Nicola says baby hated the violin...until she played her Baby Shark!
However, Nicola Benedetti, 38, has revealed she has had to work hard to gain the approval of one discerning critic - her baby daughter.
The Ayrshire-born musician said her one year old girl 'absolutely hated' it every time Benedetti picked up the violin and would 'immediately start crying'.
It is only due to the violinist's perseverance and the fact she dropped her usual repertoire of classical pieces in favour of popular children's song Baby Shark that she eventually won the tot round.
In an interview on BBC Four show Women's Hour, Benedetti, who welcomed her baby daughter with American jazz musician husband Wynton Marsalis, 63, last year, said: 'When she was six or seven months and I started playing the violin she just immediately started crying. Not crying joyfully at all. She absolutely hated it.
'I don't think she hated the sound. I think it was more like I was holding [the violin] instead of her.
'It was this instinctual sense of this thing that now mum's got. You know it was a barrier between me and her.
'It is because I can't pick her up when I've got the violin in my hand.
'But I just then quite slowly would start sort of playing things that I guess were more familiar to her.
'And playing [while] sitting on the floor, very close to her. Playing a couple of little notes and seeing the interaction and just trying to make it fun.
'And there was like a change moment where she just started to love it and now she does.'
When asked if her repertoire for her daughter included the children's song Baby Shark, she said: 'I think I've probably done that a few times.
'I think I have. I've added some extra, nice harmonies and made it interesting.'
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