At nearly every gig, someone asks Kailee Vallis's duo the same question: can you add a violinist? So Kailee — a professional musician who performs three to five nights a week on bass, guitar, and more — decided to stop hiring it out and learn violin herself. 

In this episode, Jessica and Kailee talk about what it takes to add a new instrument to a working career: why clients keep requesting violin, what carries over from years of playing bass (and what absolutely doesn't), how she's already using violin in live sets, the electric-violin-and-pedalboard setup she plays on stage, how to avoid buying a "violin-shaped object," and why, even as a pro, she chose a teacher over another year of YouTube tutorials.

What you'll hear:

• How Kailee built a career as a gigging musician — and why violin was the one instrument she kept coming back to
• The real demand for violin at weddings and events, and the opportunity it opens for working players
• What transfers from bass to violin and what humbles even a pro musician
• Using violin on live gigs: long tones, pizzicato, improv, and creative pedal effects
• Electric violins on stage — what to look for and what to avoid
• Why instrument quality matters so much, from warped bows to bad electric violins
• Kailee's advice for professional musicians thinking about adding a new instrument: get a teacher

Resources & links:

• Kailee's duo: 2humansproductions.com · Instagram @2humansproductions
• Kailee's electric violin: Yamaha YEV 104

🎻 Learn Violin with Me

Whether you're picking up the violin for the very first time or returning after a long break, you don't have to figure it out alone.

🌟 Join my free community for adult violin learners — a warm, encouraging space to learn alongside others on the same journey. [Join here] 

📋 Download the free Perfect Position Checklist — a simple guide to playing with proper position with your violin, bow, and body the right way from day one. Also includes free sheet music with all of my fingerings included. [Download here]

Learn more at oberlinviolinstudio.com

Can you learn the violin as a busy adult with a demanding career and no musical background? Harshad Ingle is proof that you can.

Harshad is a research scientist and faculty member at the Washington University School of Medicine, studying ALS and Alzheimer's disease. Despite one of the busiest schedules imaginable, he is finally fulfilling a lifelong dream of learning violin — practicing just 15 minutes a day after work.

In our conversation, Harshad and I talk about:

• Why he stopped waiting for "someday" and finally started
• How he fits practice into a packed research career
• The mindset that keeps him going (hint: don't compare!)
• How violin is the perfect antidote to mindless scrolling
• Lessons from buying his first violin — and choosing his second
• The truth about the beginner "screechy" phase
• Encouragement for anyone who feels too old or too busy to begin

Whether you're a complete beginner or you've been telling yourself "maybe next year," this episode will remind you that it's never too late to share something beautiful with your music. 🎻

🎻 Learn Violin with Me

Whether you're picking up the violin for the very first time or returning after a long break, you don't have to figure it out alone.

🌟 Join my free community for adult violin learners — a warm, encouraging space to learn alongside others on the same journey. [Join here] 

📋 Download the free Perfect Position Checklist — a simple guide to playing with proper position with your violin, bow, and body the right way from day one. Also includes free sheet music with all of my fingerings included. [Download here]

Learn more at oberlinviolinstudio.com

When Mark Dandridge picked up the violin on August 23rd of last year, he was 59 years old, a retired Air Force veteran, a high school special education teacher in Arizona — and completely new to the instrument. 

He hadn't played anything since clarinet in the 1980s. He couldn't read music. It took him a full month just to learn how to hold the bow.

Less than a year later, he's playing songs he loves.

In this conversation, Mark shares what it was really like to start something completely new in his late fifties — the intimidation, the moments he wanted to give up, and the simple shift in mindset that kept him going. 

He also shares the practical wisdom he's gathered along the way, including the advice that struck me most at our last student recital: "Give grace to yourself."

In this episode

• Why retirement (or the years leading up to it) can be the perfect window to pick up the instrument you've always loved
• The honest reality of those first overwhelming weeks — and how Mark pushed through "I want to give up" moments
• What "Everybody's a beginner at something" really means when you've spent decades being competent at your job
• Why structured instruction matters more than YouTube alone (Mark learned more in 8 weeks of cohort than 8 months with a local teacher)
• The cognitive benefits of learning violin as an older adult — and the research behind it
• Mark's dream of one day playing with other musicians, and why community is part of the joy
• His advice to anyone "thinking about it": just do it, and give grace to yourself along the way

If you've ever told yourself you're too old to start, or that the violin is too hard, or that you should have begun years ago — this episode is for you.

