This is a bowed string instrument with four strings that are generally tuned in perfect fifths; it is the smallest member of the string family, which is also made up of the viola and the cello. Sound is produced by drawing what is known as a bow across one of the four strings or by plucking the string with a finger.

One of the brilliant features of the violins is the fact that they are available for various skill levels and age groups. This allows children from the age of three to take up and learn the violin. Children do however grow out of violins at a surprisingly fast rate. While some stores allow buyers to take back to the violin shop the instrument purchased from them and trade it in for the next size up, some others do not. If you consider a trade up in the future, it is a good thing to talk about this with your seller before making a purchase. Not all music stores allow trade ins.

There are around nine different sizes of violin, which are known as student violins. These range in size is made to accommodate players of all ages. For example 1/32, 1/16, 1/10 and 1/8, are all suitable for three to five year olds. For six to ten year olds you are able to get hold of a half size violin before working up to a full size, which is generally suitable for 12 year olds up to full adults. The student violins that you work your way through depends on arm length and your overall size. Basically, you want one that you feel the most comfortable playing. If a 1/2 violin usually fits a 6 year old, it does not necessarily means that will fit you, too. You may have smaller or bigger arms then average, which means that you will need a different size than what the standard indicates. In many cases, when a student reaches around the 7th grade, he/she will generally require a full size (4/4) instrument as opposed to a fractional one.

Once you have a strong idea of the size you are looking for, you can set out to buy a violin; but where do you start with this? Well, basically there are three main choices open to you: you can either visit a violin shop in your area, buy a violin from the Internet, or you can opt to purchase the a custom made instrument directly from a luthier. The latter is often the choice of more advanced and experienced violinists, as they are more sophisticated in their choices and they reached that level of musicianship that allows them to feel the quality of their violin and justifies the large expenditure associated with the purchase of a custom made violin.

If you are opting to buy a violin from a online music store, then it is a good thing to buy a violin outfit. The outfit contains a violin, a case, and a bow. Not all violins include a case and a bow. So, if it is not mentioned on the website, don’t assume these items are included by default. You should ask the seller about the case and a bow, to avoid an unpleasant surprise. It is important to test the instrument before committing to the purchasing it, so make sure the instrument comes with a trial period when you can test the instrument for sound performance.

The most important thing to keep in mind however, whether you want to buy a student violin or a more advanced one, is don’t buy one that you either don’t like or have doubts about. Sales people can influence your decision, but deep down in your heart you know the truth. Consult with your violin teacher or with a friend whose opinion you trust, but first of al trust your guts. Always make sure you test the instrument out and you are happy with the sound, as there is nothing worse than playing a violin that you don’t really feel comfortable with!

Another problem that seems to preoccupy a lot those who are in the market for a violin is whether they should buy a violin that has a one piece back or one that has a two piece back. Well, there is no right answer for this concern. In my opinion, it is exclusively a matter of personal preference. The one piece back violins are very much appreciated for their visual impact. Also, they are rarer, which is another factor that matters in some people’s eyes. From a playability and performance point of view, there is no difference between the one piece back and the two piece back violins. The one piece back violins are usually priced higher, but not because they deliver a better performance; just because they are more difficult to find.

Speaking of sound, many people want to know what makes a violin sound good. Well, there are a few elements that contribute to the sound of a violin: the wood, the workmanship, the finishing style, and the set up.
The price is not always a reflection of quality in the violins’ world, and I am sure all violin owners have come to this conclusion. The price of a violin should be a reflection of all factors listed above. A higher priced violin should mean a better wood, better workmanship, better finishing style, and better set up, and in the end, a better sound.

By better wood I mean, first of all, a wood with superior resonance properties. The resonance properties of the wood are detected from a very early stage, immediately after the tree is cut down in the forest. Another factor that influences the quality of the wood is the drying up period and technique. The wood used for the higher quality models is dried up naturally, in open air, for a very long time (up to 10 years). This means that the water evaporates very slowly, which prevents the wood from experiencing internal cracks at the molecular level. The wood used for the less expensive instruments is dried up using accelerated methods, which are more aggressive. Again, all this happens at the molecular level, which is not visible with an open eye, but has a great impact on the long term performance of the violins.

