# Good beginer violin



## Lalo

Hi,
I play piano so I know some teory, and now I want to learn the violin. However, I don't know much about violins. 
I have a tight budget (200 - 300 USD) and I don't know what violin to buy. There are not any music stores where I live so I would like to order the violin online.


Could you recomend a brand or model that is affordable and that is good (i've seen many videos where cheap violins sound bad or are simply not playable)?

I'm also considering the Stentor Student Violin I and the Mendini MV300, can you give me your opinion on them?

Thanks!!! :tiphat:


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## Enthalpy

Hi Lalo, I regret to have no encouraging information for you...

Decent violins don't fit in 300$, they are not sold online, and are made by very small companies, 1 to very few people. There are thousands of luthiers. "Brands", online etc., all sound like industrial fabrication, which makes only bad violins. You'd be discouraged soon.

The reason is that a violin uses the vibrations of wood, as opposed to a wind instrument, and violin parts are adapted to the available wood. Series production with repeated dimensions makes only bad instruments. Also, wood must dry for some 20 years depending on its nature, and industrial companies never afford that. That's why so many small companies still exist.

A violin professor would have told you that, so I suppose you want to learn without a professor. Alas, the violin isn't an instrument to learn alone. I can tell you: I learned 3 instruments with a professor, including the violin, and 3 without.

Other aspects: we have too many violinists. Horribly too many. And how young are you? I know violinists who switched from an other instrument with 12, but not later. As opposed, at least one bassoonist switched from the piano at 18. Apparently some violin movements must be learned young. Then there is the time needed to learn the instrument.

Can it be a different instrument? I can imagine learning the saxophone alone, or the baritone horn, the euphonium, maybe the clarinet, and these instruments are series-produced. For 300usd you get a playable used instrument. A cimbalum? I don't know percussions well enough, but other people here do.


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## Enthalpy

Piano would help you learn the xylophone, glockenspiel, metallophone, vibraphone and marimba.

Not playing them, I can't tell how much can go wrong without a professor, nor how cheap they can be second-hand.


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