I didn’t grow up playing violin. I picked it up on my way into college. And I was told – more than once – that I was already “too old” to really learn it.

In the beginning, it was rough.

I remember sitting on my bed after practice wondering if they were right:

“Is it actually possible for me to make this sound good?”

Even my sweet grandpa knew it sounded terrible. He would imitate my practice by saying, “Squeak squeak squeak!”

This was the early 2000s. We didn’t have YouTube or online courses yet. I drove hundreds of miles trying countless different teachers.

I did eventually find one who helped me bridge the gap. She came from both a classical and folk background. She treated me like an adult and helped me see that starting later wasn’t a disadvantage. Adults bring emotion and life experience to music. That matters.

But I also figured a lot out on my own.

I wanted it badly. I was playing guitar in a band with friends, and that kept me motivated to push through the awkward stage.

Eventually that band life grew into touring and performing at Renaissance festivals and folk venues around the country.

In 2008, a patron filmed one of those performances and posted it online. I didn’t know about it at the time.

A few years later, in 2011, I discovered the clip had quietly gone viral under the nickname “The Hot Violinist.”

At first, it was just an internet joke.

Around that same time, I had started teaching a few lessons remotely over Skype. People had been asking for help while I was on the road, and I had to figure out how to teach without reaching over and fixing someone’s hand.

When you teach online, you can’t “make the sound” for someone. You have to help them feel what’s happening from the inside out.

That challenge changed everything for me.

I realized I cared just as much about teaching as performing.

The tools inside my online course, Jenny’s Daily Lessons, grew directly out of that experience – teaching adults remotely, step by step, helping them understand not just what to do, but why it works.

Over time, my students started redefining the phrase “Hot Violinist.”

In 2017, one of my students Barry – who had started at age 65 – performed a piece at his fire station, after arriving in the firetruck in full gear. At the end of the performance, he held up a sign that read “Hot Violinist.”

That’s when the meaning officially shifted.

Around here, a Hot Violinist isn’t about image or perfection.

It’s an adult learner who pushes past perfectionism and plays music they love – for their own joy, and sometimes for the people they love.

That definition stuck.

Since 2011, I’ve worked with hundreds of adult learners. Many started from zero. Many thought they were too late. Almost all – including me – have had someone tell them they didn’t have “talent.”

Most just needed a clear path that respects the limits on an adult’s time and focus.

None of us are trying to be the next Joshua Bell.

What I care about is helping adults play music they love without wasting years.

If you’re here, you’re not too late.

Let’s bring out the Hot Violinist in you.