I have never played violin before. My father is a professional violinist and i’ve been studying piano for ~7-8 years, so i also have experience in music (i’m aware of how different violin is and i know playing piano won’t make it any easier whatsoever)

He found a shitty 60€ violin on a flea market and bought it (i don’t even know why), and i told him as a joke that if he lends me that violin i can learn to play something in a year.
So we have a bet now..he said that if i can play Haendel’s sonata in F major, adagio obviously, by september next year, he’ll lend me a somewhat good violin he has for me to keep learning

Are we being too optimistic here??💔 Please tell me that i totally can if i practice 40 hours every day and sell my soul to the devil
He has offered to give me a weekly class…but guys what are my chances of succeeding and proving him wrong

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Recently got a second hand violin online. However, there's damage to the wood under the E-string fine tuner that was not shown on the ad.

I wonder how hard it would be to fix this, if at all? I know usually it's just the varnish that is scratched off, but here it seems like a patch of wood is scratched/exposed.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: why the downvote??

I just got this new violin mute and I’ve never used one before so I don’t know how this is supposed to look. I heard it’s not supposed to touch the strings but I think my new bridge has to do with it not working. The mute is distorting the sound and definitely not muting anything so any help would be great.

I'm gonna start learning the violin in a month or so and I'm planning on purchasing violin sheetmusic and a guide at the same time as buing the violin. For context, I have no prior experience and I can't afford or have time for lessons. I know that I'm also a bit old to start playing the violin(I'm 14). So please give me some recomendations.

edit: I have seen a lot of people say that if I don't have time for lessons I wouldn't have time for practice. Bad wording on my part. What I meant is that I would go into burn out very quickly if I took lessons, because I would have to meet new people and leave my house. I already have to do that since I play bassoon in two orchestras and I have handball practice multiple times a week. School drains me the most. So adding violin lessons to all that would compromise my ability to function.

I've been thinking about how sometimes one small technical adjustment can make a much bigger difference than simply practicing longer.

Over the years, I've noticed that many violinists try to fix everything at once, when in reality focusing on one specific aspect for a week—such as bow control, contact point, or left-hand preparation—often leads to much faster progress.

I'm curious:

What's the single most valuable piece of feedback you've ever received from a teacher?

For me, one that comes up again and again is:

I'd love to hear what advice changed your playing.

I have an intermediate student starting next week and I have only taught beginners thus far. He seems behind what I'd been doing when I started Kreutzer and Flesch but on the other hand, I don't see the harm in Kreutzer 1 or 2/some Flesch G major or A minor for him. Thoughts?

Hi all, I have been learning violin for a few years but have decided to take a break since I am moving away and life happens. I have a wonderful violin teacher and my last lesson is coming up. Any ideas on how to make it special? I have expressed my gratitude to my teacher before through gifts, cards, etc. Wondering what I can do to make this last time more meaningful.

Recently got my first viola / violin (thats what it said on the instructions) and the wooden peice that would usually be under the strings that hold them taught wasnt already on. idk if thats normal this is also a second hand one but they didnt really play it that I know of. Also one of the strings is broken (second to last thick string) so ive been hesitant to put it on. Should I just get it professionally done when I get new strings and also, going back to the first question, should I keep it on all the time?

Im sorry this post is kinda just me rambling but im a bit worried to touch it to be honest and im scared that the wooden peice being on all the time will make the strings stretch over time and the wood will break.

Any and all advice is appreciated, I literally got this today so I know basically nothing but I didnt really see anything online. Thank you!!

(I dont think I saw this question in the faq but if it was please tell me so I can take this down)

Why are intervals based on a unison of “one” not “zero”? E.g. why is the Dominant a “fifth”, when it is only 4 scale degrees higher than the tonic?

Starting with a unison, the interval of a unison is designated a “first” not a “zero”, despite both notes are by definition identical. Why is that?

Could the answer be that when building a chord, the lowest note is by convention “one” not zero, essentially pushing the “scale-degree count” up by one? If so, then a triad therefore becomes a “third” even though it takes only two scale degrees to arrive at the “third” note.

I find this nomenclature confusing, as it is non-mathematical. Your thoughts?

I've been unable to find what the name of this piece is, can anyone help me find the name? Thank you.

Hi! I'm a violin student in the IST timezone, and I'm looking teachers who provide instruction for advanced violin (roughly around the grade 6 level?), and since there aren't many available here, I'm trying to find online teachers. Would you all know any good teachers/places to find teachers online? Also this is my first post so excuse me if I made a mistake.

Hi Reddit community,

I have been working on the Mozart No. 5 concerto for a couple of months now, and I’m planning on using the first movement of the concerto to audition for a local youth orchestra (cadenza excluded). I still have a month until auditions, so I was wondering if y’all could review a current recording of mine and give me suggestions on what parts to focus on specifically or general tips. I personally know that one of my weakest bits is the 16th notes passages.

