Virtual Recital

The studio was knee deep in recital prep when I moved lessons to Skype due to the Corona Virus. Everyone had their pieces set and were in process of shining them up for our annual event.

The spring recital is not only the culmination of half of their year of work (the first half year works toward the winter recital), but also traditionally marks the end of the calendar year for scheduled study before we move into our summer sign-up. So there is a little bit of looking forward to recital - because when it is over they can breathe - and a little bit of dreading recital because...it is recital.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to handle having a recital without a venue, a piano and physical proximity. Those are big hurdles. I had a graduating senior, Audrey, who has studied with me since she picked up the cello at age seven: it was important to both of us that we celebrated her journey with a senior recital. Early in the process of picking her music for this, she had decided that she wanted to play a Bach fugue duet with me. She felt it was fitting to go out the way she came in, with me at her side. We found the music and began working it up together...and then not together.

So, I sat, deep in thought as the ground began to thaw and we became deep in mud. I decided that I would go ahead with a recital in the same way that I had decided to go ahead with all lessons- via Skype. Paul and I would take two full weeks and each of us sit for the other’s student performances, which would take place during a regular lesson. What we were talking about was, virtually, 2-3 recitals per day.

In spite of the virus situation, the world went on spinning as it always does, reminding us of our smallness. I was startled to see daffodils come up from the soil, as they always have. I began planning a garden which meant online ordering of plants and seeds and curbside pick up at the local nursery. Hope was, indeed, springing eternal.

The week recitals began, I came home to find a beautiful, enormous bouquet of flowers in my kitchen. Beside them was a platter of dinner plate size chocolate chip cookies from a neighboring bakery. One of my students, Suzette, had wanted to “normalize” recital week for me and turned the tables by giving me the flowers and cookies. It touched me deeply and helped me to realize how important this process really is to all of us. So the bouquet sat beside me each and every time I would listen to an individual. The cookies did not. Because they are cookies, and I have a son.

For the first recital I began by using our finely honed communication system from the house to the cello shop; the way it works is that I walk into the bedroom, lift the window and bellow. Paul heard me, as did my sheep who began returning the bellowing. He came in and took his place in the “hot seat” as I put it. We had two stools and whomever was the “invited” adjudicator sat in front of the screen. This gave the student a sense of playing for an audience that wasn't completely familiar. Each person also was able to have any family/friends who could be in their home safely and with adequate distancing. We often had grandparents from other states patched in on the call as well. The fact that I was able to pull this off might lead you to believe that I have some technical savvy. Actually I have none. If there was a t-shirt with Luddite on it- I'd be wearing it. Luck, and our computer-wizard son, Ethan (aka our IT guy) were behind it all.

I would introduce the cellist to their audience and say a bit about what they were playing, etc. and then the students would play their piece. Once finished, Paul would then make comment about their progress, as he heard it, since the last recital, and talk a little about what he felt they did especially well. Once he was done he would hop from the stool and head back out to the shop to continue working. I would then applaud loudly and chat with the group on hand.

Audrey played her part of the Fugue for her senior recital. Her mom,dad and grandmother sat in the audience as they have for so many years. I watched this lovely young woman, whom I have known since she was a young child, play part of a piece that we were supposed to play as a duet. There was sadness about what was missing but true joy in what remained.

Paul and I worked this way for almost 23 students. Our ability to work together, and the fact that Paul is amazingly flexible and kind, stood us in good stead.

The smile on everyone's face made it all worth it. There is something very important about closing a circle.

If I'm in a state of mind where I am able to see the good that is coming from this pandemic, and being honest, that is not always the case, I would see that the fact that each student had two teachers’ undivided attention was unique and priceless. Changing the status quo was good for us all. I am better for being flexible and a better instructor for knowing how to bend and still be able to instruct.

Meg had never felt comfortable enough to be part of a recital. She decided to give it a try this time and offered up a suggestion for something different; she arranged “When I'm Sixty Four” and would have her wife sing it while she played. This met my criteria because, a. it was music, b. she had to arrange it and write it out.: bonus - like hidden broccoli on pizza, c. she would face her fears about performing. For months she and I worked out the kinks of the arrangement, etc. When we found out we were unable to go live for recital, she wanted to do it anyway.

We got Skype up and running and saw Meg and Elaine, all dressed up and ready. Meg looked nervous so I telepathically sent some energy and she launched. She played, Elaine smiled and sang beside her. As Elaine sang, she turned her head toward Meg and did a little dance- which I refer to as “the love dance” because it was, clearly, intended to be supportive and to lift her partner. When the clapping died out, Meg had a huge smile of satisfaction on her face, Elaine was aglow with pride as she beamed at Meg. They clasped hands and took a bow.

Many things have been taken away from us in this pandemic- but there are gifts- and this was mine.

Melissa Perley

Musicans Farming Sheep. one

The other day we found a large box had been delivered and left on our deck. Given that we ship and receive large stringed instruments, big boxes aren't too much of a surprise. However, on closer inspection, the return address on the box was Prince Edward Island and, I knew, immediately, what had arrived.

I tore into it like a kid on Christmas morning. Inside, each wrapped individually and carefully placed in the box, lay three wool blankets made from the wool of our seven sheep.

I lifted one out of the box and was surprised when I felt tears come to my eyes. They were a raw gray in color, flecked with black cross hairs; across the center lay three cream stripes. I could see each of our sheep in the blanket colors. I realized, immediately, that the emotion I was feeling was tied to everything that it took this past year to bring these blankets to fruition. Looking through them I could see, not just the beautiful colors of my sheep themselves, but hope, toil, failure and, finally success.

Beginning the journey to becoming a small sheep farm by dreaming. Gathering the courage to step forward into something we had no idea how to do. Further gathering of materials, watching our check book balance drop as we raise a barn.

Buying the sheep; asking for help, sometimes getting it, sometimes not. Watching them arrive and take their first tentative steps out of the truck and forward into a place they had never seen. Sam and Bronte herding them into their summer paddock for the very first time. Sam looking back at us in disbelief and delight that he had achieved position of flock manager.

One of the ewes getting fly-strike only five weeks into our adventure. Fortunately, having read pretty much every book on keeping sheep that has been written, I recognized the signs, raced up the hill and called the vet. The ewe survived-so did we.

Waking up early to the call of sheep who had, quite quickly, recognized they could see our bedroom windows from their barn and that the lifting of blinds meant the waking of people and people equaled hay.

Learning to rotationally graze our sheep - moving them every three days onto a new paddock. Paul, Josh and I rolling electronet and dragging it across the field. So many times my Muck boot snagging the net entangling and tipping me over. Understanding that we are not only raising sheep but, perhaps more important, raising grass. Knowing much more about composting manure, fertilizer and the value of having a pocketful of pasture mix every time I go out, than I ever thought possible.

Finding a good shearer....finding a good shearer EARLY.

Finding Hillard, our hay source- finding Hillard EARLY.

Reading my dog-eared sheep books about how to pull manure tags off wool and what constitutes wool that can be processed versus shipping wool that will end up in the bin. Standing in the early spring sunshine, the north wind reminding me that summer is still a ways away yet. Sorting wool, my hands shiny with lanolin. When I go inside, smelling its beautiful, distinct odor on my clothes. Feeling, for the first time, like a sheep farmer.

I had long conversations with Dale at MacAusland's woolen mill in Canada and it was his kindness that helped me work through how the heck to ship wool. His most valuable suggestion comes from asking if we have anyone big in our house. This is our son Josh's moment. At 6'4 and built like a solid maple tree, he is perfect for standing, quite literally, on top our box of wool - the goal being to fit 38 pounds of fleece into one smallish box. He did and we did.

And so here they are, the blankets that represent and are the product of this year of learning and growth. Our sheep are back in their summer paddocks, all of us having survived their first winter. They are strong and healthy.

As the flock heads down the same dirt road to the fields that they did when they first came, Sam still at their heels, they have some idea of where they’re going. And, because we have also stayed on that path, so do we.

Melissa Perley

Undecided ... I think

The sheep are semi-back into their summer pasture so I am spending more time outdoors trundling up and down the dirt road that leads to the back fields. I'm watching the birds nesting seemingly everywhere around us. I put up an old gourd in one of the maple trees in our front yard and saw a chickadee check it out, almost immediately. She popped in, deemed it livable and hours later was back with a mouthful of nesting material and her suitcase. Each morning I am awakened by a Cardinal's repeated whistle and I end the day with a walk to the bells of the Hermit thrush.

