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Figured I'd say hi since this is the best site that I've found for me! I am 30 yrs old and am starting to learn the violin! I grew up playing the piano so I know how to read music, but never dreamed of playing a string instrument. I played last summer for 3 months but I'm a grad student so I stopped playing. I'm picking it back up and I'm not going to let school get in the way this time!
Just had to let Fiddelerman know how awesome this site is! I can do the basics and that is IT. My fourth finger apparently has no muscle for the violin. 
Hope to meet many of you and I wish I would have picked up this instrument 20 years ago. Sad that I thought the violin was for girls when I was in school. Now I realize it's the best instrument to truly convey soul and feeling!
-Matt
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Welcome, Matt! Nice introduction. I'm glad you've found your way to fiddlerman.com . I hope you enjoy playing violin for a long, long time.
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Thanks. I live in Florida and the waves haven't been good lately. So I'm need to spend all my time practicing.
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Welcome, Matt! I know what you mean about wishing you had taken up the violin 20 years ago. I do, too, though maybe 40 years ago in my case. I've played the guitar for many years, but just took up the violin about four months ago.
You've come to the right place! Lots of great info and folks here. Keep us posted on how you're doing.
When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low,
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow.
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Welcome Matt!!!!!
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Thanks everyone. Does anyone know the best way I can get my 4th finger to do something? I need a good exercise for when I'm not playing to strengthen it.
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Welcome! 
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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Hi Matt !!
welcome to the best violin learning site on the Internet. There are a lot of very knowledgable and friendly people here.
fiddlerman is very cool. 
"The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work." - Mark Twain
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Welcome Matt!!!
Amen to everything you said. Best site ever; wish I had learned violin 20yrs ago; the violin is just for girls; best instrument ever...... wait,,,, did I get something wrong??? lol
Welcome to the family! 
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Fred, anyone ever tell you you are nuts?
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Thanks guys. Man I'm trying to do the simple dorian scales to the background music FM provided and it's way tougher than I thought. All I can do is slide lol. Ugh it's so frustrating. Oh, and I'm a tall lanky surfer with a long neck. I do have a should rest but I HAVE to have a chin rest like FM. Can I get one of those at my local shop? I've never seen a chin rest that high.
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Have you cranked up the adj. on your rest?
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Oh yea, it's cranked up as high as it'll go and it's the tallest I've seen at any shop I've been to. I want my should rest & FM's chin rest together lol. Oh yea, I broke my neck 10 years ago. So playing the violin really strains it and it gets sore quickly.
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How about a pad on the chin rest.
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Yea, I need to get something small and something that won't slide around. I used a washcloth for awhile but not anymore because it wasn't small enough. Maybe I'll try harder to find something.
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Hey He-man or is that Hu-man?
Great nick in any case.
Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you found your way around here. My chin-rest is a Stuber but it was built up by my luthier about a half inch.
Since you had a neck injury you are thinking smart and being cautious already which is great. Make sure you are keeping your violin up as high as possible and don't use your neck to hold the violin, rather try to use your collar bone and jaw-bone. Balance it so that you don't have to grip and use much of your neck muscles.
As far as fourth finger exercises go, just start extremely slowly and keep at it. Baby steps. Don't lift the fingers too high, keep them as close to the strings as possible.
Where in Florida?
Good luck and keep us posted.
Look forward to hearing about your progress. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Hey, Hman. Glad to see ya here. I to wished I would have taken it up sooner. I actually remember back in the 6th grade being ask to join band. I was thrilled and I learned to play the -drum roll please- trombone! 
I though the violin was for girls too! And all my friends were playing trumpet so I picked to goofiest looking instrument. I hated trombone! I wish, oh how I wish, that i would have taken up the violin! I thought back to what I would be doing now If I would have stayed in band and played ANY instrument and also what style of music I would be playing NOW, if I would have taken up violin back then. Ah...the WHat If's of life.
"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life believing that it is stupid." -Albert Einstein
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