BUYING A VIOLIN - WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

This video is for intermediate to professional level violinists.
1:30 Talking to the teacher
2:26 Student instruments
4:00 The routine of trying the violin (or the bow)
5:53 Price range
6:43 What to buy: the bow or the violin
7:45 Contacting the dealers
8:48 The weight of the bow
10:05 Back to the price ranges
11:11 Be aware of the new violins
11:50 Violin as an investment
13:15 Condition of the violin
15:06 The documents
15:21 I've got a "Strad"!

[jamesmmusic]

My violin was gotten from a garage sale for $5.. Turned out it was actually a German made violin from 1938

[clairepotter]

Very helpful information! 30 years ago, our local luthier told me up to $13, 000 you are paying more for an improvement in quality, above that you are paying for the name. In today's dollars that would be about $26, 000 to $30, 000. Julia is saying the same thing. If you can't afford much, and are just a beginner, putting high quality strings on your violin is a relatively inexpensive way to get a better quality tone. The time to buy a quality violin is when you start playing for an audience. No one wants to listen to a poor violin even if you are a great violinist. Also, most luthiers will allow you to trade up as you improve.

[kxkx]

would be so useful to have a corresponding bow video!

[eugeniaviolin]

Finally a truly valuable and truthful video from an expert on this topic! Thank you for such a useful information!

[yourguykeikei]

This really is incredibly useful! I'll be upgrading from my "cheap" violin at the moment. I'm still somewhere in between beginner and intermediate, but your facts really does help me on what to look out for! I appreciate it very much!

[nickyork]

On the issue of buying new violins, I would respectfully suggest that while it can be a gamble as Professor Bushkovsky says (11:11), it can just as much be a gamble buying an older violin, albeit for very different reasons. Personally I have had a very good experience commissioning a new instrument from a highly respected luthier and among the many advantages are that the violin or viola is in perfect condition, the provenance is 100% sure, the luthier is able to help with set up, and you can have some input to the whole process (which is extremely satisfying) and the maker can adjust to your particular playing style or size of hands etc. The quality of modern lutherie is higher than ever, so there are many exceptional makers to choose from, and the prices is likely to be much, much more reasonable than for a named older violin. For a student or young professional on a budget, or indeed for any other player this is - in my view - absolutely the way to go. One caveat is that one should be willing to 'play the violin in' for a few months, discussing with the luthier in the process, and then hang onto it, to get the full value. The risk of it 'closing up' is low, if the maker is a good maker who knows what they are doing.

[antonioromera]

Thanks a lot for your advices. Buying a violin or a bow is a really stressing situation and an important responsibility when trying to help students to find a violin that suits well. This video is a superb step by step guide. 😊

[davidfelber]

My violin shop has a 100% trade-in policy — minus the cost of new strings plus a very modest cleaning fee — provided the instrument is in excellent condition still. I strongly recommend developing a relationship with a shop with this policy. In about 15 years, I have gone from a $500 violin to a $5, 000 viola by trading in and adding to that when I could afford it. It has made such a difference for me. I’ve owned about six or seven instruments along the way, each time moving up the ladder. I must say that my Sean Peak viola is a fabulous instrument, though I came to violin later in life (as a former classical pianist). It is hard to imagine needing a better viola, so I strongly recommend his work. I could not afford to go much higher in price with two children still in college. At least, not yet. Also, I strongly recommend budgeting for a good bow. It is the source of tone, and it really matters. Both for control and for sound. Anyway, I love your videos. Thank you so much.

[cliffsandifer]

I took violin BUILDING class ...what a learn....instructor said our resulting violins were worth= 2000. 3000. $ before finishing .... im happy LEARNED from what i built, i would build another to correct mistakes...violin is INVESTMENT in joy of playing. Greatest invention of human kind ( im a fiddler ..since before internet EXISTED...)

[sadhbhdelahunt]

I wish I lived near you. Such knowledge, talent and generosity to us aspiring violin students young and old.

