I think they inform one another, and I'd encourage you to do both. A lot of Monroe stuff is fiddle and fiddle-bowing influenced, and a lot of Monroe and other mandolin stuff exports and enriches your fiddling. (Not universally but in large measure.)
If you're interested in violin, my advice is to travel back in time and take it up when your about 5. Or start right now, because -- in my opinion -- the technical and physical aspects of fiddling involve a lot of unique, almost physically unnatural activity. If you want to be any good at the violin, there's a lot of right-hand stuff with the way you hold the bow, your thumb, the angle of your wrist, etc., that are challenging to settle into as an adult. I picked up the fiddle as a bored, middle-aged guitar player. I've made a lot of progress, but I started way too late to ever develop truly top-notch skills. Unless you have lots of time to practice you might find it difficult to put major, equal effort into two instruments. The downside, if there is one, to trying to develop on two or more instruments is that you might not end up doing justice to any of them. Speaking as a fiddler who just wanted to learn some mandolin tunes, I now spend most of my music time sitting in the easy chair with my mandolin; I don't get my violin out nearly enough. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