I'm delighted and amazed by the brilliant green leaves that unfurled overnight after the last rainstorm. Every spring I am ridiculously surprised by their sudden appearance. It is as if I had never seen leaves before. It has become a seasonal rite for me to ask Paul if these particular leaves don't look “just a little different?” He always smiles and dutifully answers, “you know, I think they do.”

Spring has arrived, seeming to part the darkened clouds hanging over all of us for the past few months. With it comes renewed hope (and black flies) Businesses are tentatively reopening their doors, owners peek out of their shops, faces festooned with brightly colored masks. Everything is the same, but everything is different.

When I first had to move my entire teaching studio to Skype it was hard; there were as many video glitches as eighth notes. But, slowly, I got used to perching on my stool in the kitchen, toasty warm next to our wood stove and modem. Tea and big pile of music on the cherry counter each day. There was comfort in the sameness. It seemed true that anything could become normal, over time. Periodically, I would look out the window to watch the snow fall and I understood the blessing of being warm and comfortable while working. But the icicles always melt, the ground rises up from under the snow and things thaw.

There began to be talk of restrictions loosening and there is an undercurrent of restlessness. My students have begun to ask me if I've thought about when they might come for a lesson in person again.

Seems people thaw also.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a person who doesn't scare easily. I tend to laugh when terrified and do it anyway. But there is something in the lack of information about this situation that really does frighten me. I feel at a crossroads and am unsure of which way to turn. One day information seems to indicate that things are improving and I think, “soon.” But two days later numbers are up and our very breath is being compared to a sprinkler system, and I think “never.”

I'm not sure how we got here and I'm not sure where we are going.

What I know for sure, is that, although not listed as such, my job, teaching music, is essential. People need music for their souls. When things are most difficult in their lives, they turn to what they know, what is innate in their very being. The need for this cannot be fully filled virtually. They want to clunk into the studio with cello cases in hand, laugh, cry, clap in rhythm and get chocolate.

I understand.

How do the birds know when to come back, where to nest, how to fly? While I am watching the numbers, I will also be standing at the top of my hill, listening to the wind, waiting for the answers.

Melissa Perley

Teaching Middle C

We have been spending our weekends alternately hiking in the woods and scratching and stacking. We've been raking out both flower and vegetable beds, stacking piles of dead raspberry canes to burn, cutting down a tall dead tree teetering precariously above our lower shop, and sweeping sand remnants from not-far-gone piles of snow. All in preparation for new growth.

I continue to teach via Skype and have been approached by a few people who feel that the sudden slow down seems a good time to finally begin studying music, something they have always wanted to do.

One might think that the easiest place to teach would be the beginning. But, it is not only teaching virtually that makes teaching middle C difficult. I borrow the term “teaching middle C” from my good friend and pianist colleague, Vladimir Odinokikh. During rehearsal breaks he would regal me with stories of his frustration at teaching piano students who are in the place where they have to begin by knowing what note is middle C.

One of the first hurdles of teaching early lessons is dealing with the student's insecurity at beginning anything. Adults, especially, feel uncomfortable coming to the cello at what they feel is a later time in their lives: they feel the need to reassure me that they recognize their own lateness, handicaps, and how, perhaps, they should have listened to their mothers when they quit studying music as a teen.

Once we are all okay with beginning, we begin. It is wonderful to put an instrument into the hands of someone who has never played before. There is such reverence in their faces toward the cello. We spend a significant amount of time talking about the anatomy of the instrument. How and why it actually makes sound. I'm following the theory that the more you know about how something works, the better you will be able to make it work and the more you’ll take care of it. This can be true for our cars, our animals, our computers, our bodies.

For a while we don't even pick up the bow. Having an instrument as large as a cello filling your lap seems enough for a while. I like students to spend some time getting to know their cello. Cellist Gregor Piatagorsky loved to describe the time spent getting to know a new instrument as their “honeymoon period.”

Once we have introduced some pizzicato (plucking) technique on the strings and everyone is a little more comfortable with the cello we pick up the bow.

Here is where we can run into some trouble. It is at this point that students become enthralled with all things cello. They become impatient with my asking them to wait a few weeks before we begin using the bow so they decide they will pick it up themselves and, under the guise of “making me proud,” go online and learn a few tunes.

At the next lesson the students proudly display their new found virtual knowledge. I sit silently watching them grip the bow like a club and saw across the strings, rosin dust flying, somewhere between the bridge and the pegs.

Can you spell “undo?”

Putting a student on a bow gives them an experience that is unlike anything they ever do in their real lives; it isn't like holding a pencil, hammer, fork or baseball bat. It is introduced only to be reintroduced time and time again. There is very real reason that we call it our “bow hold” versus our “bow grip.”

After some time, students are able to draw the bow successfully across the strings, straight and true, and the cello rewards them with sound. Here is where the fun begins because nothing is as addictive to a budding musician as sound. My goal is for them is to be able to create a sound that they can fall in love with so that, if nothing else, their default is to making that beautiful sound. I ask that they spend a significant part of their at home practice simply bowing. We talk about the meditative qualities of calmly bowing each string repeatedly, watching the bow engage the string into action.

We are now beginning to understand some musical terms, work on some rudimentary reading skills and refine position of cello and bow.

It's now that we have prepared the ground, learned middle C, done the raking and sit, patiently waiting, for new growth.

Melissa Perley

Musicians Farming Sheep IV

The robin has returned to the empty nest outside the window of my studio. I stand and watch her sit, wiggle and flick her tail a bit: get up, sit again and repeat the whole process as if searching for the best fit.

While hiking this past weekend, among the tangled dead wood and dry leaves, were leek shoots of the brightest green.

Spring has sprung.

We have added a new celebration to our repertoire, alongside Christmas, Halloween and the end of black fly season..sheep shearing day! The ewes were about as puffed up with wool as they could get. They now needed a running start to push between the others for a place at the feeder. It was definitely time to lighten their load.

In determining a time for the shearer to come, we needed to find balance between nights that were still dropping below freezing and days beginning to climb into the warm zone. Warm being a relative term here: when you are wearing a twelve pound wool coat, warm is pretty much anything above freezing.

Once we decided on the date, we began to prepare. We needed to clean the straw bedding out from the barn so that the shearer would have a solid, flat surface to work on. She needed electricity and a hook above her head for her shears to hang in wait. Paul and Josh hauled extra gates up into the winter paddock so that we had an entrance and an exit. The goal in all of this, to include shearing – smooth.

Friday night I felt that odd combination of excitement and fear. The feeling that wakes you up in the night running details through your brain in a circular pattern that I believe one calls a stress dream.

It is recommended that you don't feed your sheep before shearing. The position they are put in is pretty much folded. This particular sheep yoga doesn't sit well on a belly full of hay. When I went out, for the fifth time, to make sure things were in place for shearing and to be sure the gals had water, they bellowed at me the moment they heard my boots crunching across the driveway. I avoided their pointed gaze as I hauled water buckets through their paddock. They knew, in the way animals do, that something was up.

I learned, from working in the holding pen at sheep dog trials, that it is important to keep sheep calm when in tight quarters. Sheep that are nervous have no sense of safety or, it appears, boundaries (I have watched a frightened ewe careen straight into a fence) I decided that I would be in the pen with the queue of sheep waiting for shearing. They trust me and I hoped that I could keep them calm with my presence and pocketful of grain.

Our lead ewe took the lead. What I assumed would be a difficult start went quite smoothly as I led her into the barn. Our shearer took her from me with a quiet confidence. The buzz of the shears creates almost white noise in the space. She moved purposefully, deliberately and without extraneous motion. It was a ballet of sorts and quite beautiful to watch. Once the ewes are sitting on their rumps, back resting against the shearer's legs they sit quietly. A couple of the ladies did some air-bicycle pumping but, for the most part they waited like my sons getting haircuts: with patient disgust.

Watching her, I couldn't help notice that it was as if they were stepping out of a wool sleeping bag. She “unzipped” them in one piece and what stepped out of the wool was a teeny lamb! Someone said that the term “sheepish” was derived from the look sheep give you right after shearing as they skulk out of the barn and turn back to give you one final look.

