How learning the violin helped me

When I was a young child I was quiet and shy. I didn't have the confidence that some of the other children had and felt uneasy socialising.

I started learning the recorder when I was 5. I really enjoyed it and became quite good, quite quickly. As the quiet child in the class I was often overlooked by the teacher, but all of a sudden I was being noticed and praised and asked to play in assemblies and so on. This boosted my confidence greatly.

Several years later I was given the opportunity to start learning the violin. Again I advanced fairly quickly, because I loved playing so much and practised all the time. I was asked to play in school concerts and other events, which immediately threw me in to social situations with other children of all ages and we all had something in common - we played an instrument.

As the years went by, I continued to play, I took up viola as well as violin and I joined the Hertfordshire youth orchestra, which involved students from all over Hertfordshire. I then auditioned and was accepted at the Trinity College of music junior department, which had students attending from as far away as Scotland each Saturday.

I was very lucky to have this opportunity in my teenage years, as I was socialising with other students from varied backgrounds and from all over the country. I made many friends and had a fantastic time. I went on youth orchestra tours, including one to Prague, stopping of in Germany on the way there and back.

Theses experiences gave me confidence and took me to places that I never could have imagined going. All because I started playing the violin at the age of 9.