Children's violins - any suggestions?

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: open mike
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 12:41 AM

more links here: http://www.denversuzukistrings.com/kids_korner.html

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: allie kiwi
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 06:05 PM

Thanks for all your excellent suggestions! I really appreciate how the poeple here at Mudcat are so willing to help.

I think I'll buy the skylark, but do the 'make a practice violin out of a box' thing first. That sounds like a lot of fun to do as well.

Allie

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: open mike
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 05:48 PM

for very early, beginning practice I was advised to rig up a play
violin from a butter box with a ruler taped on to it for the neck
and fingerboard. a pencil or dowel can be the bow at first. This is
just in order to learn to hold it. When he is able to walk around
with this under his chin, and get the bow hold correct then he can
transfer these skills to the real thing when he gets it. here are some
web sites:
http://ching.apana.org.au/~oliri/
here is a place where the book and tape can be purchased:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874871441/103-6562222-2933400?v=glance
the suzuki method, should you choose to follow it is based on:
listen, listen, listen....the music gets planted in the brain and
the kstudent is more able to play because they can tell what it
is supposed to sound like. so yo might want to get the tape...
this site is not likely to have any critical opinions about suzuki
but might be full of information: http://www.suzuki-violin.com/

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 04:27 PM

Perhaps find a teacher that rents out the instrument? My fiddle teacher does this - it costs about 1 quid per week and whatever the insurance is. That way you don't have to worry about him 'growing out of it'.

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: selby
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 01:29 PM

From our experience my son started at 6 years old now 16 he learnt on skylarks and it seems to us the more he played it the better it sounded which in turn made him want to play more and the better it sounded etc. He currently has 3 violins but for playing outside he has a Sklark painted with Dennis the Menace (a UK cartoon character) on it and the sound is good. Hope this helps.There are a set of books published by Bossey Hawkes by a guy called Edward Huws Jones that are quite good with easy and hard parts well worth a check out.
Keith

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: allie kiwi
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 04:25 AM

He's actually very good on piano already - well, as far as his finger span will allow - and has been reading music for over a year (he's autistic, and music is his *thing*).

What sort of tone do the suzuki ones have? I saw a second hand skylark on sale today for $150 New Zealand, and wondered if that was a good buy or not. I know smaller violins have a bit of a tendency to screach - enhanced of course by their young players. But do some screach more than others?

Unfortunately I live rurally, and teachers are rather thin on the ground. But great idea - I'll look into that and see what they have to say (presuming I can find one - am teaching the piano myself)

Allie

Subject: RE: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 04:18 AM

At such a young age I wouldn't spend a bomb for one. Start with a Suzuki kit or something. The scroll should easily fit in the palm of his hand w/o stretching out the arm. I would suggest finding a teacher first, and let the Teach help you find a violin. With ref. to the actual instrument, it MUST be playable or he will get frustrated. The nut, bridge, etc must be set up properly. If the strings are too high off the fingerboard or to close together it will cause big problems.

Subject: Tech: Children's violins - any suggestions?
From: allie kiwi
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 04:12 AM

My four year old son is interested in learning the violin. As well as my full sized violin I have a 3/4 size violin from when I was learning, but obviously this is far too big.

I've seen various violins on sale, but really don't know what sort of quality they are. I vaguely remember my teacher looked down upon various mass produced ones - I think one of those was skylark (?) - but really I have no idea. I've also seen 'hoffman' advertised.

Has anyone any suggestions? Are skylark any good, or are Hoffman better/worse? Other brands I should look at or avoid?

Allie