How much would you say is my violin worth?

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Walter vi Britannia, Apr 13, 2019.

  1. Myriadfold

    Myriadfold 『Silkmaid』『Ishhara's Devotee』『Daoist』『WW Vet.』

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    I don't intend nor need to master it. I don't plan to play the national classics either. I only. Intend to play for myself so will never need an expensive one.

    Besides, its not the first instrument I would have learned to play. I self taught through the basics For things like piano, guitar, drums previously. I have a knack for rapidly attaining a basic skill level and violin has always been more to my taste and affinity.
     
  2. fteg123

    fteg123 Well-Known Member

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    Can you add an audio file/link on the sound quality of the violin? It might make a difference or not.
    Note: Not an expert.
     
  3. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Oh, that's good. You have a head start then. You can be like Ed Sheeran then. He knows how to play the violin, but his reason is more or less similar to yours and his skill is relative to that. He only does it to add effects to his music. (I think...I don't really know much, I've just seen him play a few times and heard him talk about it once)

    But, I still recommend not going for any cheap violin. It doesn't need to be expensive as a car, even if it's made by an amateur violin maker, whatever you do, don't settle for a training violin. A cheap knock off Chinese violin that's not completely hand made has lots of problems. More importantly, it's harder to play. It will truly make you want to give up. The horrible sounds you'll make when first holding the violin is bad enough, the sounds of the training violin will make you lose all hope. Trust me, 60% of my class gave up never knowing that some of us sounded better than them just because they had an exceptionally shit violin even after 3 years of classes. Those are only good for getting the hang of it and learning how to hold it...which is quite a big task for violins only so training violins still go around. If you see other instruments like wind instruments or such, the concept of training instruments for those are much less heard of...probably doesn't even exist. Every other instrument I've seen looked like it was made for professional use. Cause they don't require much of learning how to hold and stuff as much as violin...which even after 2 years most still don't get the hang of. So, just don't waste your money on a training violin if you are planning on having just one your whole life...I surely believe it will gather dust at some point as it happened with everybody I know. All my friends have two violin, except two who had proper ones from the beginning(and yes, I'm one of the two).

    You seem to be someone with experience in the music category, so you'll definitely not be giving up after giving it a try, so I recommend getting a decent violin just because of that.
    As someone said in this same thread, price doesn't normally dictate the quality of the violin, so you can find something good in any professionally made violin. But those training violins are not made for professional use at all. So don't buy that...or a viola. Don't get a viola either. That's worse. You'll end up being an accompanist your whole life. lol
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2019
  4. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Oh my...now that would seriously be a pain. lol

    I don't think anybody has the answer for it at this point, and I'm not really a million dollar violinist so depends how it'll sound. Like in the video I mentioned, they couldn't tell apart the guarneri from the thousand dollar one while being blindfolded when the 10 million dollar violinist played. A good violinist can make any violin sound like its worth 10 million. I'll just keep to the estimate that mine is $1000 whether it's true or not for now.
     
  5. Myriadfold

    Myriadfold 『Silkmaid』『Ishhara's Devotee』『Daoist』『WW Vet.』

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    I live in the UK, so buying local will still only go so cheap but on the flip side, nothing chinese ;)

    i don't need a training version just to learn to hold something properly haha cause I am used to annoying poses and sore/tired limbs, I will just try to ease into it with a basic normal violin. my biggest issue is simply that as a string instrument I would have to be responsible for maintaining them and tuning them for use, and while I am not tone deaf or i would have given up on not only music but singing as well, I can't say how confident I am right now to be able to tell what key-note a string is tuned to.
     
  6. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Oh, well, that's not the hard part. Your teacher will do that for you for the first few months. Even children learning stringed instruments are expected to learn how to tune their instruments fairly quickly, it's not as hard as you'd expect. The hard thing is tuning through the vibrations. It's something you'll learn after you've gained a relative pitch...which basically means being able to tell which note is being played from the sounds alone. There are miniscule fluctuations in the vibration of the strings when you play out of tune, and you have to use that to tune your violin.

    ...it sounds complicated, but it's not. Though implementing it is actually about as hard as it sounds. But I don't do it either, even though I can feel the fluctuations in the sound, I just play a note on my phone and tune it to that. lol (I think this is how Beethoven wrote Fur Elise after he had gone deaf...I always marvelled at how he wrote such a thing after going deaf, but after being able to feel the fluctuations and having honed a relative pitch, it doesn't really feel like its that impressive anymore.)

    Anyway, you'll never have perfect pitch, neither will I. Only a fraction of all the professional musicians in the world does have it. It's the ability to tell which note is being played just from the sound, just like relative pitch, but with zero effort...an ability ingrained into you within the first 5 years of your life, after that its impossible to gain this skill.

    I'm telling you all this because you should try to hone a relative pitch, it's very important for violin playing. Violin is not like guitar or piano or flute where it has predetermined notes, you must place your fingers accurately. Even through that it is easy to learn without knowing the sounds at all, but learning the vibrato will throw you off. Your pitch will start to get messed up if you don't already have the pitch memorized. This is something my teacher heavily warned me about since I started doing the vibrato early by myself before my teachers even planned on teaching it to us. And the thing is, violin playing is much easier if you play by the sound rather than memorizing where your fingers should be placed. So its more of an advice. The higher up the violin you play, the better it is to play by ear. Advice from Eddy Chen from the TwoSetViolin channel I mentioned in my original post.

