"OOPS, sandali lang! May mali ka yata (wait a second! You made a mistake)!" my piano teacher Iric Paner grinned. Sighing, I adjusted my violin, flexed my right hand, and began playing again.

This scene replayed itself every week last summer. I've always thought of summer as the time to take a break and learn new things, like music.

When I was much younger, I was very fascinated with the violin. Its high-pitched and sustained music enchanted me. When I heard my 10-year-old cousin Jevrice playing easily, I got envious. That's why I took up violin lessons.

A violin is one of those miniature, guitar-like instruments which is put on the shoulder and supported by the left hand. The right hand carries the bow, a slightly bent stick. Attached to it are white, thin, fiber-like strands.

Enough of these technicalities, and let's see how a violin sounds. A standard violin has four strings, mainly E, A, D, G. Each string has its own unique quality and sound. The E string, for example, has a high-pitched sound like a baby's cry. The second or A string is somewhat an in-between kind of pitch. The last two strings are baroque-like with a low sound. Sometimes, when a violin doesn't sound right, the strings are adjusted by turning knobs on the violin's head.

That's not all. Only four fingers are used in playing a violin. The thumb holds the neck of the violin while the other fingers are used to strike the strings. The bow is swung down near the "bridge" of the violin, raised partly in the middle. Imagine, you'll have to move the bow up and down with your right hand while pressing the strings with your left fingers.

Busy hands aren't they?

Several lessons later, I would look back on that fateful day when I started playing the violin. I knew nothing then. My fingers ached endlessly. Every now and then I broke a string or two. I had to learn the right posture and stance in holding a violin. But all those aches and fears disappeared like lightning when I started to carry on some simple classical tunes.

Learning how to play the violin is hard. You'll need truckloads of patience, discipline and mostly PRACTICE. If you have all these, you'll be up and playing in no time. Not too much though for a moment of enchantment.