A couple of points I would quibble with—well, there are lots of points here that I would quibble with, but frankly, I don't have the time. There is a large quantity of misinformation being promulgated here by non-classically trained musicians about classically trained musicians, what they think, what they can do and can't do (mostly about what they can't do) that reveals a lot of ignorance about classical musicians, classical music, and classical training.

One small point that illustrates some of this ignorance. Someone up-thread said, "It seems to me that fiddlers don't care whether you call their fiddle a Violin...violinists curl up their nose if you call theirs a Fiddle."

Not so! Most classical violinists I have met refer to their violins as "fiddles." And I heard an interview on television some time ago with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. I don't know what kind of violin Zukerman had, but Perlman had a 1743 Guarneri del Gesu (worth millions!), and both of them kept referring to their instruments as "fiddles." I've heard Isaac Stern do the same thing. Also Henry Siegel, who was concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for many years. So, where did that idea come from? Out of someone's imagination, I think!

And another misconception.   ". . . if you want to play traditional music, why spend years learning to play a style of music you don't want to play, only to have to convert later[?]"

You don't have to "spend years." Whether instrument or voice, a few months' classical lessons will get you off to a good start, and you will avoid the mistakes, dead ends, and bad habits you'll invariably pick up while trying to teach yourself—or learn from some teacher who was self-taught.

Taking a few singing lessons (a couple of months, perhaps) can make singing a whole lot easier and save you from developing vocal habits that will eventually wreck your singing voice. And, no, it won't make you sound like an opera singer! Believe me, aspiring opera singers wish it was that easy. For them, they do have to study for years, and a lot of them still don't make it. Not everyone has the voice for opera.

Same thing for any musical instrument. A few months' classical lessons in the beginning can save you a whole lot of grief later on. The teacher is not teaching you to "play classical music." The teacher is teaching you an efficient way of playing the instrument. The kind of music you play on that instrument—and your "style" (which is an individual thing) is up to you.

By the way, speaking of Doc Watson, I took in a workshop he gave at the 1964 Berkeley Folk Festival. When he was talking about flat-picking fiddle tunes, someone asked him how he could play them so fast and so cleanly. Doc responded, "Well, I practice scales for at least a half an hour a day." Several people gasped in horror. "Scales!!" Later, when Doc as talking about fingerpicking, as he tried to explain it, he said, "It's like playing arpeggios." Then he grinned and said, "Of course, I'm not supposed to know words like that!"

Don Firth