As the number of the shorn increased, the more obvious it was that it wasn't only us who didn't recognize them- they did not recognize each other for a bit. Suddenly - like school kids wearing uniforms, everyone was equal. Without her gorgeous silver wool round her, Beulah seemed to lose her I’m-way-more-fashionable-than-you look. Where as before she sashayed, now she skittered on skinny legs. Anne, the smallest, no longer seemed so small and decided she would vie for an improved position in the flock with some good head-butting. Maybe that was payback. I'm not sure.

Charlotte, the Black Mountain Welsh, went from having chocolate brown fleece to returning to the coal-black of her infancy. The most feisty of the group, when she stepped out of the barn's exit door- she broke into a stilted-sheep gallop, so happy to be released from wool that almost dragged on the ground. When I gave her a good rump scratching, she leaned into me with a contented sigh at being able to actually feel the scratching for once.

Our border collies watched from outside the fence, at the ready. When we needed the sheep to be put into the pen to begin, I opened the gate and asked Sam to help out. With a few commands and a couple minutes work, he had them all secure and ready to shear. A few neighbors were standing along the fence and they made suitable impressed sounds which always delights Sam. As I asked him to leave the paddock there was a bit of stuff in his strut: rightfully so.

Once finished we had a paddock full of sheep who were calm but a little confused at the feeling of the spring breeze on their backs.

Paul, Josh and I began the task of putting layers of new straw into the barn so that, should we get some cold spring nights, the sheep could take refuge. As we were undoing gates and sweeping up, I couldn't help remember standing and looking at these same gates almost a year ago and having no idea what we were doing. That odd feeling of excitement and fear.

As things seem to stand silent now for an undetermined amount of time- there is something especially poignant and comforting about the Robin's return, the crocus's brave rise and our sheep being sheared.

For Steve.

Melissa Perley

Virtues Of Virtual

Yesterday ,without mandating, I asked all of my students to convert from live to Skype lessons. Fortunately, I am used to teaching through Skype so am able to walk people through the conversion. Some people felt a sense of relief at having the decision taken out of their hands, others came dragging their feet a little.

To begin, I need to send out a little introductory emoji who begins to wave, inviting my new Skype friend to join me in virtual world. Once my student “accepts” my emoji we can begin to chat. I can always tell when someone hasn't used Skype before - it is the shock at seeing yourself from a vantage point of just a few feet. Most people are startled back a bit: there is the tell-tale head snap, and then almost 100% of people adjust their hair in some way, immediately.

I keep a notebook and write notes during the lesson. This allows students to completely focus on their playing which is challenging enough in the best of circumstances. I have found that the cello's low-frequency notes, especially, work well through Skype, since Skype takes the low out of low-frequency so I can more easily hear the actual pitch, much to people's dismay at times.

Lessons normally begin with chatting about the week of practice, defining a musical term I have given them and then opening their playing with a particular scale. They launch into the scale the first time with one eye on the screen, thinking they have to watch me and play. This can create a bit of a train wreck and so I assure them they can simply play their scale and I will take care of the rest. In running the notes, if I need them to stop, it does require me hollering at the screen and flapping my arms to get their attention.

At some point everyone begins to relax and forget about the camera. We laugh and joke normally and they can even tolerate leaning into the camera to make a point- this often creates what I call a “cyclops effect” if they come in too close. But it’s all good.

One of my concerns about the aftermath of Covid is the landscape of small business as we have known it. I worry that after a long period of time of running your restaurant as a take out operation, will it, perhaps, be easier to leave it that way? Or, can one person at a counter and two people loading trucks maintain a feed store - do we really need all that stock? Should we take down the plastic shields in front of the grocery clerks or does that make sense in the grand scheme of things anyway. And do they come bullet proof?

One might use this same logic with virtual versus live music lessons. If you have virtual lessons, nobody has to drive to the lesson. Mud season...no problem from your living room. Lessons begin and end promptly, you can fix your hair and be sure you don't have food in your teeth and, if things are set up correctly, you can study in your pajama bottoms. What you can't do is come in from the cold and feel the welcome of the studio, you can't play duets, I can't correct your hand position by moving it, can't hug you when you leave. You can't pat my sheep or dogs and, YOU CAN'T GET CHOCOLATE.

However, I'll take any virtual over no music. It allows me to joke with David from his man-cave, wave at Betty from Ellen's living room, meet Jeff's poodle, help Suzette decide what color beret to wear and watch Chris play Kol Nidre from the view at his feet.

I can do without going to the movies, out to dinner and shopping, but I cannot do without music. It continues to connect us on a level that nothing else does.

So come tomorrow morning, I will be sitting at the bar, in the warm sunshine of my kitchen, unfolding my computer and checking my hair, starting another day of teaching- virtual style.

Melissa Perley

The Music Stopped

I remember watching the first season of “Stranger Things” and simultaneously feeling fear and relief. Fear because of that invisible “thing” that kept taking over Will, and relief because, after all, things like that don't happen in real life.

As each day passes things get weirder. First we had to limit our group gatherings to fifty, then thirty, now ten. We had to be careful with hand washing, and now we can't hug. We've gone from elbow bumping to kicking each others foot with affection. Kicking is now a show of affection. If I had only known that in sixth grade dodge ball games.

In the past few weeks, each day brought new requests to have me come, with violin-family instruments in tow, to book events. The Violin Family was featured in Vermont Kids magazine: that was me smiling back at me. It felt exciting and wonderful...and fleeting. Now every day another cancellation surrounded by Covid 19 information and warnings pops up in my in-box.

Music gigs (aka how I make a living) followed. Three performances that are annual events collapsed on top of each other. The news talked about paid sick leave and the senate passed bills for company leave. There is no company leave when you’re the company.

We had delusions of safety: we thought that because we live in a such a rural spot, in order to get here Covid 19 would have to circumvent icy troughs and muddy ditches. Who would bother: we can't get Fed Ex to come out here.

Our world’s increasingly become smaller and yet more isolated. My parents, who are in their eighties, canceled coming over for dinner. They called with small and unsure voices: they just don't know the right thing to do.

As we watch our Italian neighbors struggle with decisions that don't belong to us, we sit, six feet apart, silent in our horror.

I'm a true believer in playing the cards you are dealt; “it is what it is” is one of my favorite phrases. But there seems to be an internal statute of limitations on that which I was unaware of. Saturday, after the cancellation of a music and book event on the same day, I sat and cried the hot tears of the frustrated. We all know, with absolute truth, there are so many who are dealing with so much worse, and so we cry for them as well. Once I get started, I'm crying for everyone.

Watching the news we are kicking ourselves for being unprepared. We knew that our planet had been at critical mass for a long time. Doesn't anyone watch Doomsday Preppers?

Companies close, restaurants empty, concerts cancel, art galleries vacate- how do we prepare our souls for the unpreparable? I miss my friends, my family, my musical colleagues. The other night Paul asked me if I wanted to work on some music, normally a no-brainier, but I said “no”, because I really struggled with the reason to do it. The emptiness rang around me.

Fortunately, he didn't listen to me. Ignoring my dissent, he pulled up the piano accompaniment for the Shostakovich Sonata and started it. For a bit, I sat out in the kitchen puffy-eyed, enjoying my pity party. But who could ignore such beauty? Who could help but realize that, even with our disrupted routines, changes in the things that are elemental and familiar to us, even surrounded by high piles of toilet paper and water bottles, music still speaks louder than mere words or actions.

Lying in the morning light, watching the sun come up like it does each morning, every morning, I thought about where we can go when the unthinkable becomes thinkable. And the answer is as clear as the spring morning air. We go inward. What will lift and sustain us lies tucked just underneath our hearts. It is where music and joy are created and stored. For occasions like this.

Ultimately, we sit directly in the eye of the storm. As everything swirls around us we have to be valiant in our efforts to find our center, to find our peace. Maybe now is exactly the time to learn that new music or paint that scene that has lived in the back of your brain for so long. Maybe now is the time to read to your child with intent, or video chat with your parents.

Staying on the path.

Chaos today does not dictate chaos tomorrow!

Melissa Perley.

YouTube

As the pages of the calendar flutter to March there is a very perceptible change in both the angle of light and the warmth of the sunshine. When it shines, of course. The combination of those things reaches critical mass on one single day, “Mud Day,” which signals the beginning of our fifth season.

