I play the violin and the viola. Predominately viola now. I picked that up around 13 and I prefer its timbre, though I could deal without the jokes. I started violin when I was 5 or 6. I love it and it's a big part of my life. I play with an orchestra in my city.

At this point, I don't remember much of the learning process. You should know it's more physical than you think. They don't weigh much but you need to be able to maintain posture and need good mobility in your neck, arms, and shoulders. Proper position and movement is *super* important for sound generation. You may spend a lot of time on that before you ever play a note.

You should think about what you want to learn or what styles you prefer in looking for a teacher. I'm classically trained and the vast majority of what I do is classical music, although I do play pops and musicals sometimes, which is not far outside of that box with some variation in technique. I have no improvisational skill which is important for fiddle or jazz playing. And that's fine for me, but if you want to be able to jam with other musicians you should make it a priority.

Good news, you can pick up a basic violin pretty cheaply or you can rent one from a music store until you decide if it's for you. You can invest a lot of money in a better quality instrument if you want to run with it later. Also keep in mind that there are a lot of accessories you'll need. Most importantly, a bow and a case, but you'll also want a shoulder rest, rosin, and maybe a tuner. Depending on where you live, humidity monitoring/ control could be an issue (they're sensitive little monsters). You may need a different style chin rest. Strings can make a *huge* difference in sound, and can vary dramatically in price. I usually go through a set in 1-1.5 years, but I should probably replace them every 6 months. There's great free metronome apps out there now. So that's one less thing to buy from when I started at least.

Lemme know if you have specific questions. I could nerd out on this, but don't know what or how much you want to know.

Well if you play trombone, I assume you can read music and have the basics of music theory in your back pocket. And that puts you ahead of the game. There are probably you tube instructional videos so you can get finger positions for notes. String instruments are in C and tuned in 5ths. No transposing necessary. You just need to know if notes are a whole or half step apart.

If you want more instruction, and you might (coordinating bowing and fingering isn't always natural, which you can definitely tell if you've watched anyone try to fake it - I'm looking at you Benedict Cumberbatch, for that terrible Sherlock performance), check with your local college/university. Music students are a great resource for cheap lessons. Or if you're still in school, check to see if you can take a music elective. When I was getting my master's they let me take graduate level music lessons at the music school, which I would not have been able to get into on my own, but since I was a grad student in another discipline I found a back door. Pretty effing sweet for me!

As for your music selection, if you can read trebble clef, you can probably just find the songs you want to learn on the internet. IMSLP should have any classical tunes you're looking for. A lot of games have fan transcriptions if you not much for playing by ear.