Keeping my my skills

A skill is a thing someone can do. Some people can talk. Some can dance. These are skills, things that are learned. Like knitting. Or writing. Or singing. Skills are a subset of human capital. Actually each of these is a cluster of skills. For example to be a skilled tennis player you have to be able to run, hit a ball, think, be physically fit, etc. Each of these abilities is a cluster of other skills and so one and so on. Skills are based on talents or abilities which ate things you are you born with.

Anyway, one of the skills I have learned is to play the viola. A viola is a musical instrument, a member of the violin family. It's bigger than a violin and sounds five notes lower. It has a more mellow and subdued tone which I really love.

I learned to play the viola when I was young. First I learned to play the violin and switched to the viola in 8th grade. I can play well enough to add enjoyment to my life. I can play in tune most of the time, have good relative pitch, an excellent musical memory, and reasonably good coordination so I can put my fingers in the right places and operate a bow reasonably well. Nothing fancy or fast or virtuosic.I could never (even if I wanted to) make a living off of my playing but I might have been good enough if I had worked at it when I was very young.

My greatest enjoyment is in playing string quartets. One of the instruments in a string quartet is a viola, along with two violins and a cello.

Well for a number of reasons I stopped working on my viola a couple of years ago and have played virtually not at all, since. I've been listening to some great string quartets lately and have decided that if I want to be able to play that music, I have to work on my skills or I will lose them.

The things I have lost are the pads on the ends of my fingers. I have to build them up so I can play without the ends of my fingers getting sore. That's the first thing for me. I've worked on it two days in a row now. I could tell the difference from the first to the second. Now I just hope that I don't weanie out.

Yes, skills can be learned. And they can be lost. Playing the viola is a skill that helps me in my life. I don't want to lose it.