A day in the life of a violinist

It is always good to start with a cheap, amateur instrument. Why? Only time can really tell whether you as an adult newbie or your child as a beginning violin student is into serious violin playing or not. If you’re simply flirting with violin playing and decide to quit halfway into the year, you do not lose much in terms of money spent on the instrument. However, if you decide you want to pursue violin playing as a serious musician, the amateur instrument will just give you a mediocre sound, thereby prompting you to coax the best tone and the ideal intonation from an average instrument. Once you are used to getting the maximum sound from a cheap violin, imagine how this ability for creating the best tone will sound in a professional violin!

There are lots of ways to make a cheap-sounding violin sound better: Purchase a good set of average-costing string - Strings are bound to snap after a certain amount of use anyway. Again, there is no need to purchase pricey strings neither is it necessary to purchase the cheapest ones that are more prone to frustrate the child with the kind of sound it can produce.

Another way to increase the quality of tone from a cheap violin is to focus on the tone produced by the bow hand. The importance of the role of the right bow hand as far as tone is concerned can never be stressed highly enough. A good, solid yet pliable hold on the bow and a steady forearm can create strong and consistent sound from even from the cheapest violin.

Some points that an adult newbie might have to take into account when planning to take violin lessons:

1. Violin instructor - Knowing your own learning style, select a violin teacher whom you think you can openly learn violin with. As an adult newbie, it is crucial to your learning process to have a violin teacher who is more concerned with opening up the world of violin to you, rather than displaying and exhibiting his or her ability as a violinist. When looking for a violin instructor, ask questions, interview students and ask lightly how this teacher teaches on a student’s worst-violin-tone day.

2. The violin - Getting your own violin is important. You need not purchase, but you can rent or borrow a violin that you can practice on a daily basis.

3. Time and dedication - If you’re considering about taking violin music seriously, goals and objectives have to be established early on. Identify your strengths and weaknesses as far as musical background and your personal dedication is concerned. A realistic assessment of how much time you can devote to your instrument on a regular basis is also important in establishing a good momentum in learning it.

With adult newbie, we’re talking about the ages of 16 to 25 years olds who never had the chance - or if they did, never took it - at studying the wonderful world of violin playing. Of course, there might now be a few physiological factors that might affect the kind of sound produced on the instrument or the ease of playing it. But everything comes with a price. Fortunately, with violin playing, the harmonic and melodic rewards might just be more enjoyable than what their worth.

Violin history actually began as far back as the 800s with the emergence of primitive forms from whence the present violin was theoretically based. It is theorized that these primitive templates might have come not from Europe but from Asia. In four and a half centuries, the present form of the violin emerged.

In all probability, the first primitive predecessor of the violin in violin history is the musical bow, which is exactly what its name implies. It is but a simple instrument with a bow and a string attached to it. Like the violin, the bow was not played by plucking like other instruments with strings, but was rubbed to produce sound. In the 1000s, bows were divided into two types, oval instruments and pear-shaped resonance boxes.

Other instruments which might find their way in violin history as forerunners of the violin are the rebec, the rebab, the ravanastron, the rote and the vielle. In time, the stringed ancestors of the violin began to have four strings. It was however, ultimately from the viola de braccio that the present violin emerged. By the mid 1500s, the violin came to be widely used. It’s name is of Latin origin.

Violin history reached its height in the 1500s in Milan, Italy where, because of the wide use of the instrument, the violin also came to be produced by violin master craftsmen. Probably the first historically known master was Andrea Amati who was also the first to have been known to have made the first modern-looking violin. It was from him that Charles IX ordered twenty-four violins. In time, the name Amati as a premier violin maker came to be associated not just with Andrea but with his whole family which included Antonio Amati (who put up the school of Cremona), Hieronymus Amati I, Nicolo Amati and Hieronymus Amati II.

Other famous luthiers or violin makers in violin history were Andrea Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, Pietro Guarneri, Alexander Gagliano, Ferdinand Gagliano, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Jacob Stainer, Guarneri del Gesu and the illustrious Antonio Stradivari whose models are the most preferred by musicians the world over. Today, the violin is regarded as a member of a stringed family of instruments which include the cello and the viola. The violin might also be called a fiddle which is an informal term for it.

There was this girl who kept asking me each time we bump into each other what band of violin tuner i use. I remember my violin instructor used to tell me that it’s of utmost importance that i tune my violin properly. To avoid tuning a violin incorrectly, a proper violin tuner must be used so that it does not develop the wrong intonation.

I’ve been using a Casio violin tuner for as long as i can remember. Casio is a good brand for a violin tuner. It’s widely used by musicians in the orchestra. So, if you are looking for a good and reliable violin tuner, i suggest you buy the Casio violin tuner.

The most important thing to do as a new newbie to violin is to get to know your violin. Traditional Violin Method or The Suzuki Method is the easiest to learn. Take the time to learn more about your violin. Each and each violin is different and unique in their own rights. Learn how ideal to handle it. In time to come, you will be able to bring the ideal out of it. Remember to treat it as your ideal friend.