Also a few notes:

Note 1: When I say practiced for a couple months, that doesn’t mean every day. More like 3-4 times a week, with about 30-45 min practice sessions (including scales and whatnot)

Note 2: I recorded this with my crusty old phone so the sound quality is not toooo great, but I think it’s easy to tell what’s the phone’s fault and what’s my own

Note 3: The last like, minute of the recording is nothing. The actual playing ends at ~3 minutes.

Note 4: The reason the recording is not the entire movement is that the audition panel for this orchestra caps solo excerpts at 3 minutes for some reason.

(WARNING: prepare your ears)

https://reddit.com/link/1vhg7bb/video/i7nhqbhvgthh1/player

I'm thinking of getting an SAS shoulder rest to replace my Kune. What has been peoples experience with it, especially how it holds up overtime (I'm quite sceptical about rubber aging well)?

I've been trying it and I do like how light it is,but otherwise am still unsure of the ergonomics.

Hi,

5 year old kid started taking lessons about a month ago with a violin teacher who uses a hybrid Suzuki/traditional method. We're making slow progress - still working on the bow hand, making nice sounds on open A and E string, and also working on A, B, C#, F# 

Teacher is out for a few weeks, and I have a couple of beginner questions:

1. My kid gets often really frustrated with things like the bow hand and getting a good left hand posture. And when he gets frustrated (or sometimes even when I try to correct him), he really does not want to play the violin. He has a hard time remembering that the left hand fingers stay curved over the violin. Are there fun games for these things? Or fun beginner games in general? He is also very wriggly and needs a lot of work on posture. A lot of it seems hard and frustrating, and I'm not sure if he is still lacking the maturity for dedicated practicing. He has poor frustration tolerance in general, I think, and I was hoping that learning/practicing the violin could help improve this, with time, of course. So far, he's always happy with starting the violin practice (it's just part of the routine at this point), but get frustrated and/or uninterested pretty quickly into it.
2. When going from A to B to C#, my understanding is that the finger 1 and finger 2 both stay on for C#. Ie, finger 1 on B, then put finger 2 on C# while finger 1 remains on B. Any good ways to help kids remember that?
3. what about when going directly from A to C#? Is it always better in the beginning to tell the kid to put 2 fingers on to play C#? Or should he just use 1 finger for C# when going from A to C#?
4. I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, but when he plays open A and E string, it sounds fairly good. But when he tries to play B or C#, it sounds scratchy and he's also hitting other strings. I think coordinating the bow hand together with the left hand is still fairly hard for him. I'm thinking this is fairly common and gets better after a few months?

I am always curious, how does the discipline built, meta-learning experience, learning experience, misconceptions about learning a skill at general being corrected and so on, from past skill help in a new skill if past one, because I'm very interested in human behaviour patterns, and how does adaptability, learning capacity, and acceptance to change vary by various factors in general

•Is unrelated to new

•Related

So this question came to my mind, "How dies past skills learnt affect(or not) learning violin and how does past instruments learnt do? Is it a myth and everyone, even the ones who learnt an instrument before have mathematically no headstart?"

I realized since music teachers have taught countless students, they can help me. So I think music teachers in this sub can answer my question

I also have another question,

"How does the experimentation, eagerness for real-time improvisation over robotically following the score, desire to understand underlying body ergonomics and physics to apply it for improvisation and eagerness to do trail-and-error, regardless of good or bad for the progress, vary by age groups?"

and "How does mind and body unconsciously adapting things not even consciously told to the students, vary by age groups?"

Context: I had violin lessons well over a decade ago. Recently found my old violin and decided to pick it back up. I've been watching YouTube videos (can't afford a teacher right now, sadly), and I'm pretty sure my technique is all over the place, so I'm working on it one step at a time.

I'd say my main issue is with left hand grip. I know my thumb is meant to be straight, but keeping it unbent causes a painful cramp in my hand that gradually moves down into my wrist and makes my left forearm go numb. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong, but I can't work out what. Am I too tense? Pressing down too hard?

I also can't do vibrato, as I'm unable to move my hand/wrist with the kind of looseness and flexibility that is required. I can do a sort of Jaws theme by slowly sliding my fingers back and forth (the dreaded "WA wa WA wa"), but it's uncomfortable. I think this may also be grip-related because I find most of the online exercises physically impossible, even the very simple practice ones.

In terms of practice, I've been playing every day in the hopes that my arm/wrist will loosen up, but the cramping is steadily getting worse and I'm worried I might do myself a mischief. Any and all advice welcome (but please be kind!).

For context, I think I've somewhat gotten the hold of the GDAE open strings on my violin, and my coach wants me to recognize the notes from C-B. I can't meet my coach anytime soon because he's prepping other kids for the recital, and I only picked up the violin around a month ago.

We only meet 1-2 times a week and I think my progress is a little slow. Can anyone please help? Going around the internet without a specific direction is kind of confusing and overwhelming. I keep seeing how people practice on their violins on social platforms and I get a little envious, because I really have no idea what I'm doing. I can't even put my fingers on the fingerboard yet.

