Humans in St Leonards

Tony Soccio – violin player to the people of St Leonards  

“I took up playing the violin about five years ago. I have been playing the guitar since I was a teenager and about 15 years ago I started playing the mandolin and really liked playing bluegrass music and used to go to bluegrass festivals and was in a bluegrass band for a while.

I always liked the violin but it is a very hard instrument to play and I was too lazy to seriously have a crack at it. About five years ago I decided to take it up much to the dismay of my partner who describes the first six months as ‘torture’. The mandolin and violin are tuned the same and fingering is identical but the violin has no frets so it is much more difficult to play as your fingers have to land on the exact spot to play the notes and at the same time you have to try and getting the bowing right.

When I see really good players one can only appreciate how many thousands of hours they have put into it.

What I really like about the violin is how it lives in all genres of music all around the world. Since starting playing I have become interested in classical music and I watch the violinists in symphony orchestras and every one of them is an amazing violinist.

Friends gave me a gift of six violin lessons for my 60th birthday. I can’t read music so I learn tunes on YouTube where they have great lesson on almost any tune you want to learn. I could transfer lots of tunes that I knew from the mandolin to the violin. You have to play a tune over and over till it gets into your brain and creates muscle memory. It normally takes me about two weeks to learn a new tune. When you start you say to yourself ‘there is no way I will get this’ but after much repetition it comes together. 

When I first started busking I was really nervous but over time I am learning to relax. I like to busk because it makes you a better player and forces you out of your comfort zone, I like have a chat with people and it pays for lunch”.

Thanks Tony!