The Violin

To each his own craft I suppose. I find myself in a frustrating situation today having dragged out my violin in an attempt to restring and tune it. It sat in a closet for years because I hadn't realized that it had an extra set of strings with it. So I then threatened myself for years to come with getting it out and fixing it.
I'm not a master musician but I'm not new to it either. I've played in bands as mostly a guitarist or bass player. I've never often had an electric guitar so some of those fancier tricks still kind of elude me but, I've always kept an acoustic around and having spent years with that particular type of instrument I grew quite fluent in its use and upkeep. 
Changing the strings was like some ritual,  which included tea. I always bought new pegs for when I changed the strings. There could be not one flaw in its sound. The second part of the ritual included breaking them in. Once they were on I would tighten them just a little to tight to put that stretch in them. Usually, I would just set it in a corner while I made another cup of tea and had a cigarette. Afterward I would tune it, followed my incoherent playing bending and stretching of strings whirring through the vibrations in the air. It usually took about four to six hours of play to get them broke in good.
Playing a bass kind of came easy to me. It was simple really, laying down a backdrop type harmony in time, while some vocalists or guitarist improved over. Ofcourse I always went all "Les Claypool" on the thing which infuriated my guitar player. I've never been one to just stay in the shadows and keep the rythm. At least not a passive one.
Even with the piano I can become fluent pretty quick. You have one hand laying down a rythm, disconnect that part of the brain, let it go on autopilot. Muscle memory guided by a touch on a loop of repetition within a repetition. Then with the other hand, reach out in some magical musical way, touching notes, bringing them to some musical frequency searching out the beauty in emotion juxtaposed that it may blend. I love the piano.  I wish I could play one.
The violin, which I thought would be a simple instrument, has me stumped. I restrung it this afternoon, couldn't get the strings to stay tight and, tada, I broke a string. It looks like I will be referring to that all knowing Oracle known as Google for some guidance.

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