Eliminate Excuses, Not Possibilities

“It’s hard to learn an instrument later in life, it's even harder when you've never learned an instrument before, harder still when that instrument has almost no margin for error (like the violin), and it's basically impossible when you only have one hand. However, Wafaa likes to eliminate excuses, not possibilities.” – Alex Marshall, Axis Music Academy violin instructor

Wafaa Mansour was born without a right hand, but she has never doubted her ability to accomplish things when told that she cannot. Now 24 years old, Wafaa recently came across a video on Instagram of a little girl playing the song “Despacito” on the violin and she immediately knew that she wanted to learn to play. As someone who has always loved music, especially piano, she had very little music playing experience from which to draw. So she went to Google in search of someone to help her learn the violin. That was back in December. Fast forward now to July and after eight months of violin lessons with Alex Marshall at Axis Music Academy (and a TON of practice) she has progressed much faster than the average violin student.

“I believe that music is connected with the higher spirit” Wafaa reflected in a recent interview. “I never once thought ‘I can’t do that’ when I started and at some point I expect that playing the violin will become second nature for me.” Wafaa is currently applying to medical schools after earning her Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan in Dearborn and has used her music lessons to build muscle memory and also soothe her brain. “I play to relax. I want to do something that I enjoy for myself and this is it. I found it.” she explained in a very contemplative manner.

The only limitation with having a prosthetic hand has been that she lacks the full range of movement with the bow. This will not stop her however. As she has had to do her whole life, she has learned to compensate for the lack of dexterity from her prosthetic hand and no longer sees it as limiting, just simply part of life. Wafaa names Sami Yusuf (British singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist) as her biggest musical influence and in ten years she expects herself to be in the medical field and playing the violin with a very high competency. So do we Wafaa … so do we.