violin Archives - Chris Carosa

Life (With Strings Attached)

By Chris Carosa on October 17, 2023

Sitting in the balcony at the First Presbyterian Church on North Main Street in Honeoye Falls, I couldn’t help but wonder. It was Ray Milne’s funeral service. He was an amazing man. Long ago, during my term of public service, he offered sound and wise advice. He was a man many could look to as a community role model. I only wish I could accomplish half of what he did.

But that’s not what I was wondering about. The setting itself took me back. When I first moved back to Mendon in the late 1980s, I joined many civic groups, hoping to discover what I could offer my adopted hometown. Several of those groups convened in the meeting rooms of the church.

That was a time long ago. I started thinking about all the people I knew back then. Some of them were in that church celebrating Ray’s life. Most of them were celebrating with Ray.

The solemn but sweet music coming from the organ helped place me in the mood to Continue Reading “Life (With Strings Attached)”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged A Tune A Day, Beatles, Beatles Medley, Beethoven, Breeze-Easy Method for Strings, Carnival of Venice, Curley, eleveth grade, First Presbyterian Church, Gates Chili, Herman Dilmore, Honeoye Falls, Larry, Miss Avalon, orchestra, Pop Goes the Weasel, Ray Milne, Red River Valley, Santa Lucia, Song of the Volga Boatmen, Suzuki, third grade, Three Stooges, violin, Volga Boat Song, Woodlawn

When You Want To Control Risk, Sometimes An ‘Ace Up Your Sleeve’ Is Better Than A ‘Plan B’

By Chris Carosa on July 12, 2022

Here’s something they don’t tell you. Sometimes a “Plan B” does more harm than good.

I don’t have many regrets in my life, but I do have a few. For example, I should have listened to my brother and never sold that 1965 Topps Joe Namath rookie (in mint condition). We paid less than a dime for it and sold it for $125 a short time later. Sure, it was a pretty good return. Today, however, that card is worth $200,000 or more.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

But that’s not the regret that gnaws at me. This is the one that occurred in 7^th grade. And, ultimately, a different type of card.

I began playing the violin in 3^rd grade. It wasn’t my first choice. I kinda liked the idea of the Continue Reading “When You Want To Control Risk, Sometimes An ‘Ace Up Your Sleeve’ Is Better Than A ‘Plan B’”

Posted in Business Tips, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 7th grade, Abbott Parkway, Dennis, drums, easy sale, Jack Benny, machine gun, middle school, Plan B, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, sure winner, talent show, The Beatles, The Godfather, trumpet, violin, Yesterday

Mechanical or Intuitive: Which Approach Works Best for You? – A Real-World Lesson (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on April 2, 2019

The Conclusion of: “Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson – A Real-World Lesson (Part I)”

“Yes, you may hit the right notes more often than Chris,” she began, “but your intuitive desire to physically search for the perfect note interferes with the broader tempo of the entire piece. Chris is mechanical. To him, keeping that tempo is more important than finding the perfect pitch. The concertmaster’s job is to lead the entire orchestra in maintaining this tempo.”

The answer shocked me. I never thought of myself as a mere machine. But there it was. The teacher had just said so. I was mechanical, not intuitive.

This didn’t sound right. How could a machine find the joy in playing the way I did? Wasn’t a machine dispassionate? Doesn’t a machine work precisely because it has Continue Reading “Mechanical or Intuitive: Which Approach Works Best for You? – A Real-World Lesson (Part II)”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged concertmaster, Gates Chili, high school, John Cage, orchestra, violin

Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson (Part I)

By Chris Carosa on March 28, 2019

I never had someone so mad at me. And for no reason. We were both in tenth grade. Except for orchestra, we shared no other classes. We did share an Italian-American heritage. And she was mad in a way only an Italian-American can get mad. I’d seen it all before. In my extended family. In my neighborhood. In the dark alleys of the most obscure hallways within the school.

