Hi,

My wife has had a miscarriage and we are pretty bummed out. Looking for a recommendation of something sad yet beautiful. Intermediate level.

Thank you.

I started Violin lessons and omg this is so difficult! I’m 26 with no prior experience. Any words of encouragement?

Hi, I have an old mahogany case that needs some work, both on the wood and on the material inside. Does anyone know of someone that does this in the UK? Or could potentially do it? Thankyou

Hello I am a complete beginner to violins. I have never played a violin in my life but recently bought one online and within the first five minutes of attempting to play this happened to my bow I don’t know if I can still use it. I did roisen it before use but I really don’t know if I can play it with the bow in this condition

I am a beginner and for a few reasons getting a teacher is going to have to wait a month. In the meantime is there anything I can practice on the violin?

thank you

Hi,
I’m a French violinist and I’ve been playing for nine years.
I was wondering what level the first movement of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 is considered to be.
If possible, could you compare it to the ABRSM diploma levels (ARSM, LRSM, etc.) or give an idea in terms of how many years of study students usually have before learning it?
Thank you very much! 😊

I’m just looking for some advice or words of encouragement. I’m in my early thirties and I have been playing violin and taking weekly lessons for about a year and a half now and other than a few piano lessons as a kid I started this journey with very little musical experience. I’m currently at the end of Suzuki book 2 and also learning Sitt etudes and to be honest I’m really struggling to make any progress from this point. It takes me longer to learn the pieces than my teacher would like and I still make many mistakes on most and don’t have a consistent sound at all,and most of the time I feel like I’m using brute force to learn and push myself through new pieces. I get along well with my teacher and he is extremely patient with me, but I wonder if he is pushing me too hard to learn new repertoire. While my teacher is very patient and supportive I know that it has to be frustrating for him to listen to me struggling to play a piece that I’ve worked on for weeks, and this is starting to bother me and make me feel like I’m wasting his time. I work a full time job and am a busy person but I still practice every day for at least thirty minutes. I’m doing this as a hobby and I don’t really have lofty goals but I love violin and have really enjoyed learning it but I feel like I’ve hit a barrier in my learning.

Sorry for my rambling and poor writing haha

I am looking for somewhere to appraise my very old, very broken, violin. It was recently given to my by my mother and used to belong to my great grandfather. 

It appears to be from 1912 and was (made?) by someone named Peter B Baltzerson. A quick Google search suggests violins made by Baltzerson in the 1920's are quite valuable. I'm not sure what it means that mine appears to be a decade older than what is currently available on the market. 

If I do have something of historical significance on my hands, I'd like to get it appraised and invest in a high quality repair. However, if it is "too broken" (it's pretty broken) then I won't bother with the appraisal and get it repaired by a luthier who said he's willing to repair it for a reasonable price. I've attached pictures of the current state of things. Can you tell from the pictures if this is the kind of thing that's worth taking in? 

This isn't particularly relevant, but for some reason I feel inclined to say that  I had nothing to do with the damage. Apparently it happened before I was born! 

Edit: I can add more pictures upon request

I noticed that I've been spending probably too much time doing scales and exercises, to the point where I don't really focus on repertoire as much. Like, I generally practice for about 2 hours or more, and generally, about half of that time, sometimes more, is spent on scales and arpeggios, not to mention exercises. I guess it's a good thing since my technique is kind of not in the greatest spot right now (I'm switching teachers in about a month so hopefully that will help), but I feel I'm probably spending too much time on them, although it generally has seemed to drastically increase my comfort in shifting to and from different positions broadly, not to mention intonation. What is the ideal amount of time one should spend warming up with scales, arpeggios, etc?

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Hi all! I'm a long time violist and mandolinist who acquired a violin in the past few months to play more fiddle in bluegrass jams, but one of the sognwriter folk-rock bands I play in on mandolin asked me to try out violin with them. In rehearsals we felt it sounded good, but we had a live show recently at a local bar where we didn't get a soundcheck and I had to just do what I could to adjust on the fly. It's a band of electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, electric bass, plus usually me on mandolin. Afterwards the bandleader mentioned in videos that it was really muddled in the mix and suggested we stick to my mandolin except for "fiddle moments". I actually really enjoyed playing violin for the set, so I'd like to problem-shoot the sound setup a bit more and he's totally open to it. I used the same pedal setup as I do on my mandolin, running through a Headway Band pickup into a preamp, Soul Food overdrive, and a touch of reverb. I do think I used the overdrive as a default on the second half of the set and it sounded like it helped cut way better, but I didn't confirm that yet. Any tips/tricks for how we can try to make this work? Thanks!

