File: arsenaultlouise-oh-gettingstarted_M.wav
Speakers-
LA: Louise Arsenault
KP: Curator Ken Perlman
LA: I was brought up in Mt. Carmel and my parents live in Mt. Carmel. I started playing the violin when I was 7 years old and my father also plays the violin and my mother is a piano player and I have brothers that are musicians also, they play the guitar, and my sisters they stepdance a bit, you know. And we all do a little bit of music. So we had alot of get-togethers with the music, with relatives coming over at the house. It was alot of fun.
KP: Now, can I ask what was your father's name?
LA: Allair Gallant. He's the one that taught me a lot of tunes that I know today. And I had a good ear, but he would "tune" me the tunes, like I would say, "Is it on the G chord".."Yes," and he would tell me every note, because when I was smaller it was harder for me to learn, but as long as he would make the music to my ear I would pick up the music really quick.
KP: So you would be holding the fiddle and he would sing the tunes to you?
LA: Yes, because he knew all the tunes himself so he would help me out. It all started one afternoon in the winter. It was a snowstorm. And I always wanted to take Dad's violin but he wouldn't let me, "You're gonna break it! You know, I was only seven years old, and he said, "No,no, leave it there!" So it all started then. I wanted to play so bad. I knew I could play, so I kind of stole the violin there one afternoon and I started playing, and he really heard that I could play .Anyway, so I playing with this little tune here [plays excerpt from Cock of the North]. I could play that little tune. Anyways, it was that same night I could play the St. Ann's Reel. It came right quick. Just like that, you know. Any my father couldn't get over that I could play that quick. That night we all got on the music, my mother on the piano and my father was just amazed. He couldn't believe [it]. But anyways from that day he helped me with the music, with the violin. And he went and he got me a little violin – a very small one that I could play very comfortably with. And I've been playing every since.
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