Come January, Anika had her first lesson with Peter Michaelsen, our new hardingfele instructor and the greater Seattle community's go to guy for Scandinavian Music. We learned first off that this instrument is hard to tune. This instrument is new and it has not been played much yet so Michael spent the first half hour of the lesson tuning it and showing Anika how to tune it. The following week I accidentally broke one of the sympathetic strings while helping her tune. Oops... She also broke her violin shoulder rest that week. So, we had some challenges in the beginning. We quickly figured out how to get new strings for this obscure instrument and got the shoulder rest fixed and life was better.
Anika was frustrated with the hardingfele in the first weeks, due to the constant issue of tuning, Momma breaking a string, etc... I think she was also frustrated in that she knew just a couple of tunes to play where she knows probably 100 other tunes on the violin. She had some technique items to figure out on the hardingfele along with understanding the different tuning. Since then, hardingfele life has improved. She's beginning to figure out all the various fingerings and double stop techniques. Peter has been a very kind and patient teacher. I've enjoyed sitting through their lessons.
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