My First Violin

[Ann Rodela]

Santa brought me my first violin this Christmas.  I was completely surprised....Just kidding. ;)

On the day it arrived I had to restring it because the G string slipped out of the fine tuner.  On day 2 I broke the E string and needed to restring it.  After rubbing rosin on the bow I was surprised it was still slippery. I soon found out that I needed to scratch that rosin cake.  The first time I tuned it took about 20 minutes and I suspect it was half tuned.  I was afraid to brake the E string again since I used up my only spare.  I had it for one week and tuned my violin at least four times! This time I needed only about 5 minutes to tune my violin.  I had no idea violinists are so busy.  I suspect a violin needs to be tuned before each play since the strings loose tension. I made crunchy sounds and squeaky sounds.  Well, I am learning to play the violin and each time it gets better.  My goal is to play the violin better and learn a lot more about music theory.  I will be learning through a book that includes a cd with video and mp3 examples.

I realized that I had preconceived notions about the violin that weren't true.  I thought the instrument was too difficult to play and caused the musician agony.  I was wrong.  With the chin rest, shoulder rest the violin make the instrument an extension on the musician and I found it was designed very well. I could sit or walk and be comfortable while bowing the strings. I can say the violin is a lovely and expressive instrument.

[Ann Rodela]

You should post a photo of your sitar.  They are awesome instruments.  Have fun.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D

[Tarynn Madysyn Witten]

Very cool .... i am fussing with changing the strings on my sitar .... makes me nuts and trying to transcribe a piece for piano into a piano and violins/cello/bass. Merry xmas