The months I put the violin down

Practising for the ABRSM exam was not without tears. I even wanted to drop violin completely. After a couple of months without it, I realised it felt as if a part of me had been torn away.

I started playing for myself, with a new understanding. Love for music pulled me into analysis — theory, interpretation — and I could apply that to playing at a different level. Music follows me everywhere I go. There is nothing scarier than a day when it has gone out of me, and I no longer hear it in my ears.