Greetings, y'all! My name is Trent, and I'm a returning adult onset violinist / fiddler (or as my family might say, vilefiddler). I took up the instrument when I was in my mid-30s, played intensely for a few years, and got to a decent level of ability before putting the instrument down for about 16-17 years after running into a string of injuries caused by crummy ergonomics, misguided attempts at fixing them with tall, heavy chinrests, and trying to "play through the pain."

A couple of months ago, my wife and I went into a friendly-looking violin shop in Bellingham, Washington (Allegro Strings), and she picked up a violin on a whim--she'd played as a child and was curious to try it again. Playing around with her fiddle, I realized I could play pretty comfortably if I worked on keeping a good posture and used ordinary chinrests. A week later, I went back up and got a fiddle of my own, a nice German trade violin from the 20s or 30s that's perfect for playing klezmer music (which is one of my real loves). 

So far, so good. I'm steadily rediscovering my old chops and learning new tunes, and while I'm working on some classical technique builders (Fischer's scale system and the occasional study by Wohlfahrt, Mazas, or Kreutzer) I'm trying to avoid getting caught up in an aspirational feedback loop of not being happy until I master the next technique. 

I'm happy to have found this place--it looks like a fine community.

Yours, Trent