7/28    Is it possible for an average person to learn violin by self-study?
        I've seen many books for teaching yourself piano or guitar, but I
        haven't seen any for violin.  Thanks.  -- yuen
        \_ I hope you live alone and have thick walls.
           \_ Violin is not so hard as all that, at least to make
                non-horrible sounds.
        \_ no way. well, i guess that depends on what you mean by "learn".
           \_ By "learn" I mean learning to play some simple pieces, just like
              what one can through self-study on piano and guitar.  -- yuen
        \_ if you have to ask this question, chances are you are tone deaf.
           do you know what vibrato is? do you have a good sense of pitch?
           do you know what whole steps and half steps are? if not, you
           should get an instructor. violin is a lot harder to get started
           than other instruments.
           \_ Well, I don't know what vibrato is.  I assume that's when the
              player jerks his/her left hand on the neck of the violin.  I saw
              violinsts doing that on TV.  As for pitch and steps, I think I've
              got some sense of them since I started playing the piano more
              than twenty years ago.  I even suspect I have absolute pitch.
              --- yuen
              \_ If you suspect you have absolute pitch, you most likely don't.
                 -- ilyas
              \_  half the people on American Idol thought they did as well