OK, first and foremost… welcome to the family! You're gonna love it here. Lots of people to help you and lots of information to assist you on your journey thru the violin. This happens to be one tune I've been working on for months now. I learned the notes in a month but I've been spending the remaining months and weeks perfecting the bow control! It's a hard tune to play well…but very rewarding when done right.

Now for the critique…

First… that tune is played slow… really slow, half speed of what you were doing there almost! When you play it slowly, you use LOOOOONG bow strokes and play multiple notes per stroke (Slurs) which help to make the romantic smooth sad sound.

Second… Great bow position on the strings! Most people wander all over the first year or so and have a hard time keeping the bow parrallel… you did a great job on the tracking and position of it. Also… loosen up a little, enjoy the tune… make love to it… feel it… vary the pressure of the bow on the strings as you change direction and this will help to hide the transition and note change.

Third… Try to work the violin to a more level or slightly elevated (peg box up attitude) position, it will help in the future when you start using vibrato to accent the tune. Position is everything, comfortable and useful.

Fourth… Don't hurry… give each note its own time… every one is important, don't just rush from one to the next… and try playing with a video of that tune off youtube. There's several out there to choose from…and play along exactly! It'll help your timing and counting immensly, it did for me. If you use Beths' video of learning SR from the Violinlab, you'll be able to work on the timing seperetly and it's easy to follow along and she does an outstanding job of allowing you to actually see the finger placement on the fingerboard as you play it along with her.

Fifth… well, there isn't a fifth… you were great! I start the tune with the open E string and then single second finger the G note on it… makes an easy transistion into the next cascade of notes on the A string. The only problem is you can't do vibrato on an open string like you can on a fingered note.

Great work on that tune…it's a semi hard one to learn and play well…