Hi, Daniel,

Congratulations on your accomplishment!

I like your idea of sharing your journey of learning to play violin, so I would like to share mine as well and I hope you don't mind I "hack" your thread. Thank you!

I just realized that my daughter is heading into her 5th year of violin lessons, which means soon for me. Time flies, it has been almost four years since I picked up my first violin.

I had never thought I would be playing violin, even four years ago. I could play several instruments and had formal lessons in piano, organ, and carillon but not good in any. I always wanted to have my daughter to learn to play piano but was not able to find a teacher for her. Then I went to our violin teacher's workshop for parents and a realization came to mind -- my nephew who is a great pianist but he cannot carry his grand piano wherever he goes and neither could I, so if my daughter plays violin then when she is off to college, she could carry her violin with her. I signed my daughter up for her trial lesson with our violin teacher and we both fell in love with violin. We learned about the parts and string names. It was fascinating for both of us. I want to learn along with my daughter (after all I sat in her lessons) and be good in playing one instrument - violin. She began to take lessons in July 2011, and in August I bought myself a cvn 500 and began to learn along with her and from internet. 

I was very into it for a few months. Then I hit a bottle neck and quit for a few months then I only play once in a while for a while for the next year or so to show my daughter what she should be doing. Then my daughter and I both wanted to quit, she wanted to quit because her friends quit piano and she was very reluctant to practice, so her practice became a struggle for both of us and I quit practicing with her so I would not push her too much and totally killed her interest in violin. My husband took over practicing with her and I quit. When I was in the mood and picked up my violin to play I found myself not progressing. I could play children's songs and some of my favorite folk songs by ear, and most of the songs in Suzuki book one and mel bay but never beyond that.

I have a violin and I want to be able to play my favorite songs on my violin so after some thoughts and with my husband's encouragement, I began to take lessons with my daughter's teacher in November 2013. She insisted I started from beginning, which I am glad. I went through Suzuki book 1 pretty quick and moved onto book two. When I was through 3/4 of book two, I hit another bottle neck - it was bored. My teacher noticed that so she had her other adult student playing duets with me and I began to wonder off to music of my teacher's choice or my choice. That really helps maintain my interest in continuing to learn to play violin.

My daughter progressed to Suzuki book 4 in March this year. It is then I realized that she is way ahead of me. There are many techniques I cannot help her any more. That's when I decided to go back to finish Suzuki book 2 and catch up with her. So now I am about half way in Suzuki book 3 and working on shifting as well. Whereas my daughter is on the third piece (about 1/3) of book 4. I don't think I will ever catch up with her but at least I could keep my skill level closer to hers so when she needs help I could help.

One thing good about learning along with my daughter is we listen to Suzuki CDs a lot and I hear her play a lot, so when I learn to play pieces in Suzuki books, I picked them up a lot faster - it's like I learn to play by ear.

One huge mistake I made was I upgraded my violin too soon. I upgraded my cvn500 when I had it for about six months and thought better sound would motivate me to practice more. I also thought a smaller size violin would be easier on my hands, fingers, and wrists. I bought a 7/8 gliga gem 1 workshop violin. The sound of the new violin did sound a little better than my cvn 500; however, I was never satisfied with it - there's was always little thing with it that bothers me. Unfortunately, I gave my cvn 500 to my niece soon after I purchased my second violin thinking it was a great violin and my daughter could use it when she is big enough. I wish I make the upgrade now (or even later) that I am at higher level and know more about violin.

Then I bought a Stainer copy. It was listed as a 3/4 size, but it was a full size. I did not want to spend the money to ship it back so I kept it. It is okay, loud. The only thing is it feels huge - it is even a little bigger than my cvn 500 and has a big belly. I strung it into a viola. I also have a dream of having a roll of violin from 1/64 to full size, so far I have a mendini 300 1/32 (can't make good sound out of it), Suzuki 220 1/10, a cvn 500 1/4 (my daughter's first violin), a 1/2 that my daughter and I built from a kit (just gave the Anton Breton that I worked on quite a bit back to my teacher), a Hopf 3/4, (the 3/4 kit is not done yet), a 7/8 Gliga, and a 4/4 Stainer copy. Well, I also have a 4/4 bird kit and a 5-string bird eye kit need to be completed, and an old German 4/4 needs to be repaired. I guessed I gave up on my box violin - may be it could be a decorative one:) I guess from learning to play I became a hoarder. Good thing about being a hoarder is, sometimes when I practiced I switched violins and it made my practice interesting and made me practice longer