I just didn’t get it. I didn’t even know what a concertmaster was. Yet, there I was. Her, me, and the violin teacher.

But I get ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning of the story…Continue Reading “Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson (Part I)”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Great Speaking Tips, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged A Tune A Day, Arkansas Traveler, concertmaster, Happy Birthday song, math, orchestra, Pop Goes the Weasel, Santa Lucia, The Irish Washerwoman, Three Stooges, violin

Life In the Pits (Part III)

By Chris Carosa on April 19, 2016

For the previous installment – and to better understand the twist at the end of this article – you should first read “Life in the Pit (Part I).”

Moving is never easy for a youngster. To have a comfortable routine suddenly ripped from you can devastate a psyche that perhaps has not yet fully matured. In my personal case, I can say that my moving from one city to another at the tender age of ten-and-a-half represents an essential element of who I’ve become. It forced me to recognize things much quicker than my peers. I am, and always will be, eternally grateful for the opportunity moving presented.

On the other hand, I will forever complain about it. Too many changes. Too many lost friendships. And, in the end, too much guilt (but that’s another story). This particular story continues what we started several weeks ago and ends with a topic that may be more Continue Reading “Life In the Pits (Part III)”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Florence Brasser, Gates Chili, Herman Dilmore, Miss Avalon, orchestra, The Beatles, violin

Life in the Pit (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on March 15, 2016

This is the second of three installments; click this link to read “Life in the Pit (Part I).”

We interrupt this story for ten lessons learned from my life in the pit of a musical orchestra:Continue Reading “Life in the Pit (Part II)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Anything Goes, Brigadoon, Cole Porter, Gates-Chili High School, Hello Dolly!, musical, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Renee Fleming, violin

Life in the Pit (Part I)

By Chris Carosa on January 26, 2016

The young mother worried as she made her way to the teacher conference. Her third grade son’s violin instructor had asked her “if she had time to talk.” As a teacher herself, the boy’s mom knew what this meant. She had already begun to imagine various excuses she could offer. “I try everything to get him to practice, but he’s more interested in listening to football with his father.” “His first choice was to play the trumpet, but the school’s music people said he didn’t have the right lips.” “Actually, he really wanted to play the drums, but we thought it would be too loud.”

Most of all she worried about her son. It was her first. With another son following only 15 months behind and now a baby daughter, she realized what every parent realizes at this point – she and her husband were outnumbered. Was she spending too much time with her youngest at the expense of her oldest? She had witnessed such downward spirals first hand in the students she taught. Was she becoming the mother she, in her own role as teacher, once haughtily disdained?

She was about to find out.Continue Reading “Life in the Pit (Part I)”

Posted in The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Buffalo Philharmonic, Herman Dilmore, Miss Avalon, orchestra, Pop Goes the Weasel, Three Stooges, violin

3 Essential Public Speaking Lessons I Accidentally Learned While Playing the Violin

By Chris Carosa on March 31, 2010

There I sat, fear pulsing through my veins. I had never seen anything like this before. The page had so much black ink it seemed more like a string of incomprehensible Chinese characters than the opening music to the Overture of My Fair Lady. Mind you, I had dwelled with the elite of the orchestra pit since my freshman days in high school. Nothing scared me. Usually. This thing did.

Bluntly facing me lay four measures of thirty-second notes – a “run” in the vernacular of the musician. I had easily tackled runs of eighth notes and, perhaps with a little more practice, runs of sixteenth notes. I’ve even snuck in a furtive trill of a thirty-second note – but never a four measure run of these speedy bars. I looked at my teacher and agonizingly admitted, “I can’t play these.” What she said next stunned me.

Continue Reading “3 Essential Public Speaking Lessons I Accidentally Learned While Playing the Violin”

Posted in Great Speaking Tips Tagged behavior economics, Dick Shawn, I Could Have Danced All Night, My Fair Lady, Powerpoint, primacy, recency, violin