No, no, no, no.

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Photo by Bill O'Neill
In August I played at a fiddle contest. No, I didn't win. My goal was to make it through both tunes without stopping. And I achieved my goal. After all, I've only been playing for a couple of years.

 In fact, before I played, I said something to the effect of: "I've only been playing for two and a half years - I'm saying this not to get your pity, but to tell you that if you want to try something that seems really hard, even at an 'advanced age,' go for it!"

 After the contest was over, the musicians were starting a little jam session. Someone came up to me and told me how much what I said had inspired him. He said, "I really want to play again. I played when I was in high school, and everyone really thought I was good then."

 "Well, why don't you come and play with us now? Someone will loan you a violin!"

 "No, no, no, I couldn't do that, they would laugh at me!"

 "OK. If you want to play as an adult, I have a couple of suggestions - I was in the same position as you a few years ago and this is what I did - there's some jam sessions in this area you could attend. Where do you live?"

 "No, no, no, I couldn't do that. I need to start playing at home, I would embarrass myself playing with other people."

 "Trust me, they won't mind, these musicians are very encouraging of people of all levels, they were in that position themselves."

 "No, no, no, I would just be too horrible, I just couldn't."

 "Well, if you want an easier start, there is a great weekend event you could attend, it's called Folk College, in central PA, where they have workshops for people who are getting back into music, they'll teach you how to jam, it's a really great thing to do."

"No, no, no, I think I just want to find a teacher,"

 "OK, sounds good, in my experience a teacher is important but playing with others is also really important, and probably much easier than you think."

 I realized I had heard "no, no, no," a lot of times, and I realized how scary it really is to try doing something new as an adult.

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