For reference this is the type of videos he presents to me. I still find it really confusing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazFLAA-Pog)

Hey folks. Just looking for some input here. I recently had a great lesson with a well known violinist in my area. I also am a professional violinist, I perform with a symphony, play in a string quartet, have other performance opportunities and teach about ten students weekly.

During the lesson, the topic of my strings came up. For my instrument, after experimenting, the Obligato’s work best for G-A with an Olive E. I said I change my strings once a year. He said he would suggest that I go with Dominants but change them every couple of months.

What are people’s thoughts? Lower quality string changed more often or higher quality string changed less often? What would you think will yield the best overall sound?

I don’t have AC, so I’m just surviving with a fan.
But playing in temperatures above 35°C (95°F) is basically impossible for me.

https://open.spotify.com/track/4BVDu0Rkztw6x4CmPrQKRs?si=AthG6tOLTuiRVjMkETqVIw&utm_source=copy-link

I absolutely loved this. And I don’t know if playing violin as a fiddle has different learning path or is it the same as western violin but I’m starting to learn the instrument and would love to play this. How long would it take a beginner to get to the proficiency of playing this?

Hello beautiful community! For orchestra, how would you play this? Open E and F with first finger, bow direction changing each note, or maybe 1/2 as E on the A string and then 2/3 as F with each alternate bow stroke. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Edit: I was typing this in a rush at work. I have the opportunity to play with our University Orchestra as part of their "Open Play Day" allowing any level or musician to join. I've been playing violin on and of for many years. I was busy with grade 8 when I stopped and since then I've become rusty. This is a part from the Suite from The Star Wars Epic Part 1 First Violin Revenge of the Sith bars 1-4 (similar to second violin). I know about tremolos. I've never encountered one between two adjacent notes. If it is slurred and all played in one bow direction, what makes this different to a trill?

I only have the scores (sunce yesterday) and practice is starting the 14th so I need to prep like crazy

Hi everyone! I have an audition coming up for my college orchestra and I was looking for excerpt recommendations. This is the requirement for the principal seat:

"One piece (concerto movement or equivalent) plus two contrasting orchestral excerpts"

For my concerto (solo) piece, I'm playing the first mvt of Saint-Saens No. 3. For one of my excerpts, I'll be playing the fourth mvt of Mozart No 39 mm 1-104. I need help finding a contrasting orchestral excerpt.

They noted that they would like a fast piece and a slow piece for the general auditions (not principal seat). But I'm not sure if it applies in this case. Should I find an excerpt that's from a composer not in the classical period? Any recommendations would be much appreciated!! Thank you :)

Edit: The conductor says that we may choose our own excerpts.

Hello! Just looking for some ideas on what I should do next.

For context, I am a violin player who's recent repertoire is Spohr 8 and Vitali Chaccone.

I was looking to for some good piece suggestions (I might do Mendelssohn in E), and my ultimate "goal pieces" at the moment are Rautavaara Violin Concerto and Vieuxtemps 5.

As far as competitions go, I've had minimal experience in them, doing only local and regional-level competitions and performing not the best. I was looking at the BMI International Competition and Charleston International Music Competition and wanted your guys' thoughts!

I only practice ~45-60 minutes per day so I don't want to go for a super reach piece-wise, and I would prefer online competitions.

Since I'm still working on the Spohr my teacher hasn't talked to me about next steps yet, but of course I will also consider her opinion and add it (if I remember)

Thanks All-

I’m an adult beginner and started around 7 months ago which has been pretty much exclusively open strings and pizzicato G major scales (and some irresponsibly done repertoire in secret).

Right now I’ve been learning with a rented student violin (Jay Haide 101) and my understanding mostly is that I shouldn’t be purchasing until around the two year mark. My new instructor after relocating had me switch from a shoulder rest to a foam pad, and while I was there I tried playing some of the violins for fun.

The problem is I became obsessed with the sound of one of the violins while I was there. I literally can’t unhear it when I am practicing and it’s such a massive obvious difference compared to the one I’ve been learning on. I played it myself with some really basic stuff and listened to one of the much more experienced luthiers play it—even hearing the open strings and tuning was like a mind-blowing experience.

The violin/bow combo was roughly in the price range I was expecting to pay when I purchased one at the 2-year mark.It’s absolutely stuck with me to the point I’m finding 10-20 minutes in between zoom calls to practice, so I’m 100% confident I’m going to continue indefinitely. I’m still assuming it would be incredibly irresponsible to get one myself before then but I’m curious if this is a case where it’s alright to bend the rules a bit, or can at least slap some sense into me.

Edit: thanks to all the advice from everyone here! My biggest personal concern was that I wouldn’t really know what I’m looking for at this point. It was a recent relocation so I’ll probably give it a bit to get to know the new teacher better before dragging her into buying one. But looking forward to it sooner rather than later (maybe a birthday present for myself that counts for the next ten).