Are there any English violinists out there who have learned or are attempting to learn Eastern music on the violin, for example Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish. Also, Algerian music, which I love. I have been listening to Natasha Atlas, Hassan Shariff (most beautiful voice I have ever heard, yet), Ibrahim Tatlises, Khaled, Cheb Mami, all fantastic...but so difficult for an amateur English musician to master.

I'd like to hear from any English musicians if they are also interested in these types of music. I think also some kind of fusion of these styles, East and Western, can go together really well, as we have seen already with Bollywood and bhangra becoming mixed with English dance music.

What difficulties do you have and how have you overcome them. These scales are so beautiful but so complex and strange when you haven't grown up listening to them, they haven't been embedded in your soul.