Had my first viola lesson on Monday. The teacher didn't laugh at me, or anything!

He's starting me off at grade 3-ish, which is gratifying. He's made a few initial technical suggestions, changes to posture etc. But said that basically things were looking fairly good. The alto clef continues to fox me though.

I'm feeling quite enthused about the whole thing.

Teacher is a bit bemused by the extent of my multi-instrumentalism though. Oh well.

Why did you think the teacher would have laughed at you??

Apart from it being a very unprofessional thing for a teacher to do, I can't see why a beginner on any instrument should be laughed at anyway.

True, but don't we all fear making a fool of ourselves?? Meerkat's probably just expressing relief that she didn't seem to gaff it! She should try being me for a few days!!!!! I practised for about 20 mins this morning and it was GROSS.

Speaking as a teacher, I agree with AmandaL. Speaking as an adult learner, I know exactly where you are coming from, meerkat. It's irrational and illogical, but lots of us feel that we need to make excuses for wanting to learn an instrument as an adult, and it doesn't get better the more instruments we learn.

I think the better you are on one instrument the more difficult it is to learn another, but I'm determined not to apologise for playing the double-bass (although there is something of a financial reward ahead for playing the instrument) and I wouldn't want an excuse or apology from any adult learner making enquiries about violin lessons. It's a pity many more teachers don't accept adult learners at face value - that they are learning to play the instrument because they want to, nothing else, no hidden agenda.

Dogmas from the 20th century are the problem. We need to make an extra effort to banish them to the past.

... and sometimes we feel the need to make excuses for not being brilliant despite being adults, too.

We can't be brilliant at everything. Children think adults should be brilliant, but it is only when they get older themselves they realise age alone doesn't necessarily make things less difficult.

The important factor that people seem to be missing the point on, is that you are already doing something about your desire to learn a new instrument - by taking lessons.

If we stopped going around in circles making excuses for why we're taking lessons, we could spend that time learning and getting better at what we want to do.

Dogmas of the past, like habits, die hard.

Do many people find themselves having to reason out why they're taking lessons then? I've never had to - all my family and friends have been really interested in what I'm doing, whether they're musical themselves or not. Perhaps I'm just lucky!

Still, I must confess that I sometimes feel uncomfy at spending the money when we're not sure about the income situation over the coming months. Still, Sir hasn't said not, so I shan't take a lesson break until he does and he's in charge there.

I never had to reason it out to myself but I found that a lot of people just didn’t understand why I wanted to start something new. I don’t have a logical reason at all, I just wanted to, but they seemed to think that if I didn’t have an overall plan mapped out in stages with the end result achievable within the next year, it was a strange decision. I suppose some adults think more in boxes.

My family all regard me as an amusing, if faintly exotic, house-pet so nobody questions the strange things I get up to... like taking up the violin at nearly 40 years of age!!! (.. or collecting dogs)

Rocking out on the viola!

You've made me proud

Brilliant, I'm not surprised you rock on the viola Meerkat! You're on your way to being able to play all the orchestral strings....no, don't start getting ideas.....step away from the Double Bass....

I think I might rock slightly on the viola too, but I certainly don't on the cello! Shame we can't mind-meld and swap our clef abilities, cos I still can't get my head round the bass clef!

You're a Sarah-flute protogee too aren't you?