How long did it take you to begin sounding not awful and making good music? Did you start playing songs after a few lessons? Thanks.

vc

I think that depends on what you call sounding good ..and what you call playing a song - I started with playing small and basic songs pretty much straight away, and now after about 10 months of learning I can play known songs like Over The Rainbow and Greensleeves.. whether I sound good or not is personal preference I think, but I can see how much I've progressed and to me that means good :D

Just keep on practising hard and it'll pay off.. not too hard though, it'll take the fun out and drive you crazy!

if you mean good as in, i sound like the violinists i hear on cds and in orchestra, that sometimes takes a while! if you mean good, like i can play a longish song, kinda hard not many mistakes that might take about a year or two depending on you and your teacher. you can play songs that are relatively "easy" pretty quickly, your tone might be a bit suspect but your parents and family can listen to you without wincing, then you are a good enough violinist really. its made to be listened to. if people can listen to you play (you might play real basic stuff it doesn't matter) then you are a good violinist.
it will sound worse to you becasue your ear is right beside the violin, but the bad noises you hear usually don't sound out into the room. you will really know a bad sound when you hear it if that is what you worry about.