[Timzart]

I'm retired now and playing the violin for fun. When I was young, I self-taught on flute at the age of 16, having switched from clarinet (also self taught) and went to the annual contest in New York State after playing the flute for four months, and the clarinet for two years, and was ranked near the top of the state in both instruments. My flute playing was much, much better than my clarinet playing though. Eventually, I ended up at the Vienna Conservatory, but dropped out to pursue a career of international travel and excitement in something else, which was a dream for me, a lower-middle class kid from the sticks.

Anyway, self-teaching on violin has exploded because of the internet, with the wealth of wonderful teacher/players like yourself who are offering top-level teaching tips. Even if you (or any college professor) are making videos only to display your disposition, knowledge and training, they are well worth doing. I wish I had that when I was looking for a teacher.

I can only imagine what would have happened to me with violin, if when I was 12 and got a $3 violin for Christmas, I had videos like yours to watch. Instead, I played for a few months, sawed away horrendously at the first page of the Mendelssohn Concerto, had a fierce death grip, no-joint-movement vibrato, and stopped playing the violin, until in my twenties I went back to college and played violin in the school orchestra and had one semester with a pretty good teacher, a Juilliard graduate. It was fun playing in the orchestra, but my lessons were not revelatory and my progress was glacial. I was discouraged and quit violin, until now in my retirement. In retrospect, a lot of my problems had to do with equipment.

Fast forward to age 61, and a year before retirement and I've started playing violin once again, watching all the videos by the great variety of teachers. I'm not taking lessons. I don't even want lessons. Teachers and their dogmatism can drive me crazy. Now into retirement a few years, I have the time and energy to learn and play violin finally.

I like how you talked about the importance of the bow, and although I understood this on an intellectual level from reading hundreds of posts by people who talk about the bow, or listening to them talk in videos, somehow it eluded me for a few years of my playing now in my old age. Besides the better sound a well-balanced and functioning bow can produce, just the feeling of drawing a full bow is so much different from having a bad bow. Legato playing is easier. Playing at the frog is easier. Control of dynamics is now simple for me, whereas before it was impossible to sustain a very soft held note.

So, I was thinking a lot of self-taught people do not have a teacher to help them navigate finding an instrument or a bow. In the case of the bow, they need to find an advanced student or someone to pick a decent bow for them from a dealer who has a wide selection of bows in the $100 range. Pay that person $100 or whatever. Likewise, students in large metropolitan areas where there are violin shops can pick up cash this way, and advertise their services as bow/violin finders for beginners.

I've read/watched so much about violins, I knew all of the things you said, like about finding a violin which projects from the stage. A friend I went to school with back in the 70s paid about $20, 000 for her violin and it was loud and I thought it sounded, well, harsh, but she picked it for the stage projection. She looked for months and tried hundreds of violins.

If a person doesn't have anyone to go along with them, they can bring a digital recorder or something to record themselves playing and see which records better. Also, most violin shops have someone who plays proficiently enough to demo violins you're interested in.

Even though I'm not a violinist, I have a very discerning ear when listening, but it fails me to some degree when I'm playing violin. One thing I can tell immediately when playing myself or hearing another person play is the evenness of timbre across the four strings.

While it is true that a lot of people, kids especially, could be given a $50, 000 bow and a good Strad (not one of the ones where the wood has gone dead) and it wouldn't make any difference. But if you have a real feel for the violin, these things make a huge difference, as you said, especially the bow.

I don't know how it is at UNT, but there are some institutions which have instruments and bows to lend to students. Back during that one semester of my violin study, after my first lesson my teacher tried to lure me into playing the viola, because the school had a good viola to loan me for free, and I'd have a teacher who was on TV all the time, a top professional viola player who ended up teaching at Juilliard. He had only two students, and the orchestra needed another viola player. Funny side note, he also ended up switching to violin.