One day it is frigidly cold, the road frozen and slick as we walk on it, old ruts hardened into icy troughs. The next day you drive to the grocery store and suddenly you slip around on newly wet spots on the road. If you are a Vermonter you shift, automatically, to mud-thoughts; time to retire the low car and only drive the high car. Are you paid up for towing with AAA?, and how much money should we set aside for having the mud cleaned out of our brakes?

Things will settle down for a bit, the cold will return with blasts of north wind designed to lull you into thinking mud season is still down the road a piece. But I know better, I can smell the earthy mud patches waking up and this drives me indoors, where things are warm and dry.

In the studio the change in angle of light is evident because we need to use a shade to keep the afternoon sun out of players’ eyes and also because our thoughts begin to turn toward more challenging pieces. Like I smell earthy mud, students smell spring recital in the air.

I have a friend and colleague who is a very fine violinist and he maintains that chamber work is best learned directly from the score of the piece you are working on. He follows the dictate of the great players of the past who, while traveling by train on tour, would only have the availability of the score to learn or review the next piece that they would be playing. They could “hear” the piece by reading the music and learn not only their parts, but all the parts of the orchestra as well, get off the train at the next gig, have one rehearsal with the orchestra and perform.

I see great value in being able to read a score in preparation for performance: you both see and hear not only your entrance but also the entrances of the other players. However, I have also come to value technology that allows us to both see and hear. YouTube.

As a performer, I find it wonderful to be able find a link to a good performance of a piece I am working on. If it is a chamber piece, the group shares that link and we all can study the performance and take from it what we feel is valuable and/or sometimes disregard it.

As an instructor I am of two brains on YouTube. I find it beneficial that you can watch more than one performance of a piece, therefore more than one interpretation. You can slow the tempo of the piece down as a tool to play along with, whether that be for one particular passage or the entirety of the piece. YouTube enables students to see how others choose to finger challenging sections. YouTube, if nothing else, offers exposure to great works and masters playing them.

However.......I also find that students forget that anyone can upload performances onto YouTube, including those whose performances might be better ignored

In using YouTube, there is a real risk of mimicry. Students feel that what they are hearing is the definitive version of the piece, therefore there is no consideration for other approaches, to include fingering, tempo, etc. Listening to the whisperings of great composers telling you where the pain and joy are in their music is a skill that needs developing more than learning to mimic.

Also, while it is wonderful to listen to masters playing, there can be cold moments of feeling that you will never be able to play like that.

But perhaps the greatest risk is not when students are playing along with YouTube, slowed down yet cranked up on their speakers, but when they are practicing without that accompaniment and the sound that is in their ear remains the master’s rather than their own. A false sense of your own intonation, connection and flow is as dangerous as not developing your own sound at all.

A tool that has stood the test of time, has been used by countless performing musicians, and is available on both old and new technology, is recording yourself.

There is no better way to hear yourself than to record yourself. “Ouch” you say? Ouch, indeed, for a while. But nothing encourages like disappointment, and many players find that, if they can have the patience (arrrgh that “P” word again) they will begin to hear real progress in their intonation, their connection, in the flow of phrases.

So, if you have a hankering to listen to a YouTube performance, how about bending that a little and listening to a YOU performance?​

Gotta love live music.

Melissa Perley

The Price of Wisdom

I toss another chunk of wood into the wood stove noticing, as I pick it out of the wood bin, the distinct marks from our wood splitter and I suddenly recognize the piece from my splitting, like an old friend that I inadvertently cut up.

I'm watching the falling icy rain pellets turn to fat balls of snow. The snow on our metal roof has slid down and stopped at the edge, as if, unwilling to hit the ground, it hangs there clinging, a large snow/ice claw, to the roof line.

A student who makes the drive up from NYC each Friday has canceled his lesson already and I'm wondering how many more will follow. We have a customer who is coming from the north to look at instruments and I'm sure this storm has turned her driving into crawling. Like any good Vermonter, I love a snowstorm. Until it keeps me from doing what I want to do.

Fortunately the weather cooperated for David to pick up his cello which was being repaired We emailed him ahead of his lesson to let him know that the cello, which had been in the shop for about a month was back together again and ready for him to play. In the interim we had been able to loan David an instrument so that he could continue to practice, play and have lessons, during the repair time.

The day of the accident, he came for his lesson and found the damage that had occurred earlier in the day from his case being blown over in the parking lot. After assessing everything, we talked about his choices; to have his cello undergo extensive repairs, or purchase a new instrument. Some of the decision rested on insurance factors of course, but at that crossroad I could see him thinking about how easy it might be to simply purchase a newbie. After careful thought, he decided to repair his instrument.

He had used the loaner to practice each day to play in lessons and even to perform in the winter recital. It had served him well and he had gotten used to it, finally. The cello that was loaned to him was about ten years old: a baby in cello years. The cello that he had originally purchased from us was over one hundred years old. It bears the battle scars of the well-played; worn areas where left arms have rested over time, nicks and scratches from the bow being dropped and various dents in the edge. Often, when talking about or showing an old instrument, Paul and I feel the need to address age in the appearance of the cello to customers. Acknowledging that in music, like the rest of life, looks do matter.

David lifted (carefully) the loaner out from it's case and handed it to me. I could see a brief moment of hesitation as he put it into my hands. Paul came in from the shop with David's cello and David lit up with recognition at his old friend. But the reunion was just beginning.

As he sat down to play he passed his hands lovingly across the top of the cello. Wizard that is he, Paul had also managed to fill and cover some of the recent dings on the face of the instrument. So, in a sense, the cello had restorative AND cosmetic work a cello face-lift, if you will.

The new kid sat on the stand in the corner, a bit forlorn, as David began to play his “new” old cello, And as he drew his bow across the strings, his mouth dropped open. His instrument had always been amazingly resonant - as a cello ages, the winter grains harden helping give it that complex sound we all love, however, the fact that it had a new neck mated, precisely, to it's body, made the resonance even greater. Every note was round and full with beautiful overtones. Looking around the room, everyone was wearing huge grins, the biggest being David's.

He pulled the cello away from him to look at it. There it stood, slightly small and dark with it's Germanic coloring interlaced with bumps and bruises. As I looked at it, I thought I detected the slightest amount of pleasure from it under our admiring gazes.

In the corner stood the younger, shinier, smooth-faced cello. It filled the stand with its taller body and broader shoulders. By all accounts shouldn't that be the cello most worthy of David's love? And yet, there was David stroking the (albeit) smaller shoulders of the old lady. And when she sang, we could hear the years and years of experience, of struggle, of wisdom in her voice.

And there was no contest.

Happy Valentine’s Day- Love the one you're with.

Melissa Perley

Musicians Farming Sheep: A Little Sparkle

Last evening Paul came in from a walk with the dogs saying he heard a lot of coyote commotion. I recognize that the time to worry about coyote activity is not when they are barking and howling but rather when they are silent...however, I quickly put on my barn jacket, muck boots, slapped on my headlamp and headed out to the paddock. Both Sam and Bronte charged along beside me sensing the possibility of excitement. They immediately picked up on the strange sounds and smells and raced off into the darkness barking, leaving me to finish crunching along the path to the barn alone.

I swung open the door and flipped on the light. Mrs. Chubbers lifted her head at the creak of the door and came lumbering in to greet me. For the past few weeks I have had to sneak some Meloxicam into a handful of grain as she was suffering from a bit of a limp. It took all of one day for her to recognize that when I appeared there was grain to be had. Although she is properly healed, I’m the one having trouble breaking this evening habit. It is the expectant head lift and the charge in to see me. My brain knows that it really isn’t me, but the golden handful of grain, that lures her in - but how can I resist such adoration? I’ve had teenagers: even false adoration is better than none.

I fluff up some bedding with my fork, check that the heater is keeping the water from freezing and make sure that the feeder has hay in it for the cold night ahead. Then I head out into the paddock to check fencing, looking to be sure that the coyotes don’t have enough snow-pack to make a ski jump into the paddock. As I walk, the ladies all watch me. I had no idea that sheep were such curious creatures. Mrs. Chubbers clomps over and follows me out into the snow. A few other ewes wander out after us.

This time of night is wonderful; the straw in the barn smells sweet and warm although the air is cold enough that I can see my breath. I tilt my head back and look up at the stars. The sheep are quiet beside me and there is a deep peace.