The workmanship is also very important. The skill level, the attention to detail, the talent and the dedication of the maker will be reflected in the end product. Almost all violins are hand made, and, consequently, like anything that is human made, they are subject to imperfection. This is why the workmanship is critical.

The finishing style is important, too. This includes the type of varnish, the number of layers, and the technique used. I will discuss this, in more detail, in a future blog posting.

The set up refers to the quality of the accessories that are used (tailpiece, fingerboard, bridge, pegs, sound post, and chinrest) and the work itself (calculating the right string projection on the bridge). You will hear more from me about this in another posting.

Other people want to know whether all instruments that belong to a certain size have the same dimensions, regardless of what violin store they are bought from. It is possible that you will see small variations from a violin to another; these instruments are hand made and they are subject to “imperfections.” I put the word “imperfections” in quotes, because the small size variations are actually not considered imperfections. All dimensions are within an acceptable tolerance range, and they are a matter of millimeters, which do not impact the performance of the instruments in any way. My recommendation is not to pay attention to the dimensions of a violin. If your violin belongs to a standard size (let’s say 4/4) and you feel comfortable playing it, that is all you need to know.

1. The Maker
2. The Wood
3. The Varnish
4. The Size
5. The Price

1. The Maker: Where is the violin of your interest made and by whom? What is the reputation of that particular violin maker and for how long has he been in the violin business? Are there any buyer reviews available online? There are several forums, blogs, and review websites available on the Internet that should make your research very easy and bring out the truth about the violin maker you are interested in. If you choose to buy a violin online, extend your research and try to find out what the reputation of the online violin store is. Try to contact the store via phone, email or filling in a form that is available online and see what kind of response you get; try to see how fast, how friendly, how accurate, how knowledgeable, how useful the response you got was. All these elements of the online communication should give you clues about how your overall violin buying experience is going to be. I have recently tried to get an opinion on two violins from two different violin makers, and the response I got from a music store was this: “…the sound of a violin, as you know, is not standard. Each violin has its own tone and sound, and even the instruments made by the same maker, with wood from the same tree, can have a very different sound. Nothing compares with a violin made in a traditional European violin workshop. Europe has a great history and tradition in violin making and also has the best wood in the world. There is no accident that the most famous violins in history were made in Europe…”

2. The Wood: the wood used in violin making is of vital importance for the sound of the instrument. I would say with a high degree of confidence that the European wood is the best when it comes to instruments that need high quality resonance wood. Violins are traditionally made of flamed maple and resonance spruce. This is the traditional combination that most violin makers use. The top of the violin is made of resonance spruce. The back, the sides, and the neck of the violin are made of famed maple. The accessories (chin rest, tailpiece, pegs, and fingerboard) are made of ebony. The wood must be naturally dried up, in the open, to naturally achieve the perfect internal balance that will prevent the violin from cracking in the future. Wood is a material that changes its dimensions based on fluctuations in external temperature and humidity conditions. Here is an excerpt from an email I got from a reputable violin maker: “The wood we use at the construction of our violins has been dried up for several years, out in the open. It witnessed the succession of the four seasons several times and was exposed to direct weather, temperature, and humidity changes for a very long time. In hot summers the wood lost water and lowered its dimensions. In rainy autumn days, it absorbed water from the air and increased its dimensions. In cold winter days it froze, and preserved its dimensions, trying to find balance. After a few cycles of successive dimensional changes, the wood got to the point where it reached an internal balance, and all internal tensions at the molecular level disappeared. If there were any tensions in the wood that would cause cracks, those would have affected the wood in the manufacturing process, when the wood was severely “abused”. It almost never happens that a finished violin experiences cracks due to wood aging. Cracks can appear by exposing the instrument to sudden and extreme changes in temperature and humidity, but those changes should be really extreme to favor such an extreme response.”
3. The Varnish: String instruments in general, and violins in particular, can be finished with either nitro or oil varnish. My recommendation is to choose the violins finished with oil varnish. While the nitro varnish is sprayed on the violins, the oil varnish is applied manually, with a brush. The varnish is applied in several coats, regardless of the nature of the varnish. Before applying the next coat, the previous one has to dry completely. The difference between the oil varnish and the nitro varnish is that the nitro varnish dries up very quickly, and the next coat is applied within 10-20 minutes. The oil varnish takes longer to dry out, up to 24 hours, and after each coat, the varnished is leveled with a very fine sand paper, operation which ensures a homogenous distribution of the varnish and a perfect adherence of the varnish to the body of the violin. No air particles are allowed in the varnish applied on top of the violins, and the sanding phase ensures this. A violin can have 8-10 coats of oil varnish applied to it, but they all are extremely thin and light. The oil varnish has overall superior qualities. It has a better resistance and behavior in time. The oil varnish is very elastic and can take the dimensional changes of the wood very well. The nitro varnish, due to its limited elasticity, will crack if exposed to sudden changes in temperature and humidity. For example, if a violin finished with nitro varnish is stored in a room where the temperature is very high, the wood will dry out, which means it will loose water, and its dimensions will reduce. If a violin finished with oil varnish is stored in the same room, under the same temperature and humidity conditions, you will not notice anything. The oil varnish will follow the same pattern and will adjust its size accordingly. Unlike the oil varnish, the nitro varnish, due to its lack of elasticity, cannot lower or increase its dimensions, and it will simply crack.
4. The Size: Violin are made in several standard sizes that will accommodate violin players of different ages and arm lengths. In order to establish the correct violin size that you need, you need to extend your right arm and measure the length from your neck to the middle of your palm.
   Here is a chart that will help you determine the correct size, based on your measurement:

