I’ve had various musical interests since I can remember. My family had an upright piano in the living room when I was young. I remember trying to teach myself how to play it. I didn’t get too far, but it was fascinating. Although I wanted to learn the violin in the 6th grade, I took choir. I enjoyed it, but I wanted to play an instrument. In 7th grade, we moved to a school district that didn’t teach things like violin, so it was probably a good thing I tried choir first. I did get to play alto saxophone, and in 8th grade I switched to tenor saxophone. I actually didn’t take band in high school, so except for playing on my own, I didn’t get to do anything else with music at school. I still had an interest in music, so shortly after graduating I finally bought a violin (I no longer have my saxophone — maybe someday I will buy a tenor saxophone). I tried to learn fiddle (Irish music) for about a year, and then I had to sell the instrument.
Several years passed, and I still had an interest in learning. I bought another fiddle and got back to work. It was difficult trying to figure things out on my own since I wasn’t used to strings (especially the bow). I tried to relax and have fun, but I started struggling with pain that turned out to be Fibromyalgia (and later the beginning of Scleroderma with secondary Raynauds) — practice sessions got shorter and shorter, to the point where I rarely ever touched my poor fiddle. I had almost signed up with a good school to learn the harp (I had struggled with trying to pick between the two instruments for about the same amount of time in my adult years), and I finally got my first harp (a Harpsicle Fullsicle) at the end of 2017.
I still have to balance out hobbies, especially if they potentially risk tiring my hands (fiddle can be strenuous on my easily strained tendons if I overdo it) and need to work on something else. But I enjoy having music in my life and my husband has also joined in the fun (he started learning ukulele and mandolin).