Suddenly Beulah begins hopping quickly across the paddock. Sheep don’t really run, but hop on those impossibly skimpy stick legs of theirs. Many times I have put hay into their feeder and one of them will do a happy hop and prance to the food. But tonight as Beulah began to dance across the paddock, everybody seemed to want in on the game. She would stomp, stomp, stomp and then suddenly stop, arch her neck and freeze in place. Charlotte picked things up and began racing in nutty circles. Ethel did her own hip hop next to Charlotte then they looked at each other and did a gentle head butt. Beulah started again and it was on. Anne chased her in her own, odd, stiff legged way. Mrs. Chubbers and I stood quietly watching the sheep show. I wondered if she might join in but, as matriarch of the flock, she seemed to watch the rest with a look of bemused tolerance, the same way we humans watch toddlers play.

Standing there, I felt a combination of delight and privilege. During the day they mull around calmly chewing their cud- but tonight a veil had somehow been lifted and it seemed that they had forgotten that I, a different species from them, was there. Or, maybe even better, they didn’t mind.

I laughed out loud as they charged around packing down the snow with their game. Sam appeared at the fence and his tail began wagging as we watched their silliness.

I knew that, in the morning light, the flock I know would be there: standing calmly, contemplatively chewing and watching me work. But tonight, for a moment, the world within this paddock sparkled, and it was enough.

Welcome/Unwelcome Visitor

I stand at the coat rack in a state of indecision, staring out the window trying to decide what level of cold protection I will need as I head out to feed sheep. Tuesday I donned multiple layers to include a wool hat and fingerless gloves. Thursday required raincoat and mud boots and I felt hot heaving hay. Today we seem to be somewhere in between...it is January, the month of discontent. Recital month.

As we step gingerly into recital week, I notice a stranger in the corner of the room during most lessons. Sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, but consistently there. This stranger is not of solid body, but neither is it a figment of our imagination. This may sound like a Dr. Seuss riddle, but I assure you it is not. We know this stranger as Fear, and while it makes its home inside us most of the time wrapped up all cozy next to Hope and Joy, as recital draws closer it always decides to come out for some air.

For months, in anticipation of performance, we have been working on focus. Training our brain to zero in on the music in front of us, letting the music take over, paying as much attention to the mental as to the physical art of performance.

In questioning players young and old, about how they “feel” about performing, there is not one student who doesn’t include in their sentence a word that, in some way, describes flat-out fear. I know what they want; they want me to give them a golden ticket to a one way trip out of Terrorville. Instead, I’m asking everyone to look at their anxiety, understandable as it may be, in a different way.

For optimum performance in anything, we need some of the adrenaline that fear generates. What we want to do is learn to recognize the sensations we are feeling, name them, then bend those feelings from negative to positive, to milk the joy-juice out of them. So, instead of not acknowledging that dark stranger standing in the corner of the room, even as your hand shakes so hard that your bow does an unpremeditated impression of spiccato, turn your head right and say “Hello Fear, welcome. I see that you are here and I know that not everything you bring is negative. So take a good look around, grab a snack, but then you must leave. Your time here is short.”

I’m tired recital week, so I might have leaned on a bit more caffeine than normal. I decided to switch up metaphors just to keep me sharp. Friday I sat with Luke, my almost painfully sweet, sixth grade student. Toward the end of the lesson I sat back, looked him in the eye and said “How do you feel when you play in the recital?” Luke paused, looked down and said “Kind of scared.” I leaned forward and talked about the fact that it was normal to feel that way but that, amazingly, he had all the power necessary to help with that. Caffeine buzzing through my veins, I told him that we needed to allow Fear into our car. It could come in but it must take a seat in the back. We can then look in the rear view mirror, see Fear and say “Fear, welcome. I see you. You can come along for the ride, but you must stay in the back seat. You are not allowed to drive. In fact you cannot even fiddle with the radio.”

Luke looked at me, somber, with what I proudly took as a look of awe and inspiration, then quietly spoke, “Why does he have to be in the back seat?”

Nonplussed, I replied, “Because we don’t want fear right up next to us, right?”

“I guess. But why can’t he drive the car, does he not know how to drive?”

Now I am feeling fearful.

“Well yes, but we don’t want him to drive, WE want to drive our own car.” Weak smile.

“You know I can’t drive yet, right?”

I think he can.

Melissa Perley

Mini Me's

At the book-signing a mom approaches me with her daughter who looks to be about four. She has purchased my book, “The Violin Family”and her daughter, Saskia, is carrying it to the table for me to sign. I ask her name and we chat about her brother, who plays the viola. She is animated in that sparkly way that only a four year old can be. When there is a pause in the conversation I know the perfect filler, “Frozen II.” I ask her if she has seen it and she fixes a gaze on me that says “duh” without words. We talk about Ana vs Elsa, she corrects me about which character actually wears the side-braid, then off they go.

A few days later I'm headed to Waits River school where I have been invited to read and bring instruments for grades K-5 at the school where my friend, Tom, teaches music. Paul has kindly agreed to make the trip with me: I have plied him with an offer of stopping at a well known truck stop for pie on the way home. I need him to help the young readers try their choice of some violin-family instruments in a variety of sizes (we aim to please), I need his support as I make this first trip to a school to read my book and frankly, I need him to sherpa.

We make our way into the school library and I'm struck by the wonderful, familiar smell of schools; hot lunch somehow always cooking and books, blessed books. In the library it feels a bit like Lilliput as we dwarf the small tables and chairs. I toss my winter coat over a chair, completely covering it.

The first group of kids come in and plop on the floor in front of where I'm stationed. I'm going to begin by playing some cello and have instrument in hand, so they keep moving closer until they ring around my endpin. One of the teachers gets their attention by doing some clapping that they all then mimic with their hands. A good rhythmic beginning.

I start to read and they are rapt. Every few minutes one of them asks a question or makes comment about their family and how their dog likes to eat music or how their mom bought them a guitar but their sister stepped on it...here they pause and look at the ceiling in deep thought before reporting that they are pretty sure she did it on purpose..

Life is about the journey and about the training - I have four sons to whom I spent hours reading. I speak violin, viola and can do it all in a French accent if the need arises. I talk softly when the characters are sad but can bellow with the best of them. I have been in training for this moment for years.

After reading, the students were delighted to spend some time with Luthier Paul trying instruments. Although he didn't wear his apron - Paul was completely recognizable from the book. When I introduced him as one of the characters he non nonchalantly lifted his hand to wave to the kids as they cheered but I could see a bit of color rise in his cheeks...

Students lifted violins under their chins, others laughed as they made a half-size cello talk with its lowest voice. Some of them had never seen a stringed instrument and my cello was as foreign to them as if I had walked in with a wolf on a leash. The experience was everything I had hoped for; an introduction and brief education in strings.

I stood with my cello in a receiving line of sorts as the students lined up to walk out the door. They alternately high-fived me and/or patted my instrument. As one young reader passed he stopped, tipped his head back to look right in my eyes and said “Oh, I wish you could bring that cello to my home.” Then smiled and got back into his line headed for hot lunch.

A week later I was at the pre-school of the little girl with whom I had chatted at the book signing. When I walked in, my arms full instruments, I got an excited greeting from even smaller children with even tinier chairs. I played a little Mozart (Twinkle) for them and they sang along. I'm not sure when I have been much happier than this; having my cello in my hands, sitting next to a terrarium with a box turtle in it, surrounded by children who understand music with their hearts and are not afraid to sing aloud.

However, I did become just a tiny bit happier when Soskia came over to me, put her little hand on my cello and whispered into my ear that, above all, she had noticed and liked that I had worn my hair in an Elsa braid.

Score.

Melissa Perley

Gifts

I climb out of my Honda Civic into the cold December morning: I pull my cello case from the back seat and begin stringing myself with accessories. I take pride in my sherpa-skills: if I can't take everything in one trip, I have failed. The straps from two portable stand bags go over my head, two large, square scarfs. The cello case strap gets lifted onto my right shoulder leaving my right hand free for my folding cello bench. This leaves my left hand to do pretty much everything else; close the trunk, lock the car, then, finally, pick up my music bag, which weighs approximate 300 pounds because I tend to leave all the music that I have ever used in it.

