The World's Smallest Violin

Where it all began

January, 1996

Allen was born in a small town; nothing wrong nor interesting. It's just a normal town, with a normal family. They lived in a small house with his parents and his grandparents. His father was a pianist and he would play his piano for Allen every time he got home.

At first, Allen would always get bored when his father made him sit beside him. But as the days went by, Allen fell in love with his father's music and started to practice playing the piano. Sometimes, his mother would join in and make him dance around. When the whole family is at home, the whole house becomes a dance party.

Allen got curious, wanting to go to his father's performance. There, he found the most beautiful sound he had ever heard; the violin. He wanted to play it badly, but his father doesn't have any violin at their house. The only instrument his father had was a piano, a guitar, and a ukulele.

December, 2011

At the age of 15, Allen was looking up violins on the internet and when a genius idea pops out of his mind, he knew it was risky. When his parents were away, Allen sneaked up to the living room and picked up his father's ukulele. He also grabbed a backup guitar string.

He looked at the ukulele and thought of having the ukulele as his violin, but there was one problem, the ukulele was a small version, smaller than an average violin. Allen didn't hesitate though, he really wanted to play the violin, so he grabbed a long stick at the back and attached it to the string. He adjusted and bent the stick like a bow.

When he finished making the violin, he tried to mimic the violinist he saw in his father's show. But when he slid the bow, the sound was different. The sound was horrific; it sounded like a kid screeching. He looked at the internet again and looked for violins. He noticed that the ukulele has a hole in the middle, while the violin has two thin holes at the sides, which are called F-Holes.

He began to think again, and again, and again. Moments later, he ran to the kitchen grabbing some tape. He put a lot of tape vertically at the ukulele's hole, leaving a thin gap on its sides. Allen's heart was throbbing, he lifted the ukulele and the bow and started to play.

Both of his parents came home at the same time, as they opened the door, they heard the sound of a violin emitting from their kitchen. Curious, both of his parents slowly walked up to the kitchen, but they saw their parents hiding behind the wall, peeking at the kitchen.

As they got closer, the grandpa shushed them and whispered to just watch and listen. They peeked and saw Allen playing the violin. His dad noticed that the violin was his ukulele. But rather than getting mad, he smiled. After Allen finished his song, the whole family clapped but Allen got scared and apologized to his dad.

His dad grabbed both of his shoulders and hugged him. He was so proud of his son and promised him a violin for his birthday. It was almost midnight and Allen's dad was left alone cleaning up. He noticed the violin that Allen made, grabbed it and whispered to himself, "It looks like the world's smallest violin."