Violin Lessons

[madis81]

Hello. This may not be where this goes. If not, I understand that it will be moved to the correct location... wherever that may be! I have a tired mommy brain and couldn't find forum for music.

My daughter will be starting violin lessons soon, so we're looking to purchase a violin. I'm not a fan of renting. Not sure why that is.

Anyway, I was looking at the Cremona SV-150 or SV-130 Premier Student Violin. The price is decent, and it has some good reviews. Are these good violins? Would you recommend something else?

And my last question: How often does your child practice???

Thank you so much for your help!

[christinar]

We have the inexpensive student models from Shar Music (www.sharmusic.com); all small violins sound a bit screechy, in my opinion. Also what strings you get make a huge difference. My children both practice every day (my oldest is 7.5 and has played since she was 4; my younger is 4.5 and started last summer). It's so much easier for us to have it be a daily, "must do", instead of "do I have to do this or not?" battle. I practice with both of them, my dd for 20-40 minutes and my son for 5-15 minutes. Hope this helps. Good luck!!

[kittie313]

Melissa started playing this school year, I'm teaching her myself. She has a 1/4 size student Strad model that we are currently renting from the local shop, and is doing pretty well. She's not terribly coordinated so she's still working on playing just one string at a time (yes, and she's been doing this since September lol) but she does a 10 minute structured lesson twice a week with me right there correcting her and perfecting her abilities with the skills we're working on (I'm also attempting to start her on 1st position fingerings slowly) and a 10-20 minute practice daily without structured active correction unless she requests it. When she shows a desire to have longer lessons and practices, we'll increase the time. Until then though, her time is enough for her ADHD and my sanity from the squeaking LOL

[PGTlatte]

Our 6.5 yo and I just started three weeks ago. We both have rental instruments. Mine is full size and his is 1/4 size. They are high quality instruments from a great strings shop. All the rental money goes toward ownership. He can trade his in to size up when he needs a larger instrument and all the credit transfers. The rental agreement covers all repairs and accidental damage.

I believe it really makes a difference to play a high quality instrument. When I started the oboe in school, the instrument they gave me was in terrible shape. There was nothing I could do to make it sound good and it was very frustrating to me. When my private instructor pulled some strings at the high school to get me a spare instrument from the high school (I was not in high school yet), having a better instrument made a huge difference in my playing and my satisfaction.

Before you purchase an inexpensive instrument, I would find a teacher, and ask the teacher's opinion of any instrument or brand before you purchase. Chances are that a teacher will recommend renting a high quality instrument over purchasing a lower quality one.

For now I am doing good to get him to willingly practice 3x a week for about 20 minutes. I expect this to change as he learns to play notes (he just learned to bow last week) and practicing is more interesting to him.

[kittywitty]

My violin (I started lessons with my 9 yo a year ago) was bought off ebay. It's TERRIBLE. I would try before you buy or get a known good one online with a guarantee. My 9 yo's was bought off a violin teacher an hour away who had some trade ins she keeps at her house.

My 5 yo just got a Shar one online and it is *fabulous* especially for the price-you can even find trade ins on there for cheaper, too. I would definitely recommend them again.

It is NOT worth a really cheap one. They sound terrible, IME don't keep their tuning, and just aren't the same as a quality one. My violin teacher may sell me one of hers after I fell in love playing it. It's an old German one and it plays heavenly compared to my $60 piece of cardboard.

[madis81]

Thanks for everyone's input! After some more consideration and after finding a teacher we decided to rent one. We picked it up tonight and DC starts tomorrow. Someone is very excited! And we did talk about practicing before we got it. We're going to have a practice time every day. It will be a part of her daily routine.