Violins on TV

[Tone2TheBone]

..."what's all this I keep hearing....about...violins on TV?" - Gilda Radner

My youngest daughter picked up a violin the other day and played some amazing single note solos ala Neil Young style. She now wants lessons and her own violin. I don't know a dang thing about them. Do any of you?

What's a good model? Good starting price? The bridges all seem to be made out of Balsa wood. (yikes) and some tail pieces have mini fine tuners like the kind you see on Floyd Rose and Kahler trems. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I can learn more about them?

[SuperSwede]

She should probably have a full size or a 3/4 Violin. Check out Yamaha´s entry level violins, they are pretty good for the price. I played the Violin for 15 years but I havent really played for several years now. The mini tuners are essential because its not easy to tune the violin using the "regular" tuners only.

[Tone2TheBone]

She should probably have a full size or a 3/4 Violin. Check out Yamaha´s entry level violins, they are pretty good for the price. I played the Violin for 15 years but I havent really played for several years now. The mini tuners are essential because its not easy to tune the violin using the "regular" tuners only.

Ok I know with guitars a 3/4 scale is exactly that...a smaller scale for younger players. Is the 3/4 violin similar in that respect? She's almost 9 years old and is small for her age.

Also what is the difference between a viola and a violin?

[SuperSwede]

Sounds like a 3/4 Violin or even a 1/2 would be a good start. Ask at your music store if you can rent a violin for a few months, they can probably recommend a suitable body size. A viola is slightly larger and is tuned lower than a regular violin which gives a deeper tone.

[monradon]

Use a teacher to measure her, or if not one available use the chart below. Student ones are great for the price but still need to be set up right to play right. I do have a nice older 3/4 for sale . I repair and set up fiddles for friends and my son plays back up for the South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers not a expert but know a little. Mine is a little higher priced than a student but it ready to play and if taken care of probably as cheap as it would ever get something like buying a nice vintage fender etc. Would send it to your teacher for approval if interested.

Don


Sizing For Your Violin

Sizing for an appropriate violin is very easy. Have yourself stand up straight with left arm fully outstretched, with no bend in the arm. Then with a tape measure, measure the distance from your sternum (the large central part of the breastbone) to the palm (not fingertips) of the outstretched arm. Then use the following chart to determine which size best suits yourself:




Measurement Violin Size
up to 15 inches 1/16
15 - 16 inches 1/10
16 - 17.5 inches 1/8
17.5 - 20 inches 1/4
20 - 23 inches 1/2
23 - 25 inches 3/4
25 or greater inches 4/4

[Tone2TheBone]

I wanted to revisit my original post here. My daughter has been taking lessons for over a month now. She's doing pretty good...but the theory and technique of playing a violin is still pretty hard...even for me! She's learning to play in the standard form...reading notes and playing simple melodies...not in the Suzuki form. I had thought of changing over to a teacher that does Suzuki but she's already older than the minimum age for that and well...I want her to KNOW what the notes are while she's playing them now. I don't want her to learn by ear only. If she was 3 years old then I'd probably want the Suzuki method...but I can't see her doing it now that she's already 9. Anyway I'm struggling to help her with her music reading so I made me a music staff showing the notes off of her violin (G,D,A,E) up the chromatic scale so that I can help her find the notes on her fingerboard. Does anyone have any tips on how to do this in a smooth way? I sing the notes to her and have even picked them on her violin with my fingers for her to see and that seems to help...but I think she does better when I tell her what notes to play and she does them herself. Any good ideas for further help?

[monradon]

Go slow and play along with her. She is only 9 sounds to me like she is making good progress. If not get a different teacher

[Tone2TheBone]

Go slow and play along with her. She is only 9 sounds to me like she is making good progress. If not get a different teacher

Thanks for posting monradon. She's taking half hour lessons every Saturday. She gets about 2 pages of "homework" which is comprised of lesson songs from her workbook. She hasn't gotten past fingering on the first 3 "fret stars" on each string so the melodies are fairly easy. I'll talk with her teacher about the speed of her progress to make sure she's soaking it in properly thanks.

[monradon]

Dont push her , one half hour for a 9 year old is plenty. If it stops being fun she will not want to do it. Saw some 15 year olds this weekend that blew the socks off everyone but not everyone goes at that pace.