And of course, really talented students now can sometimes get loaners from individuals or organizations which collect good instruments. But by the time they get to that level, they know about this and are studying with top teachers.

What is lost by playing on a bad bow or a violin where the bridge is 5mm too high? Time. At my age, I regret that I didn't have a better bow, which would have made playing the violin a greater pleasure in the last couple years, and my progress more rapid. And when I was in my twenties and trying to play the violin that one semester, I regret that I was using a bad style chinrest, which made holding the violin very difficult. It's called a "Stuber" I think, and has a very wicked contour, probably made for someone with a jaw like Schwarzenegger.

I'm mentioning these mistakes hoping someone will learn from them, or maybe a self-taught student who is talented and loves the violin will feel motivated to go out and try to experience a better bow. As a musician on any instrument I've played, I've had a way I wanted to play inside, an idea of the sound I wanted to make, that I wanted to come out. Bad equipment can thwart this. And it isn't all about the money, at least with bows, and that should be good news for some.

[nonoree]

Professor Julia, whenever i look to your face i see the face of legendary Zoria Shikhmurzayeva, I am sure that she rest in peace now because her daughter Julia is a violin professor .. Kind regards

[moonshade]

Suggestion for advanced violinists. Go to tarisio auction public viewing (at London or New York). Try all violins from 1000 to 100, 000 and up. That's definite an eye (or ear) opening experience.

[JohnTravena]

For beginners looking to upgrade I suggest simply looking for a solid wood top. Look at the end grain on the edges of the violin and if the purfling is inlaid or simply a decal. This is the most likely upgrade if you can’t hear the instrument and you’re just taking a gamble. Maybe the instrument has no bridge or has a crack in the top and will require some repairs.

[markkulyas]

There was some very interesting information in this video that I haven't heard before from other people, especially the part about the instrument changing sound as it gets older, I didn't know that.

[duggiefresh]

Do not test drive a Porsche 911 if all you can afford afford is a Honda Civic!

[neseligezmeler]

Thanks, I am still renting the violin 😀

[trevorstolz]

Question: I have a $2000 Gliga Violin. My violin teacher - who played in the Korea Symphony National Orchestra - says my violin is "great". I also have a codabow (carbon fiber) that I paid $600 for if I remember crrectly. I have heard, that if money is an issue, you can usually get a carbon fiber bow that is of better quality that you a wooden bow for the same amount of money. Is this true? I am not a professional violinist by any means. I have grade 7 (First Class Honours) with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. I am now working on grade 8. I am middle aged and I grew up in a rural location in Canada as a child. I simply did not have access to a any violin teacher in the small town where I grew up. BUt violin is something I WANT to do. (I play piano at an advanced level and have a good ear.) I've decided that when I start working on grade 10 RCM, I can buy myself a $10 000 or $15 000 violin with a great sound. A couple of years down the road, I will get a very good bow. I know true professional violinists would never use a carbon fiber bow, but for a "serious amateur" (for lack of a better word), I wonder what you think of them. Codabow does seem to be using some impressive technology to make their bows and their latest bow (Marquise) looks like a woonden bow and has wood fibers, i.e. not woven carbon fibers.

[jamesa]

i think the cardinal rule of buying a violin is it must be perfectly clear to you what you are buying for the money.A beginner cannot understand the diffrences of expensive violins.Therefore a beginner can buy IMHO a violin up to 1000$.When you start to get a clear notion what the more expensive violin does, you can buy something more expensive.To be at the level of spending tens of thousands on a violin it must be as clear as day what you get for the money.This inevitably unfortunately happens as player progresses and it is obvious to them what they get for the money.

[SofiaViviEnDo]

Thank you very much for this post. What about strings? How often should, let's say a Dominant thomastik set be changed, or better yet, what are the indicator that they should be changed (mine last no more than 2-3 months without loosing sound). And how many days before a concert should we change them? (I really have trouble making my students or parents understand they need to change them).