The aim of the study was to acquire a deeper understanding of how small children learn an instrument in the presence of their parents. It is qualitative in nature and concerned six pre-school children (five years old) who were learning the violin together and where their parents were present at the lessons. All the children's homes were visited before the teaching started. Thereafter there was participatory observation of all the lessons and concerts during the first year of learning (ten months, divided into two terms). After both the first and the second term the children, one or both parents and the teacher were interviewed. These interviews served to elucidate the children's perspective on their learning. In the beginning the study was not guided by a theory--rather, it was a question of following up interesting "leads" that emerged from the observations. From the leads there eventually arose a theory of "learning style," which thus was grounded in the empirical data. (Contains 1 figure.)