Something I find interesting... once when I went to take his picture playing fiddle, he refused to be photographed with the fiddle on his chest the way he actually does play; he insisted on holding it up in a classical way for the picture.

I'm glad that at least a few people see a dilemma in my situation. And the examples I gave of "bad advice" may have been unclear as to my point. I am not wondering, for example, whether I should clean the rosin off my fiddle or not. I'm wondering whether or not I should be letting somebody who doesn't clean his fiddle tell me whether a certain triplet should be cut or slurred.

Russ, who's Tommy?

So I'll keep going, and keep figuring out ways to make our relationship useful to me, and keep asking my questions at Mudcat, where there's never any shortage of people willing to tell me what to do (yes, I mean that in a good way).

Marion