A little background of why I'm a musician...

In my family my siblings and I could read notes before words, piano (mum was a brilliant pianist/teacher, I couldn't play naturally on the piano but it's a great skill to have).

This was first followed by violin which was the instrument that felt right. I ended up with two degrees in Violin performance.

At 13 my new high school didn't support violin in band class so I taught myself bass guitar.

At 16 my big brother bought me my first electric guitar, so I woodshedded at home on my Les Paul while gigging on violin and bass.

I played hand percussion for years and jammed as a drummer at times just to have fun, then bizarrely got "discovered" in one of those jams and was hired as a session drummer on an EP for an independent rock musician - while not owning a drum kit or ever having played on significantly (I felt SO bad for the rec engineer who kept telling me to play lighter on the hihat.... but everyone still was happy with how the EP turned out).

Around 21 or 22 I bought a roland drum kit to practice coordination and rapidly became comfortable behind the kit, learning rudiments and advanced techniques with the same tunnel-vision focus as seems to be part of my personality - and finally felt qualified to call myself a drummer, not just a musician who plays some drums.

After getting married I picked up an old german 8 string mandolin from a lady who had it on her wall and was playing Bach on it right away due to the similarity to my violin.

Summary: I learn something in earnest then get bored and find something new to learn. It has paid off since my night job now is as a remote session musician recording any or sometimes all instruments to backup singer songwriters who send their stuff my way. Full string sections are a unique addition I create.

BIGGEST PET PEVE: my own inability to play clean on bass without concentrating on doing so, specially on stingrays...