I hobble across the parking lot, pride spread across my sherpa-face, where I’m met by David, waving at me with big black winter gloves on. I wave back, (silently laughing at his mortal need for winter gloves). We are at his work place for the second annual two cello holiday playing.

Last year David decided it would be nice to play some holiday pieces for his work mates. When he told me about his plans at his lesson I asked him if he was excited to play for them all. “Yeah...” then silence. Not exactly the Huzzah I might have hoped for. I looked over at him, paused, then asked “Would you like to play duets at your work?” He grinned. Enough said.

We head into the elevator and climb to the second floor. We are going to play while his co-workers share a holiday potluck lunch. We are squeezed in between the Queso dip and the Yankee swap.

As we enter the room everybody turns to stare. I'm used to that reaction - with my large dark green cello case slung over my shoulder, various bags and cases dangling from my neck, I look like a bizarre wind-up musical Santa Claus.

We set up our stands next to the dessert table and get ready to play. David seems slightly disconcerted by the constant stream of conversation over lunch. We tune as someone yells out suggestions for a friend to add ice cream to the dessert she has brought. I welcome him to the world of wedding/cocktail party playing: no wedding event is complete without someone spilling a drink on your shoulder as they peruse your music.

Once set up, we begin playing our holiday pieces. David has chosen his parts, in some he is playing the melody and in others he takes the low line. I can hear his nervousness in the bow doing a bit of bouncing off the strings at first. However as we move into the music he settles in and begins using the focus techniques we have worked on in his lessons.

As we near the end of the short program, we suggest everyone sing along to “Joy to the World.” People smile, nervously laugh, then sit silently. They are really happy to see and hear this David that they don't know - cellist David - but not quite happy enough to lift their voices. Besides, why sing when you can be eating Queso and ice cream?

I had suggested we finish with “Silent Night”- I asked David to take the first verse as a solo. He did and when he finished there was loud clapping, cheering and hooting from his friends.

What is important about all of this is two-fold; David has studied with me for about five years. During that time we have worked a lot on a certain set of skills. He struggles, mightily, with performance anxiety. However, David is diligent and dedicated to focusing on this and, at my suggestion, takes himself out of his comfort zone as much as possible. Success in performance is, therefore, a very big deal. David took his cello out of the room and I followed. Once we were clear of the visual field of the people in the room, I gave him a big, high five accompanied by my happy jig. [My kids know the ultimate positive reinforcement is when my feet leave the ground.] David grinned broadly, letting go of the containment of his joy.

The second fold in the two-fold is that the day before the holiday playing David had come to his lesson, opened his case to find the pegbox of his cello crushed. On the way into work he had stood the case up next to the car and as he turned around to get something, a strong gust of wind sent the case over hard, “like a gunshot,” was the description he gave of the sound. The case seemed ok so he assumed the cello was as well. Imagine his shock to open the case and find his beloved broken. I called Paul into the room and he quietly looked the instrument over. Unfortunately the only repair possible is to replace the neck of the 100 year old cello. I almost couldn't meet David's eyes because I knew how upset he was.

Once he could breathe, we loaned him an instrument until his is repaired. Later, as I cut vegetables up for dinner, I imagined the long ride home for him; not only the despair about his cello, but, in the short term, he was now facing playing the holiday gig with an instrument that was completely new to him.

Double whammy- indeed.

For me, the gifts of the holiday season rarely come wrapped. David's gift yesterday was success in something that is part of who he is. His friends’/colleagues’ gift was the music David gave them and his willingness to expose a deeper part of himself to them. My gift was seeing the work that David and I do together give back to him.

Being mindful offers us an opportunity to both give and receive gifts every day of the year. Instead of looking under the tree this holiday season, perhaps we might look around it instead.

Happy Holidays.

Peace,

Melissa Perley

Musicians Farming Sheep: 6 Months.

I finished stuffing hay into the feeders on each side of the barn and stepped into the paddock as the sheep dodged me to get to their food. I watched them tug tufts of hay out of the panels and turn to look at me, hay spilling out of each side of their mouths as they chewed. Their heads always slightly cocked to the side, quizzical, as if to say “what’s next?”

I stood in the November darkness, the sky an inky dark blue, and thought about how far we've come since I last wrote. The sheep arrived in early July and our border collies hustled them down to their new home. We spent the majority of the summer wrestling electronet, either laying it out or winding it up. We began rotational grazing which meant that every three days the sheep moved to greener fields. Monday and Thursday mornings found Paul, myself and at least one of our dogs in motion. A good morning meant about an hour take down and set up, minerals filled and water trough cleaned, moved and refilled. Once off a paddock, the goal was that the sheep would not return there for as long as possible. Ideally we would put the sheep into a paddock only once per summer grazing period.

My favorite part of rotational grazing was watching the sheep move to the new field. The moment we walked onto the pasture they knew what was coming. They would charge to the corner of the fence and wait, impatiently, for the time when we would open it and lead them to the new paddock. Often, as I would stand with the gate open for them to run through, they would add an extra kick in the air for good measure, to let me know how happy I had made them. It worked, those happy sheep-dances made my day.

Things went well. Fence stood, stayed hot and the sheep grazed. Small goofs; Paul left one gate open a few times, the sheep detectorists figured that out quickly and raced up the hill. Running sheep are quite an amazing thing. Our sheep are rather like small cows so to see one running, at full speed, is surprising. I would send a dog up after them and soon they would come trotting back down the road in a line, a bit of a chagrined look on their faces, a quite satisfied look on the dog’s face behind them.

One evening I stood in the lower field and watched a coyote watch me from the edge of the woods. Small and wiry he eyed me before skulking in the cover of the low bushes. The sheep knew he was there and the coyote knew where the sheep were, but they lived together in a quiet truce for the summer. Often we would hear coyotes calling in the warm summer evenings. Ever maternal, I would race to the door, snap on my head lamp and charge down to the lower fields, a border collie, or two racing after me to see what the excitement was all about. My headlamp would catch the eerie glowing eyes of the sheep, huddled, seemingly carefree, under cover, ruminating on why I was there. I’d walk the entire perimeter of their paddock to be sure the fence was standing tall without a breech. My headlamp a beacon for pesky summer mosquitoes who seemed to be the only carnivores around that evening.

Five weeks in I noticed Beulah separating from the flock. She seemed unhappy but when I walked toward her she bolted for her friends making me think she was just being Beulah. However, when I went down later in the day she was tucked under some bushes far away from the munching herd. I went closer and noticed a wet spot on the fleece on her back. I touched it and it smelled like ammonia. I remembered that I had read about fly strike in the horrid-sheep-things section of my well worn books and raced up the hill to talk with our vet. When I read about horrid-sheep-things, fly strike struck fear in my very core. I knew we would need to deal with the messy and mucky but I prayed that we never, ever, ever had to deal with fly strike. And yet...we did.

Think the show “Stranger Things” on steroids.

Our plan for that afternoon was to spend a lovely day walking on the shore of Lake Champlain and maybe stop in for some Indian food for dinner.. I remembered that as I pulled on my rubber gloves to assist our vet. It took the vet, Paul, Josh and I to wrangle an understandably unhappy Beulah and shave her back to expose the maggots that were snacking on her.

I had bought every sheep thing on my sheep list in prep for what might go wrong. The one thing I did not have..clippers. The one thing we needed for fly strike?...clippers. So our vet arrives, with clippers, and we get to work. You know it is bad when your vet gags and says how disgusting this is. However, in the middle of it all, she did tell me that if I hadn’t noticed it quickly, Beulah would probably not have survived. She had a fever of 106. But she did survive and so did we.

We now have clippers.

We spent the fall building a barn and setting up their winter paddock. In Vermont, when you begin the month of September, you know you are racing the clock. We could feel the wind shift in early October and I told Paul we had better hurry with the barn.

We dismantled the perimeter electronet the last week of October in a cold, driving rain. The sheep standing, heads tilted, watching us wrestle the net into bundles and toss them into our wagon.

Late October the dogs walked the sheep back up the road to their winter digs. Two days before our first snow.

Saturday I lost my herding mentor and close friend, Stephen Wetmore. He and I had several years together working dogs in the beautiful fields of his farm. Laughing together over mistakes and cheering over successes. He visited the raising of our small barn and offered advice on sheep.

