The Healing Power of Music 🎻
Fiddle camp! Words cannot express just how profound Alasdair Fraser's Sierra Fiddle Camp was for me! Please check out my Instagram Reel to see the special video I made sharing my experience!
I had lived in the Nevada City area for 10 years & always wanted to go, but never did. What followed was my own close brush with death and the death of both of my parents in a short few years.
My father gifted me this 1890’s fiddle from Germany one month before my dear mom died. It was THE LAST TIME I saw him happy IN HIS LIFE (he died tragically 4 short months after my mom did ). If you knew my father, this speaks volumes, as he was a jovial & exuberant being! This is why this fiddle means EVERYTHING to me. It was his last parting gift of love to me.
I had another beloved fiddle that I had painstakingly saved up for, which was stolen when I was in the midst of cancer treatment.
Being surrounded by such accomplished musicians, teachers & stellar human beings this week has touched my heart & advanced my playing beyond anything I have musically done, since I started playing in the 3rd grade. Alasdair Fraser's Fiddle World camp is all about playing music by ear, WHICH IS COMPLETELY NEW TO ME! This was definitely a challenge! Many times I was striving to catch a few notes here & there, but by the end of the week, I’m happy to say, I feel confident figuring out a song on my own!
My old fiddle had some issues and 4 strings broke in a matter of 3 days Luckily my kind new friends helped me, which I’m so grateful for.
Last nights culmination concert was incredibly beautiful. I felt the presence of my parents smiling down on me. I played my fiddle to my mom, when she was dying. This fiddle & the healing power of music are all wrapped up with the incredible gratitude & grief I feel with their painful deaths in the past year and a half.
I now understand, my dad bought me this fiddle 5 months before his heartbreaking death & it made him so happy to gift me it, as he KNEW IT WOULD OPEN MY HEART TO HEALING WHEN I MOST NEEDED IT This completely blows me away. WOW (And the tears rolling down my face are proof of this)
A big māhalo goes out to the teachers & all my new musician friends whom were so kind & loving. I’m deeply grateful for this profound healing.
Music heals!
What is your relationship to music? How do you find your joy? Please share, I would love to know!