Best 1/4 violin?

Milky_Mocha

Hi. My daughter's about to take violin lessons at school. Its taught by an external teacher so she wasn't in this week for me to speak to and I need to get it before Tuesday.

Any suggestions for which is the best one and which is second best? Please? Thanks.

RAS

Have you checked whether your LEA has a loan system?

Edwardia

If you can hire one that would be best. If not, I bought my secondhand violin from Cash Converters. The advantage of Cash Converters over eBay is that the item is inspected by shop staff, sent from a shop and would often have a 30 day guarantee.

If your DD gets enthusiastic about the violin, you can get violin music books from The Range www.therange.co.uk and pick up sheet music cheaply from charity shops.

If you want to motivate DD and give yourself some eye candy, German-American David Garrett is the world's fastest violinist, and plays both classical and rock eg Nirvana, Michael Jackson, Cold Play etc. You'll find zillions of videos on YouTube including whole concerts.

Debussy's Claire de Lune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcyrHtOLu6g

He's a Pirate from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGuBYvURSZw

Viva la Vida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ_BoOlAXyk

He does all the arranging himself as he went to Juilliard in New York and has a music degree. He started playing around age of six I think.

surfboard2

I found my local music shop most helpful when searching for a violin.

moromir

Depends what you mean by "best" to be quite honest!

Imo theres absolutely no point in buying the "best" violin for a beginner, believe me it won't make it any less screechy when shes just starting out!

Any music shop will carry a range of modestly priced student violins - but even then I'd question buying a new one.

I went through several instruments before settling on the violin, much to my mother's annoyance which lead to selling all the redundant instruments on the classifieds so its worth checking those ad's out too.

onlyroz

Are you sure you mean 1/4 size? I started learning age 8 and a 3/4 size was recommended.

Either way, you can either get a new one - usually cheaply made in China - for a modest amount of money, or perhaps the teacher can source you a second-hand one from a student who has out-grown theirs?

AlexLK

Please, please speak to the teacher before buying your daughter an instrument.

As for sheet music, your teacher will recommend the tutor they wish your daughter to use.

ETA: If you give me an indication of the budget, I may be able to point you in the direction of a good student instrument.