For me getting into playing a violin was the odd way around from anything even approaching normal.  I have never in my life wanted to play a musical instrument.  Not ever.  And yet here I am.

The how and why of this is that I write fiction in my spare time.  To do that I research various subjects which go on to form the plot in my books.  I've done research on all kinds of things from Voodoo, to the old forest service fire lookout towers, to historical pirates like Jean Lafitte and more.  My latest book is about a concert violinist so, of course, I had to do a lot of research on how to play, musical terms, history, flash mobs, and all kinds of stuff like that.  Throw in some obscure  Old Testament stuff, craft a complete lie as if it's a proven fact, throw it all into a word processing blender, work like a dog for several months, and 95,000 words later I get a book.

In the course of doing all that research and writing I watched a lot of violin videos on youboob and some of the music in them stuck in my head.  Playing seemed simple to do.  There was a lot of coordination of various moving anatomical parts, and of course a violin, but the biggest question was; would I be able to hear the correct sounds and make them come out of the violin.

So I did what I always do... research.  As everyone probably already knows, I have tremors.  On top of that I'm stiff jointed.  I can't do what other people do easily when it comes to range of motion or flexibility and the tremors add a new wrinkle in the deal.  So I cut a piece of lumber to the dimensions of a fingerboard and length of a violin.  After shaping and sanding I drew strings lines on it.  Then I started watching videos on how to read music and began to finger the notes on my stick.  I learned a lot, mostly that my stiff joints would require some creative thinking to get beyond their limitations, and ordered my violin from Fiddlershop.

It's been 6 months since I got my hands on my first ever violin and I have to honestly say that it's been enlightening and as personally pleasing anything I've ever done in my lifetime.  How long I'll continue to play is anyone's guess but, for now, it's engrossing and enjoyable.  Which is enough I think.

Let us play on.