   Arm length	Recommended Violin Size
   23″ or more	4/4 (full size)
   22″	3/4
   20″	1/2
   18″	1/4
   16″	1/8
   15″	1/10
   14″	1/16

5. The Price: The price is not always a reflection of quality in the violins’ world, and I am sure all violin owners have come to this conclusion. Here is how the same violin store that I quoted above explains the pricing difference between the several violins they carry in their store: “The difference between the several violins in our store stays in the quality of the wood, the workmanship, and the set up. The price is a reflection of all factors, summed up. The better the wood, the workmanship, and the set up, the higher the sound quality, and the higher the price. We go progressively from $100 violins to $2,000 violins, to cover a very broad clientele, with different playing skills, sound quality needs, and budgets.”

A fist advantage of buying a violin on the Internet, as opposed to buying it from a regular store, is definitely convenience. You can comfortably sit on your sofa, with your laptop in front of you, searching for online violin stores, and listening to your favorite music in the background. No driving, no traffic, no noise, no pushy sales people, no formal attire, no need to leave your house.

A second advantage is unlimited and immediate access to information.  You can easily validate all the information listed on a particular website about a particular violin. You don’t need to be convinced about a sales person about anything; with only a few mouse clicks you can find out where, when, and who made a particular violin, what the reputation of that violin maker is, how well that violin was received by musicians, how good the customer service was in a particular store, how many people enjoyed a positive buying experience with a particular online violin store, how many people reported a bad experience while buying a violin online, etc. The Internet made all this possible for us for us, and everything is free.

Another advantage of buying a violin from the Internet is that the next online violin store is just a click away. You can easily go from a store to another in a matter of seconds, without wasting time and money on driving around and trying to find parking. You can easily compare, side by side, the features of the violins from two or more different makers, you can easily find unbiased feedback about the violins you compare on online forums and blogs, you can ask for instant live help from the online stores in case you have questions, and you can definitely make a very informed buying decision.

Another advantage of buying a violin online is lower pricing. We all know that there is a very close connection between competition and pricing. In monopoly, the monopolistic corporation has total control not only over its products or services, but also over the selling price. This single-seller status gives monopoly extensive market control and becomes a price maker. Well, monopolies are very rare, and it’s not at all the case with the violin stores, especially with those that operate on the Internet. In the violin world there is o such thing as a “single-seller” status, which means that no violin store will ever have any market control, and they will never be price makers. The market control belongs to those who buy a violin on the Internet. The fierce competition between the online violin stores engaged them in a price war, which forced them keep the prices very low. The winners of this war are, obviously, the buyers.

