My mother insisted that I learn electric rock/blues guitar and forced me to take private lessons with Clapton. I had to sneak my violin into the basement, and later started a garage string quartet with some neighborhood buddies. We annoyed the whole block with our pan-Asian classical music, calling ourselves the Buddah Pest String Quartet. But, seriously, I took up violin in high school. My parents never pushed me to take up an instrument. I've always listened to music. In elementary school I took recorder class, in Jr. high I tried french horn, then clarinet, but couldn't tongue the notes properly. You kept hearing air before each note. In high school I started violin. I loved violin music and knew that wind instruments were problematic for me, so it seemed like a natural choice. Didn't practice much, though. I'd rather wake up the next day and be a magically improved player! I quit violin a couple of years after high school, but kept the instrument in my closet. 12 years later I took it out again when I started into traditional music. Discovering trad. Celtic music changed my whole life, and I finally started to practice!