New Player, New Violin?, starting violin Options

[lottie]

Hello!!!! At last! It's taken me weeks of problems but I am finally able to post on ABRSM and join in the forums!!!

I just started playing 6months ago and LOVE the violin. I was a clarinet teacher years ago but have taken up the violin as a new challenge. I play with a Scottish fiddle orchestra and am just starting to learn double stopping and position changes but I haven't started vibrato yet.

I'm playing a 'Zeller' but I'm finding problems using my fourth finger partly because the violin has such a thick neck and partly because my hands are quite small.

I'd like to know if anyone has any experience playing a 7/8 size violin and if they think the smaller size affects the tone? I think I'm outgrowing the Zeller already and am thinking of moving to a Gliga Gama.

Any thoughts/opinions would be of interest.

Oh and Hi again - I've been able to read the forums for ages without being able to join in and it sounds like such a friendly knowlegable place!

[lottie]

I've been looking around (on the internet because there are no violin shops where I am) and the prices for older violins go well into the thousands. Some of those violins do sound like they would be wonderful instruments though and maybe someday I'll be able to travel to try some out. I'm afraid, as a beginner, they're well beyond my budget just now. (And although I never play it now I just can't bring myself to sell my clarinet.)

It looks as though I'll go for a 7/8th and I keep hearing fabulous things about Gliga violins. I've got three violins sitting in the house just now and although I don't like its sound, it's the 7/8th I keep taking out to play because it is so comfortable in my hands.

When I played the piano many moons ago I was told I had great hands for Bach and Mozart but not for Liszt or Brahms; I can stretch an octave but my fingers must really be quite short. It's a pity I couldn't do lengthening exercises (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (I'm sure it was Bach and Haydn I played for my Grade 8 - it was a lifetime ago when I was still at school...oops!)

Anyway, thanks for your reply Amanda - the world of 'strings' is certainly fascinating!