As most of you have probably noticed by now, I've been incorporating more of my violin into my songs. Violin was my first instrument. I started playing when I was very young - back before I knew that learning a musical instrument was hard. At that age, your brain is like an eager puppy that's up for anything, "What, learn the violin, ya I'm totally into that!". Somehow, without much practice, or focused attention I did manage to get proficient on the instrument. Then high school happened and violin was relegated to the "not cool" pile, along with my Hardy Boy books and Dungeons & Dragons dice. Piano/keyboards was actually cool at that point - remember "Europe" and "Asia", not the continents but the keyboard-driven bands of the 80s. I started playing by ear, and then took sporadic lessons from my Mom (she has her PhD in Musicology, and a masters in piano performance). I learned enough to get my Grade 8 piano from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. Somehow I impressed someone at my audition to enter the music program at the University of Ottawa and 4 years later I graduated with a music degree. By that point my violin was getting very dusty. All of  my musical attention was focused on the piano/keyboard. I had started writing singer/songwriter-type material on the piano and that would be my M.O. for most of the next couple of decades. It wasn't until I started playing with my younger brother Matt that I began taking out the violin again. He was writing singer/songwriter material as well, and the violin seemed to be a nice fit with his style. It's only been within the last few weeks, with some encouraging reactions to my few cover youtube videos in which I incorporated the violin, that I've really gotten excited about the violin again. My playing still has lots of rust, but I must say I feel quite comfortable on the instrument - surprising since I haven't  played it with any regularity for so long. So that's the story of The Violin & The Piano so far. Let's hope they live happily every after...