Discipline pays off. Find a good teacher who will teach you the correct way to hold the instrument and bow early on. Work on good intonation, and get your teacher to give you some basic exercises and scales. Then play every day. I do my exercises Mon-Fri. before I work on any tunes, and I take weekends off from the exercises ( I can play whatever I want). Try to play at least 1/2 hour a day in any case. The fiddle is not an instrument you can put aside for long if you want to play adequately. You lose your technique fast. It's a very demanding instrument, but worth the effort.
    You might look into music camps once you have a basic grasp of the instrument, and go to local sessions (just to listen at first), and make note of the tunes you would like to learn. Find some tolerant friends to play with that are at your level. Try to have a good time however you approach it.
    Good luck and happy fiddling!                   Winnie