart beat faster.  This proved to be a challenge, as most of my colleagues shared my interests, and the culture-at-large glorified a totally different style and sound.  I was never “classical” enough, eventually leading to a conservatory instructor telling me to “not even try to get into conservatory,” because I would “never make it.”

Oh, boy.

Luckily, that moment showed me just how tough I can be when faced with adversity, and being told what I can - or can’t - do.

During high school, I wrote a Celtic-inspired tune that explored the realm of “cross-tuning,” or alternate tuning, on the fiddle.  This is a technique that *does* exist in the classical world, but is not as widely used.  That tune is called “The Liberty Tree” - and it is going to be released as the first single on my upcoming album, The Garden.

I share this anecdote above to encourage ANYONE - no matter their age, status, whatever - to hold fast to their dreams and to what makes them unique in the world. 

It might take a degree of stubbornness, tenacity, and grit. You might have to swim upstream, face the voices of others who would tell you that you don’t know what you’re doing, or that you have no business pursuing what you’re pursuing.

Time and time again (not only in music), I have faced this, and time and time again I have realized that if I’m following the call of my intuition, it’s always worth it. :)