So, in short, the advantages of buying a violin online are as follows: convenience, immediate access to information, large selection to choose from, fast violin comparison possibilities, and lower pricing.

Everything looks and sounds good, but there is always a catch. Let’s see now what the disadvantages of buying a violin online would be.

First and foremost, I would say that the incapacity of actually hearing a violin before buying it is a great disadvantage. A violin is not a piece of furniture or a statue that is going to be placed in the corner of a house and used from time to time. A violin’s main purpose is to produce beautiful sounds when the strings are touched by the bow. The visual appearance of the instrument is really not at all that important. Since the main function of the violin is to play well, and not to be a beautiful decoration item, a violin is usually bought for its sound performance and not for its physical attributes. The Internet does not really make that possible, and the buyers must rely 100% on the seller’s description of the sound. Most online violin stores acknowledged this weakness of the Internet, and try to motivate buyers to buy online by offering extended trial periods and sometimes free shipping, which transforms the online violin shopping experience a risk free one.

The high demand for musical events and the abundant supply of musicians and bands make LA one of the best places where to look for great wedding music in Los Angeles. Due to its close proximity to Hollywood, LA is one of the best targets for musicians from all over the world. Consequently, this city’s great diversity makes it almost impossible not to find something that will perfectly fit into your event. Regardless the ethnicity, the culture, or the age group of the people that attend your wedding, the artists that serve this great metropolis will provide you with the perfect wedding music.

Los Angeles wedding band members are usually very knowledgeable about the characteristics
of the market they serve and adjust their repertoire based on the particularities of each and every wedding. There is no such thing as two identical weddings and the Los Angeles wedding bands know it very well. They will work with event planners, wedding coordinators, brides and grooms, and everyone else involved in the planning process to make sure that the celebration will be an absolute success, to the smallest detail. Everyone knows that the music is the salt and pepper of a wedding and everyone gets a little bit nervous when the time comes to take care of that task on the list. The countless challenges that a wedding band Los Angeles based has to face in order to survive in this highly competitive market force the musicians to permanently adjust their practice in order to meet the needs of such demanding clientele. With an extensive experience in the musical world, a professional Los Angeles wedding band will easily tailor its performance to match the atmosphere of any kind of ceremony or reception, even if more than one type of music is required for the same event.

The large exposure to the musical arena that the residents of LA have, has altered these people’s tastes and made them more sophisticated and demanding when it comes to ceremony and reception music in Los Angeles. The abundant offer and competition in this particular market gave them power but, at the same time, made them more vulnerable. The variety of styles and the multitude of choices are immense and choosing a Los Angeles wedding band can become an overwhelming experience. The idea of having many choices available at your finger tip is quite a tempting scenario, but making the actual decision may prove not to be as fun as it seemed to be at the beginning. You may even end up completely disoriented and realizing that you don’t know what music you actually want.

You can start by taking private violin lessons, or group violin lessons. You can even find free online violin lessons, that will complement your teacher’s methodology. Unless you are enrolled in a music program with a school or college, it is more likely that you will be looking for private violin lessons. In this scenario, the teacher will dedicate his/her entire energy to teaching you, only. There will be no other student sitting next to you, and you will get the teacher’s full and undivided attention. The teacher will adjust and tailor his/her teaching style depending upon your personal skill level, learning style, and progress pace.

When choosing a violin teacher, you might want to consider the following aspects: price per session, proximity to your place of living or work, teaching experience, level of proficiency, and preferred playing style. Most teachers will follow the suzuki violin repertoire in their practice. The Suzuki violin method is based on the idea that if an individual has the skill to learn his/her native language, then he/she has the necessary ability to become proficient on a musical instrument. The method promotes learning how to play the violin following the model of the native language acquisition, which implies immersion, encouragement from family and friends, taking small steps, and a flexible timetable for learning and studying the material, based on each student’s developmental readiness to replicate examples, assimilate and interpret principles, and contribute with original ideas. This goal can be accomplished by taking private music lessons or studying with a group of students, but under the direction of an experienced violin teacher.

