Shinichi playing the violin?

[Dus]

That is a brilliant post. it also demonstates that Shinichi is flawed as a character in a more sublte way than just "he can't sing, he can't play the recorder, but he still knows everything about music, since he knows absolutely everything if it is needed to solve a case".
About the case in volume 8: I don't think he can read notes, but he heard Ran play it and because he knows a bit about playing the piano he knows which keys she must have hit.

Anyway, the gist is: He can't sing, he knows how to play the piano (theoretically, he might not have the dexterity to actually do it) but he can't play the recorder (which doesn't make much sense, he shoulds be able to learn it, but he probably just doesn't care about it). This lack of interest makes it unlikely, that he plays the violin, even if it was Holmes' instrument of choice. He doesn't take up fencing or baritsu either, after all. To me it seems more like football is the substitute for all three things: fencing (sport), baritsu (martial art), and playing the violin (having something to do while lost in thought).

Spoiler: about kyuuketsuki's post

I wonder how the London case ties in with that. He isn't really more mature in the case as a whole, but he did decide to tell Ran his feelings, albeit awkwardly worded. This might be because by now he knows that he doesn't get many chances likes this.

[kyuuketsuki]

I'd get into it here, but it is completely off topic, and I have no time to do so.

Spoiler:

In short, he isn't as bad as he was, but he didn't make much progress from the last time he transformed. He did make some in his ego, but it was hard to tell because the person he was up against actually gave him some trouble and he was an intermediary really... Hard to not talk down to someone who is calling you for help on something you know so much about, especially if you think it is something the person calling should know about. (In other words a detective should read detective novels to gain knowledge and techniques) He also does treat time like more of a commodity to be used wisely.

And I agree with most of what you said. It seems to me that Shinichi's musical talent/knowledge is widely varying. I don't think Gosho can decide to make him a musical genius or a musical dunce. At least we know he has a fantastic ear. That is the only fact that Gosho kept consistent. Also... if Shinichi couldn't read music how did he decode the messages? He had to know the notes and how they corresponded to the keys.

[Dus]

You mean in volume 8? Ran played the song for him, so he had heard and thus knew which keys she must have hit. And I don't think there is another instance where he was require to read notes. Although it certainly seems strange that he doesn't know how to read notes. Not like that would be a hard thing to learn, especially if you already can name notes when you hear them

[Jd-]

That doesn't work since I'm still flagging delete

It takes you more time to flag it than it does for me to reject it ^^

[Nyarl]

That doesn't work since I'm still flagging delete

It takes you more time to flag it than it does for me to reject it ^^

It's worse than that. I've unflagged the delete myself more than a few times to post (hmm... so your rejections explain the times I thought I forgot to flag delete...) It's TRADITION, now, though. Especially now that you have to reject the delete just to undercut the reason I gave for not "taking it to PM". (Though, if *you* really cared, why not put that in a PM instead of giving me the excuse to reply here? Slider was considerate enough to the politeness seekers move his take on the "discussions" to PM...)

[Jd-]

It's worse than that. I've unflagged the delete myself more than a few times to post (hmm... so your rejections explain the times I thought I forgot to flag delete...) It's TRADITION, now, though. Especially now that you have to reject the delete just to undercut the reason I gave for not "taking it to PM". (Though, if *you* really cared, why not put that in a PM instead of giving me the excuse to reply here? Slider was considerate enough to the politeness seekers move his take on the "discussions" to PM...)

You must really want it deleted if you keep wanting to post by unflagging it and then flagging it after you've made a post. Why do I have to reject the deletion to undercut the reason you gave for not "taking it to PM"? That really has nothing to do with it. You can PM me anytime you would like, any day--every day, even. When I reject the deletion, it's because it comes up on the approval/rejection list (which also includes new sign-ups). If it makes you feel better, I can just disable your account's ability to flag it for delete at all.

As I said though... PM inbox is open at all times.

[Baritsu Master]

Speaking as a Sherlockian, the kind that has a huge collection of Holmes books, has visited London to see the Holmes sights, and been published several times on the subject, I've got to say that even though I don't play the violin, I still own one, and must take it out and practice from time to time, because the Master played it.  It's just a thing we do.

[sakura_85]

i think that is possible to recognize the notes by ear or by seeing them and still not be able to sing or play an instrument. i say this thinking at my case. i have a good ear, but i can't reproduce a song with my voice because i can't make it sound like it must, and i can tell when i do mistakes in singing. besides, i learned the notes when i was in elementary school, and i still recognize them, but i can't play an instrument because i never learned to do this. i think is possible for shinichi to know the basics of music theoretically but maybe he didn't like to play an instrument and he never learned that. from what i've seen in the anime, and now from reading the manga i think really has some theoretical knolege about music. in the moonlight sonata he can read the notes from the score.

[Crap4869]

Okay the fact that Conan plays the violin is not mentioned in the manga anywhere, but that Conan is tone deaf is not proven either. (this should be relevant somewhat so I thought I'd post here) Conan is called 'tone-deaf' for what reason? I believe, it is for not being able to sing in tune.
Now we've to have a clear distinction between 'reception' and 'production' of sound. This, I agree with sakura_85, to listen, we do not need to actually do anything but listen and analyze what the sound is. To sing, you have to make use of your vocal cords and vibrate them at the correct frequency to produce a certain note. It is not totally impossible, therefore, for one with reasonable pitch recognition (I shall not use perfect pitch here as I assume it is not confirmed) to not be able to sing in tune due to the inability or the lack of ability to make a stable and correct sound with the vocal cords. (Although of course, chances are quite low, but still possible.) Conan sucks(?) at singing and only that. He can still recognize notes using his ear as it has nothing to do with producing a certain vibration with your throat.

[This is a tad ridiculous and unlikely, but I shall mention it anyway] You know we hear ourselves differently compared to others hearing ourselves? If I recall correctly we hear ourselves through an internal canal connecting the mouth and the ear (or something like that. can't really remember). Maybe something's wrong with Conan there. He thought he's singing the right tone but fact is he isn't.

Slightly off topic: And as for a tone deaf person learning a violin, as a sidenote, it's still not totally impossible. All you probably need is a tuner, a good memory of relative positions and a strong determination. If one is so obsessed with Holmes and is tone deaf, I assume it's not impossible. The exact positions of violin fingerings are just like piano keys, albeit for violin much more difficult to learn initially, as long as the individual strings are tuned properly and you hit that correct length, you will still get the right note. With enough practice you can press the string at the right length automatically, or at least close enough.

[ShinRan4ver]

Shinichi's Marksmanship with a gun is canon, episode 219 he took Megure's gun  shot twice to reveal Kid. Also Ran did mention in the Stradivarius case that Shinichi know a lot about Violin but didn't mention whether he can play it. I do believe Shinichi have perfect pitch(just in the hearing department) but just couldn't project the notes correctly with his throat so he seems tone deaf when he sings.

[Kaito Lady]

the only time when i've ever seen shinichi/conan playing the violin was in movie 12...and he
also didnt seem tone deaf there

[xGinx]

he pretty much used Soccer/Football in place of Holme's Hobby of fencing!

He used it for both if I'm not mistaken, His kicking the ball around in place of the Violin, and what Kor said.

He used to kick the Violin and play the soccerball.