016: Violin resolutions we’ve made, kept, and broken

Stand Partners for Life

Happy New Year and new season of Stand Partners for Life! In this episode, we take a look back at resolutions we've made about our playing... and not all of them stuck! From scale practice to solo Bach, counting rests to keeping a practice journal, each of us had critical moments in our violin past where we made fateful decisions. Which ones made a lasting impact? Transcript Nathan Cole: Hello and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. I am Nathan Cole. Akiko Tarumoto: I am Akiko Tarumoto. Nathan Cole: Well, since this is the new year, happy new year and happy second season of Stand Partners for Life! We released our first 15 episodes last year and had a blast doing it, and kind of took a long summer break that extended into the holidays. Now we're ready to get going again, so this is the perfect day to get back into the spirit of podcasting. Akiko Tarumoto: Yes, get back into the swing of thinking about music. Nathan Cole: Tomorrow we actually go back to work after our holiday break, that being the LA Philharmonic. Actually if you were with us last season, you'll know that we spend our days and many of our nights with the LA Phil at Disney Hall here in Los Angeles. If you're joining us, this is what we call "The secrets of the symphony from two violinists who live together, play together and work together", because we are married with three young kids here in the house, who should all be sleeping. Although, I sort of hear that they're not. Akiko Tarumoto: It might be our neighbors. Nathan Cole: Are they out reveling? Akiko Tarumoto: Yeah, I think it makes more sense that kids would be up acting rowdy because they're not even four. In the case of the neighbors, they don't have that excuse, because I think that guy's in his 20s. Nathan Cole: They do have a hot tub. Akiko Tarumoto: They do, well yeah or something, a trampoline. Nathan Cole: We give you an inside look at the symphony and the life of, well, the life with the violin. In that spirit we're not going to give you a whole bunch of new year's resolutions exactly. My idea anyway was that we'd talk today about some playing resolutions, practicing resolutions that we'd made over the course of our lives and see what stuck and what didn't. I did want to … Akiko Tarumoto: What stuck and what stunk. Nathan Cole: Okay, that's good, that's better. I wanted to thank each and every one of you for listening and especially those of you who have gone and left us a rating or a review on iTunes. It's the best way for us to get found and hopefully enjoyed by other listeners like you. If you have a moment and can go to standpartnersforlife.com, you'll see how you can visit iTunes and just take those 60 seconds to leave us a review. I read all of them. I don't think you read any of them, right? Akiko Tarumoto: No, I can't handle the truth. Nathan Cole: Well what I was going to say is that so many of the reviews, I've told you this a couple times, but they really feel like people go out of their way to mention that really enjoy the commentary. Especially Akiko's! What they'll say is, "I especially like hearing what Akiko has to say." I try not to take that personally. Akiko Tarumoto: Well I get to be the person who sort of riffs off of you, I think you're the straight man, so it's not entirely fair probably. Nathan Cole: I think people trust you, they know you speak the truth. Akiko Tarumoto: Well thank you, I appreciate it. Nathan Cole: We read them all. Well anyway, I read all of them and I pass them along to Akiko. Akiko Tarumoto: He doesn't pass on the bad stuff. Nathan Cole: Here we are, we've got our resolutions. I just remembered -- I said I wasn't going to do this, but I think one of my only resolutions I thought of for the new year as far as music is to play our kids more concerts.