Hello every one, first post here as you can tell. I been thinking about getting into music and never played any instruments in my whole life. The reason I am thinking about this is because I will soon have a lot of time on my hand and I figured that learning to play a musical instrument would help pass the time. I been leaning towards the Violin, been using youtube to listen to some violins. But before I continue this I need to know something that is important. I will have absolutely no opportunity whats so ever to have lessons. Which means this will be self taught. I have a friend who learned the guitar by himself so I thought perhaps its possible to learn to play the violin self taught as well. Or perhaps it is impossible and I should explore other instruments? Tell me what you all think about this. I have zero people in real life to give me advise on this. Thank you.

Hi,

I'm learning the violin and have a lot of time on my hands! It's very good for using up time.

It will be hard to learn without any lessons at all but not impossible.

Youtube is a great resource, look at professorV's lessons on there they are very good.

If you are really dedicated, get yourself a good tutor book and pay good attention to the videos to make sure things like bow hold are correct then anything is possible. But I woulod really recommend trying to get at least the odd lesson or contact with someone who plays strings so you can make sure you're not doing anything wrong.

Good Luck. There are some violin teachers on here who may be able to answer some questions for you like the best book to start from!

Whereabouts do you live?

I started playing guitar a bit during college and was able to teach myself using books etc to the stage of being able to play a couple of songs and the progress was pretty quick. I then gave up with it due to demands of course and losing interest in it.

I'm now learning the violin and getting weekly lessons, and thinking about it I don't think I could have got this far teaching myself. The guitar is possible to teach yourself to some degree but the violin is a lot different, you have to learn what the notes sound like as there are no frets, you have to hold the violin properly and learn to bow properly, and that's just the start! Plus the way you hold it and the posture are a lot different to the guitar. If you start teaching yourself I'm guessing you'll just end up picking up bad habits that will come to get you later on. Even *with* lessons my teacher picks up on things I'm starting to do wrong - which is a good thing, the point of getting lessons!

Are you really sure you cannot get any lessons at all? Even if you can get one a month it will be better than nothing.

In the long, long summer break between GCSEs and the start of year 12, which was about 3 months, I decided that I was going to learn the violin, and since it wasn't term-time, I also had no access to a teacher. However, I learnt the bow-hold, correct posture, vibrato and so on by myself and from the help of youtube videos I felt I made really good progress, and when I got to school in September the strings teacher was totally supportive and amazed that I'd done it by myself! So it can be done, and I'm now playing at about grade 6+ level! It does help though if you already have a knowledge of theory and play another instrument.

Yes I planned on using youtube to learn, and I will remember this professorV. I also had not thought of books... I will have to find time to look into that. I currently live in the United States. The reason I will not have the opportunity for lessons is because I am going into the military. And plan on going overseas, so I will most likely be in another country. And from what I heard I will be bored because there is not much to do in a foreign country that do not speak English. So that’s my situation.




Bad habits is something that I am concerned with as well. But unfortunately I will be unable to obtain any lessons. Being in a different country with a different laungange would be quite impossible to get lessons, or so I assume. I suppose when ever I come back to the States I should get a couple of lessons.



I am intersted in knowing how you learned the bow-hold, a correct posture, and this vibrato and so on? Primarly from help of youtube? Or youtube and a helpful violin book? If or when I begin learning to play the Violin, I was thinking about posting videos of myself attempting to play the violin onto youtube, so i can collect constructive criticism.

thanks again for the help

Just a thought but if you are in the military maybe there'll be someone else where you are that plays violin too?

Hi,

It's a great thing that you are doing. Music allows us to escape to another place!

I too was in the military for a while overseas. I took my sax.

You will be amazed at how many musicians come out of the wood work. (Mostly with fingers in ears!)

Just talk to people. Maybe put up a notice, and I would be very suprised if there is not an experienced violinist lurking in some corner!

You will also gain the respect of a lot of people, as most ambitious people have wanted to learn an instrument. The same as those who always say "I really must write a book!".

A word of warning: find somewhere alone and away from those who are asleep! I mean well away!

Good luck and let us know how you get on. I don't know which unit you are with, but most regiments etc have some musicians among the ranks.

Oh yes that is a good idea, i definitely will keep my eyes (ears?) out for some one else who plays the violin once I am in my fleet.



Hey thanks man, like I said I will keep my eyes open for a possible lurking violinist in the corners. But honestly I am a little surprised hearing from you to hear that there would be a population of those that play any kind of instruments. Maybe I should not be so surprised ... And yes I will make sure I do not #### off any one who is trying to sleep. Last thing i want is a mob rush onto me.

One last thing, can any one recommend a good beginner book to the violin? I was in a "Barns an Noble" book store and only book i saw for violins was a "Violins for Dummies," I believe that is what it was named. You know its those books for dummies.

Thanks again for the replies.

