Day Zero Project: Learn to play a song on my violin

When we were going out I happened to mention to my husband to be that I had learned to play the violin when I was younger. His Dad had several violins so as a Christmas gift he got me one and a brand new case for it. And pretty much since then I've been wanting to pick it back up and learn to play it again.

It is a lovely violin, a mittenwald and it does have a lovely sound to it. I picked myself an electric tuner so that I can keep it in tune (though one of the pegs has a habit of working loose so it can go out of tune easily if you're not careful). Violins are without a doubt one of my favourite instruments.

But I never seem to find the time to get it out. Tara gets a bit funny about Mr Click playing his instruments when she's around, so I'd hate for her to damage it by bounding around when I had it out. I've pulled it out a few times, but I struggle to play by ear; I know it doesn't sound right but I can never tell exactly why. It's something which I need to practice to get over, I know.

My old music teacher used to put sticky labels on the instrument to show us where we were supposed to put our fingers and I'm determined to get the hang of it without multicoloured dots this time. Obviously the best thing to do would be to find someone who could actually teach me, but living with a music teacher (allbeit one whose speciality is brass instruments) means I'm less inclined to fork out on someone to teach me. I can't really think of anyone locally who could teach me.

Not a violin, my husband's antique cornet, but the only musical instrument I have a photo of my laptop.

Basically I have everything I need to play my violin, I just need to get my act together and actually practice it. I'm hoping that once I get my OU exam out of the way I might have a bit more time after work and at weekends. I'm just want to learn to play one song (though hopefully not 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' which was about the only thing my violin teacher ever gave me to play which did not motivate me in the slightest), because I know once I've got the hang of one song, I'll want to learn to play one more (and that's how it begins)...