🎻 Learn Violin with Me

Whether you're picking up the violin for the very first time or returning after a long break, you don't have to figure it out alone.

🌟 Join my free community for adult violin learners — a warm, encouraging space to learn alongside others on the same journey. [Join here] 

📋 Download the free Perfect Position Checklist — a simple guide to playing with proper position with your violin, bow, and body the right way from day one. Also includes free sheet music with all of my fingerings included. [Download here]

Learn more at oberlinviolinstudio.com

Rick is a retired engineer with a 48-year career, a former engineering teacher at a magnet high school, and a retired martial arts instructor who taught what we now call MMA before it had that name. He's also a lifelong musician — percussion starting at age 12, piano, guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, dobro, pedal steel. He spent his late teens and twenties playing professionally in road bands up and down the East Coast.

Despite playing with all these other stringed instruments, he'd never touched the violin until this year.

In this conversation, Rick shares what it's really like to come to the violin as a lifelong musician — and why, despite all his experience on other strings, it took him by surprise. He talks about the moment he almost gave up, the mindset that got him through the screechy beginner phase, and a practice approach so simple and counterintuitive that it stopped me in my tracks: 10 to 15 minutes at a time, multiple times a day. That's it. It turns out neuroscience research backs this up — but Rick figured it out simply because he lives on a farm and never has a free hour in a row.

In this episode:

• How a 48-year engineering career, martial arts, and decades of music all shaped Rick's approach to learning something new
• Why violin felt uniquely difficult even after mastering guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and pedal steel — and the specific reason most stringed-instrument players don't see coming
• The "doghouse" story (and why this time, Rick gets to practice inside the house)
• His simple, sustainable practice habit — and the research from Peabody Conservatory that supports it
• The mindset that got him past the screechy beginner phase ("I'm not a quitter — I'll at least get to Twinkle Twinkle")
• His first improv jam session on violin, and what it taught him about playing in front of others
• His advice for anyone stuck in the scratchy phase and tempted to put the violin down

If you've ever felt like you "should" be picking the violin up faster than you are — whether you've played other instruments or not — Rick's story is the encouragement you didn't know you needed.

🎻 Learn Violin with Me

Whether you're picking up the violin for the very first time or returning after a long break, you don't have to figure it out alone.

🌟 Join my free community for adult violin learners — a warm, encouraging space to learn alongside others on the same journey. [Join here] 

📋 Download the free Perfect Position Checklist — a simple guide to playing with proper position with your violin, bow, and body the right way from day one. Also includes free sheet music with all of my fingerings included. [Download here]

Learn more at oberlinviolinstudio.com

For over a decade, Brenda — a high school science teacher from North Carolina — carried a quiet wish to learn the violin. She'd heard a violin solo in a song her daughter shared, fallen in love with the sound, and told herself, "If I don't have time on this earth, in the next life I will learn."

This past January, she finally picked up the violin and bow.

In this conversation, Brenda shares what it was actually like to start the violin as an adult beginner — from her first nervous unboxing (and the hour-long tuning attempt that followed), to the small daily habits that helped her bow stay straight, to the encouragement she found in learning alongside other adults in cohort. Her story is honest, funny, and full of practical wisdom for anyone who's been waiting "for the right time" to begin.

In this episode:

• The song that sparked a decade-long dream of learning the violin
• Why renting from a quality shop beats buying a cheap violin online
• The hour-long first tuning attempt (and the family member who came to the rescue!)
• How a mirror at home became one of Brenda's most valuable practice tools
• What kept her motivated and practicing consistently through eight weeks of cohort
• Her honest, encouraging advice for adults who are scared to start

If you've ever thought "someday I'll learn the violin," this episode is for you.

🎻 Learn Violin with Me

Whether you're picking up the violin for the very first time or returning after a long break, you don't have to figure it out alone.

🌟 Join my free community for adult violin learners — a warm, encouraging space to learn alongside others on the same journey. [Join here] 

📋 Download the free Perfect Position Checklist — a simple guide to playing with proper position with your violin, bow, and body the right way from day one. Also includes free sheet music with all of my fingerings included. [Download here]

Learn more at oberlinviolinstudio.com