I walked out toward the barn early Saturday morning after learning of Steve’s death and stopped in the cold, November sunshine. I stood quietly and spent some time with him in the fields of my mind. I wondered what I would do now.. after a few moments I knew what he would say, “Melissa, go and feed your sheep.”

And so I did.

Melissa Perley

Luthier

One afternoon I was standing at the window watching the leaves swirl to the ground in the fall wind. There is something hypnotic about it and I stood still, just watching, for a long time. The bird songs have fallen silent, the only sound the rustling of the leaves skittering across the dirt road and the periodic groan from a tree as if it were tired and sad about the loss. So begins stick season.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice Paul step out of the cello shop to shake wood shavings from a dark green towel. I watch him, task finished, pause and breathe in the surroundings. He is wearing the leather apron that I gave him last holiday season. I know, without looking, that the pockets are stuffed with bits of paper towels, an isolated mute or two, and a rubber stop, always a rubber stop; the small black piece of rubber that fits tightly onto the very sharp tip of the end pin of a cello. Paul’s apron pocket is the perfect place to save a customer’s rubber stop while working on their instrument. Paul’s apron seems to be the perfect place to collect rubber stops, steal being too strong a word.

He looks like a luthier: leather apron, ratty old towel from the top of a work bench in hand and hair rumpled from concentration (and lack of caring). More than one person has likened him to Geppetto.

If I am lucky, and stealthy enough to quietly go into the cello shop while he is focused on a complex repair of an instrument, I note how similar to a surgical suite the room feels. Lying on a special bed designed to protect it, the instrument being repaired is laid open, it’s top off revealing unvarnished wood making it appear naked and vulnerable. If an instrument has a heart - it is here. Paul works quietly with unbroken focus. No sound in the shop, this musician does not listen to music while working. There is reverence in this space.

The owner of the instrument is not present for these repairs. Like a caring parent, they leave the patient in the hands of the string doctor. It is jarring, frightening even, to hear Paul remove the top of a larger instrument. Although deliberately held in place only with hide glue, a good fitting top does not want to come off and does so only after a loud, distressed bang announces its displeasure. No parent wants to hear that sound.

A good luthier respects the owner of an instrument. Paul stands quietly behind his bench, arms gently folded, listening to an owner tell him what they “feel” when they are playing. He doesn’t correct their language or feel the need to expose expertise, he just listens until they are finished. He understands that the connection between player and instrument is real and important. When a long-standing customer arrives with their cello, Paul greets player and instrument like old and treasured friends, which they both are.

To a luthier, the battle scars on an instrument are as identifiable as a mole on a human being. Often Paul will speak of the instrument in terms of it’s uniqueness; “that is the cello with the broken rib” or “remember that violin that had the poorly repaired sound post patch?”

Either waiting for a repair or looking for a new home, the forty-odd instruments in our shop matter to their luthier. He leans a cello carefully into its stand for the night, takes a small cloth and gently rubs it’s upper-bout then turns to take a final look round the room before shutting off the lights.

Cold winter nights find me schlepping buckets of water to my flock. Paul’s footsteps crunch along behind me, bringing water to the humidifiers that protect his.

To a musician, our luthier is as important to us as our doctor. Paul is the only luthier I would allow to work on my cello and if this sounds like an open love letter to my luthier - it is.

Melissa Perley

Focus

Coming in from a walk with the dogs I notice that, while typing this, my fingers are stiff and cold. The other night, standing outside looking at the crescent moon, I could see my breath. These are all signs that are pointing in one direction and that direction is not toward warmth.

The studio door is open for the early afternoon lessons. Each lesson offers the added bonus of being able to watch the colored leaves drift lazily past. Sam, ever faithful, is outside but parked up against the studio door. It used to be that he would nap under the picnic table, periodically opening one eye to give the impression of being on duty. Now that he is ten, the pretense is over; he has graduated to a full-on quilted dog bed where he sprawls out in the afternoon sun, unapologetic, eyes firmly closed. I like to think he is enjoying the music as he dozes.

As the fall teaching season begins I think carefully about each student. Where they are in this process, what their strengths are and, of course, what we need to work on. What seems to be the common thread this year is work on focusing. Strengthening the muscles that help us to full immerse ourselves in the music in front of us.

One afternoon Meg was playing in her lesson and Jen came in carrying her cello. Their lessons are back to back so, this can happen fairly frequently. This day Meg was playing something particularly challenging for her and the moment that Jen crossed the threshold I saw an immediate and very obvious shift in her focus. She stumbled in her playing and I watched her eyes break from the music. Once that happens there is a snowball effect as the brain scrambles to regain focus.

Learning to focus on anything that we are doing takes the same amount of effort, practice and patience as learning the notes in our music. Focus is a muscle that needs regular work-outs to become stronger.

I’ve always been a proponent of breaking practice time into pieces with the goal being obtaining the most efficient practice possible. Unfortunately we are human and being human means that our tendency is to do the things that make us feel the best. Feeding that ever-hungry ego. In reality the better way to spend our precious practice time is to work on the very things that make us feel the worst and save repeatedly playing the entire piece for a few times between lessons.

I’ve asked my students to add a focus component to their practice. What this means is that they are to play their repertoire piece straight through without breaking concentration - one time. One might think that the break in concentration comes from an outside source, pet dog barking, someone coughing, lightening striking the house...but no: in reality the biggest demon is the one sitting on your shoulder (they like my left shoulder) and that demon is of our own creation. We begin playing and the nasty voice starts, “ooh- flat note” or “uh-oh,..wrong rhythm” or, simply “nope, nope, nope.” And that voice is louder than any dog barking. What I am asking is that during practice we learn to shut that voice down- even for just one piece per practice.

We are following that same trail in lessons. I ask that the first time we play the repertoire piece that it be played through with the sole intent of focusing. When we began this exercise at the end of the summer, I literally saw some trembling going on...asking people to let wrong notes go is akin to asking them to play in a lions den, naked. So now I, literally, take their hand, look them dead in the eye, cross my heart and promise that we will go through the piece again and will, as the next step, address what we felt needed addressing...including the most dreaded of all: out-of-tune notes.

I’m seeing everyone getting stronger. Focus is, after all, a life lesson. It is about truly being in the place where you sit. When you are immersed in the music in front of you everything else disappears. The demon on your shoulder is replaced by Chopin, Beethoven or Shostakovitch whispering the secrets to telling their tales.

David wants to work on performance skills. Of course, at the heart of this lies learning to focus. So last week he began his Frank Bridge piece with jaw set and a determined look on his face. As he played I had arranged for Paul to walk into the lesson...no response. As he continued on, eyes unwavering, I kicked over my water bottle...no reaction. I could see that, although focused, he was relaxing into the music, being fully present in his playing. As he finished the piece, I dropped a pile of music onto the floor with a bang…nothing…

...But a big smile.

Melissa Perley

The Violin Family

In Vermont the seasons can change in the period of twenty four hours. When we left for Los Angeles it was summer, the sun was high, it was humid and everything was lush. We returned and autumn had fallen. There is just something about the angle of the light that is different, as if a scrim has been placed in front of the sun.

And so the slower, easy pace of the dog days is replaced with the hurriedness of fall. The stone wall that runs the length of our property becomes a thru way for chipmunks and squirrels with mouths stuffed full of nuts, freezing only briefly to stare and twitch their whiskers at the dogs. Their pace seems to set ours as we begin to stuff our arms full of firewood, like them, anticipating things to come.

This fall there is even more preparing being done. Over the past four years I have been working on a children’s book called The Violin Family. My idea has come to fruition and now comes the harvest. Our goal is for a release date of November 1.

It was important to me to define, to myself, why I was writing the book. Like working an etude, I believe that it helped to focus me - keeping me always true to why I was doing the work. The Violin Family is about THE Violin Family of stringed instruments; violin, viola, cello and bass. This family, beyond actually being these instruments, also happens to be a fictionalized family.

When I conceptualized the story, it was important to me that children be introduced to the stringed instruments. School string music programs are fast disappearing. As a musician and teacher I feel a sense of responsibility to help keep strings visible, especially for children.

I made the family fictional because I wanted to reduce what I term the “high-browedness” commonly associated with classical music. My thought was to humanize these classical instruments, to make them more accessible, understandable.

