Are you captivated by the silky melodies of composers like Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, or do you jump to the zippy country sounds of someone like Charlie Daniels? Whether you want to play classical music, folk, pop, or jazz, you can teach yourself violin. You’re never too old or young to begin!

Something has revved you up to travel along this road to discovery. Maybe you knew a musician when you were young, and you love remembering the days you spent together. Possibly you enjoyed rare opportunities to attend symphony concerts. If you love violin music, you undoubtedly notice its important contribution to movie soundtracks.

Violin music reaches far beyond the classical styling of composers like Beethoven and Dvorak. If you’ve listened to the Beatles music of the late Sixties, you were probably surprised to see violins backing them up on their Abbey Road recordings. Or maybe you’re turned on to Nuttin But Strings, the teenage brothers who fused classical music with hip-hop and kicked it in 2008’s America’s Got Talent. The Manhattan String Quartet features some real modern-day maestros. It’s about time you decide to teach yourself violin so that you can make this same kind of wonderful music!

First, you should learn a little about violins. The word “violin” comes from a medieval Latin word meaning “stringed instrument.” They almost always have four strings, and they come in all sizes from small violins created for toddlers all the way up to the standard violin size known as the 4/4. Violins are in the same family as the viola and cello, and if someone tells you they play a fiddle, they’re talking about a violin.

You’ll find only a few variations in the basic violin. Some are made with extra strings so that the instrument can reach lower notes, usually for use in jazz or folk music. And occasionally bluegrass and folk musicians play with shaved-down bridges so that it’s easier to jump through the chord changes.

If you’re going to teach yourself violin, where should you buy one? If you go to a music shop, don’t pay full retail price! If your retailer thinks he’s going to lose you, he’ll offer at least 45% off list price. A decent full-size violin starts somewhere around $650-$850. You can get a comparable new one online for about $350. The violins in the $100-$200 range are just junk. If you like to gamble, take a look at places like eBay, but you really won’t know what you’re getting until you hold it. You can easily spend a hundred dollars on minor repairs like replacing the strings or bow hair, fixing the bridge, and so forth. Check the body of a used instrument carefully for any cracks, because crack repairs are expensive.

If you do invest more in a violin-say, the $1,000 and above range-rest assured that violins hold their value. But what many people do is rent to own. You take home the violin and you pay a monthly rental fee for an agreed-upon length of time. Eventually, you own it.

By: Darron Lombardo

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