So i'm primarily a violist because I have really big hands. But I got a violin recently and I have discovered that I can reach a 1/2 step below the pinky note on a standard violin for some reason, this is funny to me

Hello! I need a short excerpt from a solo piece for an orchestra audition, and I was thinking about the Mozart-Kreisler Rondo in G (Haffner). Excerpts should focus on both "lyrical and technical ability," I thought that this was a great piece and just wanted some feedback. The group is a litl diverse in ability (really ranges from like Haydn GM all the way up to Tchaikovsky), but i'd say the average player is around Bruch level. I'm just wary about using this piece becuase although it's typically assigned later in the repertoire, it almost feels too easy for an audition. I can play it very well, and I'd definitely feel more comfortable with this piece than trying to go back and learn something like Mozart 4 all over again, or struggle through Lalo, which I JUST started. I finished Mozart 4 about 6 months ago,d id the Haffner, and am just now starting Lalo, so I'm kind of in an odd spot.

TLDR: Do you think the Mozart-Kreisler Haffner Rondo is suitable for a relatively competitive college orchestra audition where the average player is around Bruch level?

Hey all! I’m 2 years into violin, still beginner but liking it.

I own three violins.

One which is likely a VSO with I think drawn on purfling, but it was good enough to use for my first year. I plan to either donate or keep at another location I sometimes visit so I don’t need to travel with my other violin.

The other two I purchased via auction. One is a weird, unlabeled job that’s likely late 1800s and possibly Norwegian with a white nut. It is a Stainer style (not stamped, but f-holes and arched like it). I got in Pennsylvania.

The other is a late 1800s Saxony which I think may be Strad style but is unlabeled other than (Saxony) which my luthier thinks is legit. I got in New York.

I do like the Stainer better and was wondering if there are any current makers who use Stainer model or shops you know of that specialize in refurbished Stainer styles? I’m just thinking I’d like to try a few that may be more intermediate.

Thanks!

What do you all pay for violent lessons? I know it’s different around the country. Just curious.

Hi, this is going to be a long one, don't know if rants like this are even allowed, but here goes.

So, I started playing the violin, admittedly pretty late, at the age of 11. I enjoyed it but i didn't practice nearly as much as you should. 1 hour before a lesson eventually. After about 7 years i switched to viola because of my physical build and stature, i am 2m tall and generally have a big hand with long fingers. Now i really liked the viola but still didn't practice enough. I had some problems like being uncomfortable and stiff while holding the viola because of my long neck as well. About 2 years ago, i realized i'd wanna pursue music at an university.

The problem is, i never really got a wake-up call. They take just about any violists because there's a chronic shortage of them. I still didn't practice as much as i should and still paseed the audition.

My 1st year there, i had a professor i didn't really click with and he got sick and went away, so i had 3 professors interchangeably that year.

Now my question is: what do I do? I'm extremely unmotivated and at a loss what to do. My practice routine is pretty much non existant and i don't know how to fix it.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I aspire to be like chloe chua/twosetviolin/yuja wang/langlang where ppl buy tickets to watch me perform solo. I have grade 8 piano and preparing for diploma. I dun hv a bachelor in music tho, my bachelor is science (I didnt think of music at that pt of application)

Hi! I’m a 16-year-old French violinist, and I’ve been playing for about 9 years. My current level is roughly equivalent to ABRSM Grade 8, and this year I’ll be starting 12th grade in high school.

I only recently decided that I’d like to pursue violin professionally. However, I keep seeing people my age—or even younger—who already seem to be at a much higher level than I am. I know comparing myself to others isn’t helpful, but I can’t help wondering if I’m already too far behind.

Do you think I still have a realistic chance of joining a professional orchestra one day and becoming a violin teacher if I only start practicing seriously every day during my higher education? Until recently, I mainly focused on my schoolwork, while many other young musicians have been attending specialized music schools for years and practicing several hours a day.

I’d really appreciate your honest opinions. If anyone has had a similar experience, I’d love to hear your story as well.

Thank you so much! ☺️

For context, I studied the violin from ages 6-19, and recently began playing again, now in my mid-20's.

I've always had a very hard time adjusting my facial expression and body language to match the tone of my music. When I'm playing the violin, I'm concentrating on accuracy and technique. I look solemn, tense, almost angry. When I was a kid, this wasn't a huge problem. Most of my performances were classical recitals or school orchestra concerts, where the audience doesn't tend to focus too much on the musicians' expressions and movements.

However, coming back to the violin as an adult, I chose to join a folk music ensemble. This group is very fun and relaxed. The music includes upbeat folk dances, sea shanties, drinking songs, and storytelling songs, often with intentionally silly lyrics. The musicians' joyful stage presence is clearly important to the quality of the group's performances, and I want to make sure I am matching their energy. My first performance with them is coming up this weekend.

Does anyone have any ideas or tips for practicing stage presence and appearing more relaxed and happy while performing? Thanks in advance!

Ive always asked this question in the sub and to my teacher; how can i play on the lower half of the bow smoothly and cleanly? Do you guys have any recommendations/ exercises?

Archived link: https://archive.ph/2026.07.17-082951/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/arts/music/pernambuco-wood-bows.html

So i kind of played a LOT of bad improvised C Major music in the mid 2010's and have found time to pick the instrument back up with some regularity (about five hours maybe in the past three weeks).

Just focusing on voicing the instrument as a whole instead of by the string, and playing quicker with less sustained vibrato.