The price of a violin lesson varies between $20 and $50 dollars per hour, depending on many factors, such as the reputation of the teacher, the area where you live, the structure of the lesson, etc. You can also find plenty of online violin lessons on the Internet, but in many musicians’ opinion, they are good only after you have built a strong foundation and feel somehow confident in starting doing things on your own. The online violin lessons are usually very good for self sufficient individuals, who find it easy to discover and pursue things on their own. They do not need a teacher’s help or confirmation in order to advance on their chosen path. These individuals have an extra sense that give them the strength, the motivation, and the confidence needed to succeed in whatever they put their mind into. For others, a live initial confrontation with a music teacher and taking a few beginners’ lessons from a violin teacher are essential in setting the path and putting them on the right direction. After a while they can switch to the violin lessons online, or continue studying under the guidance of the teacher.

Violin lessons on DVD are similar to the violin lessons online. What they have in common is the absence of a physical human being that will lead the teaching session. Violin lessons on DVD have become a very popular concept lately, and it has been embraced by a large number of musicians. Both teachers and students find the violin lessons on DVD as a very efficient way to complement the traditional violin lesson sessions, or even substitute them. The DVD violin lessons can be used as reference material, and they can be a great substitute for a teacher’s help during the long hours of practice.

There is no set rule that promotes or favors a certain learning style. We are all unique individuals and follow our own unique learning patterns. What seems to be easy for an individual might very well not produce any results for another. The technology has made available multiple ways through which one can pursue his/her dream of playing a musical instrument in general, and particularly, the violin. The Internet provides assistance from the very first stage with finding violin information, then finding the right violin for the current playing level of the musician, then with finding the most appropriate violin lesson, learning style, and teacher, etc.

Taking violin lessons from an experienced violin teacher will help you with passing the first few steps, which are usually the most difficult. Acquiring good violin books and other instruction materials will help you with practicing and learning faster the violin notes. A beginner’s violin usually won’t sound very good in the hands of an inexperienced musician. Actually no violin will sound good if handled by an untrained individual, this being the reason why the violin has earned the reputation of being the most difficult of all instruments. Beginning violin players have always been intimidated at the beginning by this myth and here is where the didactic skills of the music teacher come into play. The support and the guidance from a professional musician, who is ideally also a great teacher, has always proved to be very helpful to the beginner violin player, who is trying to decipher the secret code behind the four strings and who is at the beginning of a difficult path in developing skills for producing beautiful sounds.

The first violin lessons will usually be focused on the position of the body while playing the violin, the ear training, and the bowing. The difference between noise and music stays in the rhythm; if we give noise a certain rhythm, it becomes music. The purpose of the ear training stage is to help the beginning violin student understand rhythm, which will further be emphasized in the bowing phase. The first few beginning violin lessons revolve around mastering the bow movements on the four strings and understanding of rhythm dynamics. In this stage the instrument is really not that important. In some people’s opinion, the first instrument in a beginner violin player’s life is not essential; some people believe that in this stage, the student violin player is not able to make the difference between a good sounding instrument and one whose sound performance is questionable. This is why a violin for student or beginner use is usually low priced, and its quality level does not quite meet the highest standards. The best beginner’s violin will be an instrument whose quality will allow the student to use it for at least one year, without feeling the need of an upgrade.

In most cases, it is a good idea to stay away from spending large amounts of money on a beginner student violin. A high quality violin is not a good investment if the prospective violin student is just flirting with the idea of playing the violin, instead of being absolutely into it. Some people lose motivation and interest somewhere on the way and give up very soon, without getting to the point where they are able to feel the value of such a good sounding instrument. Again, at the beginning of the violin playing career, the violin fingering and the overall playing might not be at all that great and the player might not be able to tell the difference between a good sounding and a very good sounding instrument.

Investing in a better quality instrument, such as a college student violin, has of course its advantages. A higher quality instrument is a very good investment if the prospective violin player is absolutely sure that he/she will stay with the violin for a long time. Buying a very good violin from the beginning will help with developing a very good sound perception and understanding from an early stage, increase motivation, and save the student from a future expenditure, because no upgrade will be needed anytime soon.

