Well I took my violin last night. We were outside this time in a wonderful garden back behind the store.

I have such mixed emotions!! Very excited because I did start off a few tunes and very disappointed in myself because I was so nervous. I didn't sound very good and made many mistakes!!

My first lead was Cindy - I had to play it a bit so everyone could figure out the key. Then after I played through it twice I forgot to pass it of to anyone and it just fell apart!

Angelina Baker was my second lead and we got through to back to me and then I just really messed up!! The man leading the group said oh, too fast and then mandolin player [who I found out has played since 2000] apologized saying he had sped it up!!

My third one leading was Soldier's Joy. I got through and saw a look of pleasant surprise when I started on part B. He passed it on then to someone else but of course I could not accept it back to finish us off so it collapsed too!

My fourth suggestion was I'll Fly Away, but said I had better not lead and did not know the words. They played it anyway and I did back up and helped with the chorus which I am very happy to that the lady singing looked at me shook her head yes and smiled big!! I have to explain - in the 6th grade I was not allowed in the school choir and it has marred me for life!!

When I was doing back up I would chop on just one string for the entire song trying to find another string to play on!! LOL!! I got brave and started alternating between strings and finally did add chords here and there. I was also able to add long drawn out notes at times.

I discover a new bowing for me on the waltzes - a down bow with 2 up bows that sounded cool, but wonder should it have been 1 up bow and 2 down bows?

The leader of the group thanked me for staying until the end. The bass player said come back and by the end of the summer I will be playing Orange Blossom Special. The guitar player next to me at one point towards the end put away his guitar and started whispering the chords to me, but of course I did not have the chords memorized as well as I thought. He said we were all beginners at one time!

Lessons learned for now -
1. figure out the keys of songs I am going to lead
2. learn the chords of my songs
3. understand the mandolin chords so I can copy them until I have remembered and understood chord progression
4. instead of playing though Brian Wicklund's 2 book with each practice, work on just 8-10 songs to really memorize them
5. go early and stand in a corner and play through my tunes