“A young violinist goes to see Itzhak Perlman. He plays his violin for Perlman and asks if he has the talent to be a great violinist. Perlman tells him to give up the violin.
Years later, the young man, now an accountant, runs into Perlman again and asks, ‘How did you know I didn’t have the talent?’
Perlman says, ‘That’s what I tell everyone. If you’d truly wanted to play the violin, you wouldn’t have listened to me.'”
– Posted by Violinist123 on this thread on Violinmasterclass.com
Lovely anecdote – might try that on my 8 year old pupils…
Thanks for stopping by, Dury! I really liked this quote; it drives home the point of how passionate one needs to be to overcome obstacles. Hope it works for your students! 🙂