Pizzicato

My first lesson went well. My teacher is my age and an accomplished cello player (among other string instruments), so I hope I will have much to learn from her. She also helps put me at ease, which is essential as I get "stage fright" playing in front of anyone. My first task was to learn to tune my violin, put on the shoulder rest, and hold it appropriately. Sounds ridiculously simple, but you would be surprised! My back, arm, and shoulder muscles positively ache from holding the violin for the past four days, and I have a tender spot on my collar bone and jaw! Not to mention the fingertips of my left hand are tender and raw.
The aches and pains of training one's body to a new instrument aside, I have been given the task of practicing the following things: tuning my instrument (so far a success, for which I am greatly proud as I never could figure out how to tune my guitar in the past!!); keeping time and refreshing my base of music knowledge; and playing the D string (open D, G, F#, and E). I have practiced the simple little ditties in my book over and over again, spending more than an hour each day for the past three days on them. Despite the simplicity of what I am doing, which is called pizzicato (plucking the strings--no bow yet!!), I find that I still really need to practice moving along the D string. I am moving much more smoothly between the notes now (and finding and hitting the right notes first try now!) Even in three days, I can see improvement in my pizz., and am REALLY loving playing. I CAN'T wait to move onto the next step, which will be the A string notes, and soon, very soon, the bow. In the meantime, it is more practice for me, and some bow exercises that will train my hands and arms to handle and maneuver the bow.