Strike with the Band: The meritocratic failures of classical music
Carpel tunnel and tendonitis?  How&#x27;d she do that?<p>My career is in applied math and computing, and now I&#x27;m heading for an alpha test for my startup, but for hobbies I like both classical violin and mathematical physics.<p>For violin, for the muscles part, have two hands, one chin, one left shoulder, and one back.  There have long been plenty of pictures of great violinists -- e.g., Heifetz -- that show really clearly what positions of hands, chin, left shoulder, and back should be.  The left shoulder position is made easier by the long very popular shoulder rests that attach under the violin a little behind the bridge.<p>I got through some plenty serious music, e.g., about half of the Bach <i>Chaconne</i> with no problems with injuries.<p>I played violin because I like it:  I don&#x27;t have a good singing voice so can use violin, e.g., with some of Bach&#x27;s music, to scream out to the heavens the passion of the human spirit!  In this way, violin is great fun!<p>But it was always totally clear to me that there was no money in classical music for me and very little for 99.99% of everyone else in music.  E.g., I did clearly understand that all the people who could have a good career as a classical solo violinist could meet in large SUV -- literally true.  E.g., there was a report that each year there are in all the world only about 50 solo violin performances with major orchestras.<p>But also gotta mention, there are not many people, only a small fraction even in that SUV, who can play the music as well as Heifetz.  Each year some young violinists come on the scene with a big entrance, but too soon it&#x27;s clear that for world class performances of the major pieces they need more time in master classes, a practice room, and most of all thinking about the <i>artistic expression</i> of the pieces. E.g., the last few bars of the central D-major section of the Bach <i>Chaconne</i> are the climax of the piece, and that needs to be brought out clearly to the audience but is rarely done effectively. Net, it appears that there is some room at the top for solo violinists.<p>Also a violin doesn&#x27;t have to be wildly expensive:  Mine cost $600 and is plenty good enough.  My understanding is that the violin makers have made amazing progress in recent decades and routinely make violins as good as the best ever.