In our shop we rent stringed instruments and Paul and I also work with a Youth orchestra, so I’m privy to conversations between parents and children about deciding on an instrument to play. I think that the stigma, the “high-browedness” - of classical music often creeps into parent’s minds. Perhaps they, too, are a little afraid of the brown instruments. Maybe the recognizable face of the clarinet or flute, the upbeat, upfront music of the band, makes things familiar. Humanizing the strings in the book is my attempt to make them more familiar, aka more comfortable. Perhaps if you fictionalize the stringed instruments they are like you, no longer “above” you. They eat pancakes, feel fear, love and embrace family.

Complexities within a musical group are like those in any community; I wanted to offer an opportunity for kids, parents and educators to explore these relationships; musical and familial. My long term goal is to write about the interplay among more instruments in the Violin Family’s world: perhaps about their neighbors, the Woodwinds?

Writing the book, finding an illustrator and then the daunting task of finding a publisher has been an enormous growth opportunity for me. I’m pretty comfortable in my regular box, I know all of it’s wrinkles and corners. Stepping into another artistic genre was intimating, but I decided to do it anyway, maybe in no small part because it was scary. In that way Violet Violin and I seem to have quite a bit in common.

And that is a fortunate strings of events … if you ask me.

Melissa Perley

The Violin Family release by Rootstock Publishing November 1, 2019.

This is a Recording

Our son, Ethan was married in Los Angeles last week. In preparation, from afar, there were many  details that would help bridge the distance between us in wedding planning. Ethan and Emily wanted Paul and I to have an integral part of the musical portion of the ceremony. Emily had chosen a piece of music to walk down the isle to and wondered if there was a way that Paul could arrange that for solo cello.  I offered to get a cello in California and play it at the wedding… it is LA after all. Ethan, wisely, reminded me how challenging it would be to play and cry simultaneously. So we all made the decision that we would record the music to be played the day of the ceremony.

Months before the wedding Paul got to work listening to the piece and, seemingly taking the notes out of the sky, put them to paper. We set about preparing to record.

The word “record” has to be right up there with the most feared words known to (string) musicians. Probably because it is synonymous with “naked.”

Recording with smart phones has become invaluable in my studio. I can record a piece for a student with the metronome on. It allows them to play along with “me” or play the second part of the duet at home. However, the biggest benefit of phone-recording comes from the players recording themselves. Often when there is a difficult passage, whether that be because of the notes or the rhythm, if the player will record herself at the very beginning of the practice week, they will definitely be motivated to know what to work on and, ultimately, improve. Oh yes, it is painful to hear yourself make mistakes or play out of tune. No matter how many times you hear your teacher make gentle suggestions, nothing says connection like hearing yourself not connect.

The value of this tool isn’t only about correction. Just today I had a student play a piece and musicality that had been evading him had suddenly shown up for the party. The practice that he had been putting in was stunningly obvious. I suggested that he make a recording of himself playing the piece. I knew that if he had the courage to do that, it would please and surprise him in a way that even my verbal acknowledgment could not. Positive reinforcement… tech-style.

I’ve done a good amount of professional recording. I’ve sat in a playback booth and enjoyed asking the engineer if he could lift that one note just a skosh.  Reverberation is right up there with the metronome as my friend. In recording the piece for the wedding we used excellent mics and equipment. I sat very still while Paul surrounded my cello with microphones and I did my best to put myself into a mental state in which none of it existed. With the equipment on, I played the piece a few times so that we could get the sound of the instrument as natural as possible in an unnatural situation. We recorded take number one which went well.  I put the cello down and donned the headphones to listen to the playback. It was rich and warm..but why didn’t I connect those final phrases?… Let’s do it again.

Next take- rich, warm, connected...but don’t you think that E seems a little flat at the end?  Again.

You get my point. Apparently recording is over only when the headphones are pried from your ears.

Sitting at the wedding I smiled through tears at our four sons standing up front. The wedding planner gave the cue and the DJ began to play my recording.

I think it was good...they tell me it was. I don’t know - it’s difficult to hear with your hands pressed against your ears.

Melissa Perley

Musicians Farming Sheep IV. Arrival

Our sheep arrived yesterday morning in the same horse trailer but separate trips. The first crew was due to arrive between 10:30-11:00. The phone rang around 11:15 and Kimberly told us that “things weren’t quite going as planned..” What wasn’t planned was that one of the sheep had decided that she didn’t really feel like ubering to our place so jumped the fence not once, not twice, but three times.

Kimberly arrived a little after noon a little sweaty. Paul and I had spent the morning running electronet on each side of the walk way from the driveway to the first paddock, their red-carpet of sorts. Kimberly opened the double doors on the back of the trailer and, after a moments hesitation, out stepped the first sheep. She was, and remains, the leader of the flock. Once she was out the others, deciding it was better to be with the devil you know than the devil you don’t, clamored out after her. There they stood, mashed together, one body, five heads.

Immediately understanding fence philosophy, they began to walk down toward the paddock. We all walked sedately behind them. Sam and Bronte pouted inside the house feeling quite put out that there were, quite obviously, sheep arriving and they weren’t allowed to have any part of it. The sheep proceeded, en mass, without hesitation directly into the first paddock. We humans all gawked at each other in disbelief because we had imagined and prepared for some wrangling. (I think Paul was a bit disappointed that there was no wrangling)

Several times during the afternoon I feigned needing to “get something from the lower shop” just to stand at the gate and watch them. They immediately found the basswood tree and hunkered underneath it out of the sun. The third trip I found the lead ewe sprawled out in the shade - way too relaxed for having just arrived and it occurred to me that I may have already killed her. But no...she was, again, napping.

Around 7pm we got a call from Bruce saying that the second set of two sheep would be arriving within the next half hour, same trailer, different sheep.

We had left the runway fence in place and waited while Bruce unhooked the latch on the double doors. These two were vocalizing up an indignant storm. The door swung open, we all stood back, and waited. Indignant, perhaps, but not stupid. So Bruce used a bit of cajoling to entice them out of the trailer. One they hit the ground they didn’t stop: leaning into one another, they cornered the lower road and zipped into the paddock.

We shut the gate feeling a little smug about how easily it had all gone while Bruce rested on his elbows and waited. Sure enough, after a few minutes the playground got ugly. The newbies are yearlings and a bit smaller than the first five thugs. Apparently, in sheep world, pecking order is established by a lot of head butting. Those smaller ewes tried checking out the water trough only to be banged, bumper-car style, out of there. I stood and watched as one of the first arrival Black Mountain Welsh sheep totally betrayed her own and made a run for the little one, pretty much just for the fun of it. Interestingly, the matriarch/monarch paid no attention and contentedly kept chewing, apparently ruminating on what was going on around her.

As a mother of four sons, I understood this behavior better than as well as most. One of my sons broke a pool cue over the other’s back once...I got this. But something about those little ewes running around trying to evade another whack while furiously and futiley calling for help...got me. I tried clapping, using my best mother-corrector voice, and banging the gate. To no avail. Bruce explained that it was normal, this is how sheep figure things out, it would be better by tomorrow. “If they survive it,” I thought. He smiled, piled into his truck, waved and was gone.

Paul and I stood there in his dust, listening to the bellowing below us and were incredulous that anyone would leave sheep with us. It reminded me of leaving the hospital with my first son, standing next to the car as the nurse handed him to me to put into the car seat. “Are there instructions?” I asked. She laughed, and spun the wheelchair around fast and was gone.

Darkness finally brought silence.

At first light I was down the hill in my pajamas to see if they had lived through the night. I stood at the gate and counted six sheep. Wait...six sheep...until from around the corner, on the other side of the fence came number seven. The Dorset newbie. For a second my mind wouldn’t grasp that she was on the outside of the fence. The outside. I quickly walked the fence line looking for a gaping hole or something, but no, electricity pulsed normally and the fence was intact. Either one of the thugs had thrown her over or she had leaped. I wasn’t upset, I really couldn’t blame her. I walked over to the fence and lifted it up from the bottom: we locked eyes as she decided in or out. Finally she trotted in as if to say “my decision” and joined the, amazingly unified, flock.

I ran down today between lessons to find the group splayed out in the shade snoring lightly. I noticed that the newbies were tucked into the center of them all. I tiptoed away from the gate, started back up the hill and stopped to look back at them. The smell of farm carried past me on the summer breeze.

I realized that our life remains the same and yet is totally different. Exactly the way we wanted it.

Melissa Perley