I didn't learn until late in life that my dad played violin in his High School Orchestra.

The only musical advice he gave me when I was a kid was:

1. "If you ever bring a violin in the house I'll beat the crap out of you." At the time I didn't know why he said that.

2. "I found this in a pawn shop. Here. You're a saxophone player." So I played it (a tenor) for the next 7 or 8 years - along with an alto and a clarinet I bought for myself in high school.

Some years after Dad died, my teeth fell out and it wasn't practical to try to play saxophone on a saxophone, I switched to playing saxophone on a mandolin; and after a few years with the mando I got curious and got myself a fiddle (cheap). While I messed with it enough to be of the opinion that marking the finger positions probably wouldn't be much help, I did learn to appreciate my Dad's opinion that it might be something mostly best left alone (by me at least). Apparently it's something that is incompatible with my family genetics, or something like that. (Or maybe I'm just getting lazy in my mature years.)

John