The Internet makes violin information available at the click of a button, which means we all are much better informed, and can better understand the wonderful world of the violins. We do not try to offer a substitute for all the websites that are already out there; we try to complement them and hope that we will be able to offer you something new about violins.

More Resources on Violin Facts

Most products appear as the result of high market demand; in our case, the right-handed violins, which are simply called “violins” – being understood that the violin will be played with the right hand- have been created for centuries because people wanted to play the violin. I am not talking about the times when the violin was first invented. I am talking here about present times, when all of us try to pursue a passion or practice a hobby. If nobody wanted to play the violin anymore, all violin manufacturers would probably start using their wood for making furniture instead.

Going back to our supply & demand analysis, and continuing our logic, we can see that for some products there is no apparent demand, but the products still appear on the market, as an innovation, and then they create the demand for it. So, for the right handed violin, the demand creates an opportunity for the supply, while for the left-handed violins, the supply creates the demand. A left-handed violin is an example of a product that at first was rejected by most violin players, then slowly became more accepted, and in the end people started to tolerate the idea that the violin can be very well played with the left hand. The left handed violins did not appear that quickly on the market and are not very easily available even today. This happens because of the reduced demand, which does not stimulate mass production. Also, the costs attached with manufacturing a left-handed violin are higher, because the left handed violins do not enjoy the benefits from economies of scale. What does that mean? It means that making a left handed violin is like taking a special order where there is no production flow in place, where the molds need to be redesigned and adjusted to meet the new requirements. The costs attached to modifying the production line does not spread among thousands of instruments, but among a few pieces. This means that all those costs need to be absorbed by the few pieces produced, which means a higher production cost per piece, and a higher selling price to the consumer.

In modern times, where almost every wish can come true, especially where there is economic power backing up this behavior, some products are not necessarily needed, but they are rather “wanted.” People are ready to pay a little bit more, to have a certain feature added to their new toy, just to provide them with more confort, or to satisfy a personal desire. Come on, do we really need a picture viewer on our new GPS? No, but when we hear that the new version that just came out has the ability to show pictures, we immediately think of finding ways to get rid of the old one and replace it with the new model. But let’s go back to our left-handed violins. They appeared on the market to serve the left handed musicians, who might have thought that if they write better with their left hand, they might very well play better if they held the bow in their left hand. Also, the left-handed people who play the violin fantastically right-handed, might have thought: “if I play this well while holding the bow in my right hand, which is usually not my best friend, imagine what I could do if my left hand was in charge with this responsibility.”

At first, a left handed violin was just a fantasy, a creation of those who felt that the world will never adapt to their needs, and they are the ones who have to always have to close their eyes here and there in order to go ahead. But again, we live in an era where marketers read people’s minds and try to stay ahead of everyone by putting up on the market something that would surprise and please people. A left handed violin is a great gift for a musician who has played the violin right-handed all his/her life, dreaming of how nice life would be is a left-handed violin was created. Or maybe the left-handed musician has never thought of having a left handed violin; maybe he/she has never thought that this is a real concept. So, no wonder that people were against the idea of having a left handed violin when they first heard of its availability on the market. As the story goes with any other product, when these violins appeared on the market as a novelty, apparently useless, they were rejected and severely criticized, only for being loved soon after, when things settled down in peoples’ minds and they decided to give a try to this “newcomer”. Today, left handed violins enjoy warm acceptance among all kinds of musicians, of all ages and all skill levels. Professional left-handed people, with years of experience and who have been playing a right handed violin for their entire career, decide to switch to a left-handed violin. Parents whose children are left-handed decide to equip the young aspiring musician with the right battle tools, which include a left handed violin, a case for a left-handed violin, and a left handed chin rest.

Because we started this discussion with analyzing the supply & demand concept, there we are again, in front of other two products that appeared as a result of the market demand: the left handed chin rests and the cases that hold the left-handed violins. These two accessories would have no use whatsoever if the left handed violins disappeared. One of the most famous makers of left handed violins, violas, and cellos is the Romanian luthier, Gliga. Violinslover.com has an entire section dedicated to Gliga’s left handed instruments, and we invite you to visit it at http://www.violinslover.com/lefthanded.php.

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