First Trip to the Violin Shop
A family read-aloud story
I have always loved writing, especially for those I love. When I was in graduate school for music, I used to write short stories for my little siblings and send them back home to them. Many were about the adventures of their older brothers in the country, but the start of our shared interest in music was also a feature. I thought I would post this one about our first of many family visits to the violin shop. Enjoy!
Drew could not believe it was actually happening. They were on their way to get. . . a violin! He looked out the car window and thought back to the first time he had been inspired to play the violin. It had been at the library: two rows of little violinists playing happy songs; some fast, some slow; following their teacher.
He had loved the sound they made and loved that they made it together; each doing their part, even the shortest boy on the end. He had seen a happy sort of pride in their eyes as they took a bow after each song. They were so cool!
“I want to do that,” Drew had said, and Mom had answered, “Well then, you will have to pray hard that we find a teacher, because I don’t know anything about the violin.” He had prayed every night before he slept for over a year. And God had answered!
Mom had found a teacher, just a few miles away. Mom had talked with her on the phone and said she sounded like a sweet lady. She could teach very young violinists just like the ones at the library!
The teacher had told Mom about The Loft Violin Shop, the place they were on their way to now. The Loft would measure Drew for the right size violin and set the family up with everything they would need for their first lesson.
Alex was daydreaming about other things in the car, but he was going to get a violin just like Drew. He actually wanted to play the flute, but Mom had said that flutes did not come in small sizes, and his fingers were too small. Alex guessed a violin would have to do for now.
Alex would not realize until he was older that Mom had given up her violin rental so he could play. She was going to take lessons with Drew so that she could help him. But then Alex had piped up while they were sitting around the corn burner and said, “I want a violin, too.”
“Are you sure?” Mom had asked twice, and he had said, “Yup,” both times. Any idea of Drew’s sounded good to him. Matthew seemed to know what they were talking about and said, “Ehhh!” (“Me too!”) Two years old was too young to play violin, but not too young to ask.
They pulled into a small parking lot shared by the violin shop and a candy shop next door. The boys were so excited about their violins they did not even ask to go into the candy shop! They walked down a short sidewalk up to a brick building with a wood plaque shaped like a violin that had the carved words, The Loft Violin Shop.
Up four cement stairs, through a glass door, then through the main door. Neither boy said a word. They were part shy, part amazed. They stomped off their boots on the mat, since there was an inch or two of snow outside. They waited for just a minute as the two men working in the violin shop helped other customers.
Drew and Alex wandered around the shop, looking at different accessories for violins. They did not know what any of them were for, but they looked important and musical. There was a beautiful wooden music stand for $200. Wow, that’s a lot of money, they thought.
Drew’s and Alex’s eyes kept going back to all the violins hanging behind the counter where the men were helping people. There were large wooden cases on the wall with glass doors. In them the boys could see violins of every size and shade imaginable, hanging from their heads (what the boys would soon learn were called “scrolls”).
Some of the violins were yellow, some orange, some red. Some light brown, some dark brown, and in sizes from big down to teeny. The boys each wondered which size would be right for them.
The men helping people find violins wore green aprons and had their sleeves rolled up. One was quiet, speaking just loud enough to be heard whenever he needed to say something. The other was a little louder and very cheerful. Both seemed kind and laid back in their own ways.
“What can I do for you?” said the quieter man.
“We need violins for these two.”
“Not for him?” said the man, pointing to Matthew with a grin.
“Not quite yet!” Mom laughed.
The man pointed to the smallest violin on the wall and joked, “We do make them that small.” The violin looked like it could fit a doll. The man said that he agreed age four was a good time to start.
The man told Mom a few things about how violin rentals work, and Drew and Alex did not understand much of what they said—adult talk. If it was important, Mom would translate it to them later.
The man’s name was David Schlub. Dad found that out like he always did. He also asked about the history of the business and building. Mom and the boys often rolled their eyes when Dad made conversation with people, but he did always manage to learn something fascinating or important. He found out that the two men actually made violins themselves and that they were brothers. “Wow, that could be you boys someday!” Dad said.
The quieter Mr. Schlub was the older one. He had a daughter who worked there and she was training to be a luthier—a violin maker—too. She was working in the back but came out a couple of times to tell her dad something, probably about a violin she was working on in the back. She smiled at the boys and seemed kind just like her dad and her uncle.
Quiet Mr. Schlub pulled a wooden yard stick from behind the counter. He asked Drew to extend his left arm straight out, but thankfully it was not to give him the switch on his hand like in Little House on the Prairie. He laid the yard stick on his shoulder and measured from his collarbone to the middle of his hand. “An eighth for him,” he said, then measured Alex. Alex stretched out his arm like he was trying to be as big as possible, like when Mom checked their heights on the wall. “Just relax,” the man said. “One sixteenth.”
The other Mr. Schlub was free by then and got down two violins in the boys’ sizes. He also got hard black cases shaped like violins. They each got an odd-shaped sponge, a small cloth, and cake of rosin with a pink paper cover. What could all these things be for?
The man took each violin and tuned it up. He played a little song on Alex’s and they all laughed, but were also amazed that he could sound good on such a tiny violin. The boys hoped they could sound like that soon.
Drew’s and Alex’s eyes could not leave the little violins. They could not wait another minute to have them as their own. Mr. Schlub told Mom some important things, including that the Hettingas should learn more how to care for their instruments from their teacher at their first lesson.
Each boy was handed his violin in its case and shown how to carry it. They hugged the cases and paid no more attention to whatever Mom was doing at the cash register and whatever Dad was talking about with the other Mr. Schlub. They just stood there beaming.
Matthew pointed at each of his brothers from Dad’s arms, then at all the violins, then at himself. He was trying to tell them something, but as usual nobody could quite understand him.
Drew and Alex could not wait to get home to try their violins, but then Mom reminded them that they needed to wait for their teacher, Mrs. Thompson, to show them how to use them properly. “These are fragile, precious instruments,” said Mom.
“Can we at least look at them? Maybe hold them? Maybe just touch them with one finger?”
Mom smiled, happy that the boys were so excited. Just two days until their first lesson. Matthew fussed in his car seat, reminding them that they had forgotten to get his violin. Mom said, “We will be home soon, and we will make dinner, Matthew!”
Matthew looked out the window. Someday they will get it, he thought.
Note: If you or your child would like to explore violin or viola lessons, you can learn more and inquire about in-person or Zoom lessons at alexhettinga.com/study. If you live in central Ohio, you will find The Loft Violin Shop little changed since my first visit with my brothers 29 years ago. The Loft—and similarly wonderful shops in other areas—offer reasonable rent-to-own programs for student instruments where you can trade up to bigger and better-quality instruments along the way. The opportunity to study music, especially alongside family members, is one of the greatest gifts in the world.