Well I used the Suzuki Violin books (it worked really well because I am a suzuki flute student so all the pieces at the very beginning were familiar, and I was also familiar with the idea of producing the best tone possible and paying attention to detail) I also practised in front of a mirror, and memorised everything in the Suzuki way so that I could concentrate solely on posture, bow hold and sound whilst watching myself play. I used to play the cello so perhaps the concept of playing a string instrument was already ingrained, I don't know But the most important thing is to have fun! And I think that the way to have fun is to learn in whichever way suits you - be it with videos, a real teacher, or just exploring by yourself

I will look into the Suzuki Violin books as you suggested, and thanks for the encouragement! I will always keep in mind as to having fun when playing this instrument.


One last thing that I need some suggestions on is buying a violin. I realize that violins are expensive and are priced at 150$ to 200$ and so on. So I checked out eBay, and i found some violins selling at 50$ or so. I know that you are suppose to first hand take a look at violins and play them to see if your not getting ripped off. But honestly as some one who has no idea what he is doing I do not believe it would do any good at all trying out a violin. So I am leaning towards purchasing a violin from eBay because of the price. Bad idea? does not matter to much? What do you guys think?

Unless you know what you're doing, you'll probably regret it - you'll end up most likely with an unplayable instrument that won't give you any pleasure.

A good beginners instrument can be had for 300 - 400, that would be enough to get you started and keep you going for a good long while. You can upgrade to a better instrument later if you keep at it.

If you can't stretch to that, then try something from Yita music, or Gliga online - the Yita T19 is ok as a starter instrument and the gliga genial will do well for the first couple of years - both sell for a couple of hundred dollars I think and are very basic, but more than playable instruments.

Another option might be to hire?

Allan

I did practically the same thing! Between GCSE's and year 12 i out of no-where decided i wanted to learn violin, watched countless numbers of youtube videos of violinists and watched everything on violinmasterclass.com like a bazillion times and that was before i even got the violin! I got the violin for my birthday just before July, and by the time September came i was doing alright and my teacher started me on grade 4 and i got a distinction That's not saying i hadn't picked up bad habits though - i went to my first lesson playing with a total 'frying pan hand' and a really terrible attempted vibrato If i hadn't have gone to lessons i'd never have gotten any further as i had so many little mistakes in my playing/technique that all piled up - yet that were so easy to solve once i had a teacher.
So you can get to a certain level of playing but you will get to a point where you get stuck =/ If you know someone who plays violin, or meet people who play violin through learning, then i'm sure they'll be happy to give you some pointers and make sure you're doing everything right and that'd be a good help



About the instrument - $50 wouldn't get you a playable violin =( $200 would probably be the least to look at spending. I know it's a lot of money... as rosfrog said, maybe you can rent one? I wanted to try out viola but didn't want to play it as in lessons etc. so i bought an extremely cheap viola, about $130 (it cost me just under £70 so im thinking it'll be about double that in dollars?) and it's alright for playing around on and it is good for the money but still barely playable.

As Rosfrog and fflwit have said, it is important to get a reasonable instrument. Poor quality instruments might be cheaper - but they are cheap for a reason. You are unlikely to get as much enjoyment out of your playing if you are continually having to fight against a bad instrument.

I learnt cello at school (using school instruments) and my first full-size cello - which was the second cello I played - was so bad that it took all the enjoyment out of playing. If I hadn't been intending to do GCSE music (a better choice than drama or technology...) I'd have stopped playing. When one of the other cello students left school I got her school cello (which was a much better instrument) and it immediately made an enormous difference to my playing. I hadn't realised until that point just how much the bad cello had been holding me back - I had simply thought that the problem was me not being good enough to learn to play.

This is such a salutary lesson - my teacher told me that she regularly has cello students with almost unplayable instruments and it is so discouraging for them, especially as beginners. If you really want to make progress, I would fight shy of Ebay and head to a music store to seek advice and possible rental options as the right instrument will enable you to get going much more successfully and enjoy the excitement of learning the violin.

When you say try yita music, do you mean this website? http://www.yitamusic.com/about.asp

I was unable to find gliga online, well i did find it, but it was a health insurance website or something. Would it still be ok to purchase online a violin? Or should I really go out and search for a music store out there? I would prefer not to because I do not have much access to a vehicle to go around driving. But I would understand if I had no choice.

Ok so cheap instruments really do mean you buy what you pay for. Meaning not good quality instrument. I will not go cheap on this then. Also any one by chance know of a good website for purchasing violins that are good quality? Within the price range of a beginner violin.

Thanks for the responses!

You'll get Gliga violins here http://www.elidatrading.co.uk/gliga.htm

I can recommend Gliga and the Yita ranges from personal experience (but not Yita's cheapest model - it's not good, but their T20 is excellent.)

Stentor's are also good to begin on... i started on a stentor II which cost me £90 (pounds that is not dollars im not good at working out dollars haha)

I also have a stentor (the student 1) It's a very basic instrument, but is perfect for a beginner, and very cheap! Mine cost about £55 if I remember correctly! The case it comes with is fine, and the bow is also fine, but I got a better P&H bow to replace it which is something you might want to consider in the future. This might be a bit controversial BUT I don't think it really matters what instrument you have in the beginning, as long as it's playable, because no matter how good an instrument is, the sound you make is mostly down to you - ie a beginner will still sound like a dying cat on a Strad