At 54 I have started to learn to play multiple instruments. For the first time in many years I have started to earn money on my own, as a street musician. I started to learn violin about 9 months ago, but kept getting stopped, because the instrument kept breaking down (we got it in a pawn shop for $50).

My husband and I had been homeless for most of the last year. Now we have settled in Las Vegas, where we are able to make money playing music for passersby on the LV strip. We could really use the instrument for many reasons. We live in a small apartment and it would allow me to practice any time, even while my husband is sleeping. Also, we can amplify the instrument with our mobile cube and distort the sound for different effects.

Finally, we want to start making instruments and selling them online. We are moving to another country at the end of October, where we can start a village project to help support people of a less privileged culture. We want to take an electric instrument with us, so we can learn to make these, too.

We feel that creativity is a human's birthright. We want to create electric ukuleles, violins, banjoleles and other hybrid instruments, which are easy to learn and play and make these available inexpensively through the internet.

We have in mind to make a website similar to the fiddlerman.com site. This kind of creative support site is wonderful. I would like to make something similar for ukulele etc.

That's the short of it. The long of it can be seen on my blog... http://lifeisglorious.com/pages/blog.php

Thanks,

Tilly

@Fiddlerman, Well, thank you for this contest and for all your hard work. Thanks for making all this material available to people all over the world. The internet is certainly a wonderful tool. Really, even though my life was difficult for many years, very painful even, I don't think I have really suffered much compared to almost anyone else I can think of who has some sort of difficulty. Think of having only one arm, for instance. I know a guy like that on the Las Vegas strip who plays guitar. If I get a chance to take a video, I will upload something from him to my youtube account. His street moniker is "Bandit" (as in "one-armed"). He actually plays pretty well. Doesn't do much finger picking though (little joke there).

@myguitarnow, I certainly do hope you did not mean me when you said that people were making up stories. On my website I just posted a few paragraphs about what has been going on this last year. Really, I should write a book. But I am too busy living a crazy and complicated life to write about same. I wasn't at all fabricating anything.  Anyway, I took down that part about the proposed project from my post on my website, because for personal reasons I don't yet want to announce it to "the world". I just got a little too excited about it. I told my husband not to tell anyone and then I went and posted it on the internet for all the world to read.

I would like to win the violin as I have always wanted to learn to play ever since I was in primary school.  At 11 years of age I had studied the violin for about a year and used to play in my school orchestra.  I remember taking the grade 1 exam and passing and feeling so proud, and excited about continuing to learn music.  Unfortunately my parents were unable to support my music studies once I had gone on to secondary school so I had to give it up.  Determined after many years to relive my passion for the violin, I have applied to study two music courses with the open university, and to teach myself music using the free online resources as I cannot afford to pay for tuition.  Winning the violin would enable me to relive this long-held dream, and to make my children and my wonderful husband really proud of me.

Yes I thought it was a strange situation but to suggest the idea of deserving the prize conotates to providing reasons of hardship or struggle rather than simply the love of playing.  Many of us are passionate about music but cannot always find the means to realise our potential.  I think this competition is more interesting than it would seem and many of us find it hard to discuss painful experiences. What Fiddleman has done is provide a forum for honest expression.

After all music is about life and good music is about real life... A lot of the best music is borne out of suffering.  Let us not be afraid to express one or the other they are after all one and the same.