    Anyway, don't fret about tuning and whatnot. Caring for your violin, yea that's important, it's harder to not care for your instrument so much after you've dived deep into the music world, you will not be able to stop worrying over the single piece of dust that falls on it. I mean, these instruments survive decades and only sound better, it doesn't need that much care. It's honestly harder to not care for it so much.

    All these tuning things and pitch and whatnot, I really shouldn't have told you all these so early. I'm 9 years into it and it took me a long time. What sounds like a lot of work, is not really that much. Just repetitive practicing of a bunch of stuff that sounds like a lot but not nearly enough to keep you interested for 9 years, very soon you'll understand the theory behind everything and after that its the same repetitive practicing and practicing and practicing till the end of your lifetime.
     
  7. Myriadfold

    Myriadfold 『Silkmaid』『Ishhara's Devotee』『Daoist』『WW Vet.』

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    lol I do everything by intuition, since I both dislike and hate trying to learn to read scores. I was called a genius for something at one point in my childhood, but i cared so little that i never bothered listening to it or to what i was supposedly a genius in which made sure they stopped saying it and i stood out less.

    ultimately, I could sound like crap to professionals, but as long as I like hearing what I am playing then I am satisfied haha, low bar to meet right? LOL.

    its just a shame that i need to wait a few more years before i can afford to take lessons in it. right now I am juggling a career change, learning german, restarting my studies into architecture, prepping my portfolio for pension, stock and investments and beginning math tutoring (once i find some paying students).
     
  8. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Well, whatever the case, you still need to put in a lot of effort, or else you're gonna always remain at beginner level. You want to play for yourself, but you yourself would like the sounds you play more if you're better at it. Just don't go in with a lazy mindset, you'll be hearing the word "practise" a lot once you pick up a violin, to the point you'll feel sick of it(and you yourself will be saying it the most), your family and people around you will complain about all the horrible noise that's not music and it's annoying how they expect you to only make good music once you touch the instrument...really, why the fuck am I venting so much to you!? I keep forgetting and start throwing all my complains at you. lol
     
  9. Bakaturq

    Bakaturq Tell me, what do you see?

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    Carefully maintain it. Then train your future child to be a violonist, and hand it down as a family heirloom/dowry.
    Make it a rule that the best violonist in your descendents will inherit the violin generation by generation. Someday, your name will treble(travel) to future generations as the founder of a world famous violinist family.
    And by then, your violin will be a national treasure.
     
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  10. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    *violinist

    And world famous violinist family? lol
    There already exists the Guerneri family and whatnot of violin makers, a technique passed down through the family, but not for violinists I think, it doesn't work that way. My family is already descended from various musicians. My grandfather from my father's side was a national level violinist, but my mother's background might be slightly more impressive cause my great grandfather from my mother's side composed some very famous patriotic songs during the war that are still sung to this day as classics.
    It's already a very music based family. I think there are lots of musical families out there too, just it does not progress in that way that you mentioned. Kinda like the Coco movie that came out a few years ago. lol
     
  11. Bakaturq

    Bakaturq Tell me, what do you see?

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  12. Myriadfold

    Myriadfold 『Silkmaid』『Ishhara's Devotee』『Daoist』『WW Vet.』

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    tch, and the most I can claim to undeserved musical fame was that my mom sung on stage with U2 in the past and my dad lent a room to cliff richards before he made it big.

    edit: oh and someone who could be considered my childhood friend is now trying to become an aspiring musician, is decent and seems to be finding more and better work as time passes. doubt they will make it to the same levels as U2 or Cliff richards though.
     
  13. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Well all that doesn't mean shit to your accomplishments. What only matters is what you reach with it. The most famous musicians of the now don't probably have that impressive of a background where it's like generations of inbreeding among musicians has led to the perfect musical genius to be created, it just happened.

    Well, at least for me, my background has not helped me in anyway to get an advantage, other than the violin that has been passed down, skipping all 5 uncles and aunts and all 7 cousins and siblings, to me; my grandfather's youngest son's youngest son. (It sounds like an impossible competition, and it should have been...but luckily for me those idiots were too enamored by the more popular lady killer of their time, the guitar...so I could easily take my place in the race over all of them with my violin skills and ended up getting the violin for myself. They never reached far with the guitar, they all gave up and their instruments are gathering dust. Bloodline didn't help them on that one. I'm the only one who stuck with it, the one who used to be the least into music, that is the sole reason I didn't go for the guitar like the rest of them. I picked up the violin just because my mother wanted me to earn that legendary violin and forced me into violin classes...like any young violinist's parent, and I also didn't have any personal thoughts on picking any instrument so I went along with it. lol
    All the violinists in the world that have been playing since they were less than 10 were basically forced into it by their mothers really, the ones that pick it up on their own usually choose to do so quite later in their life.
    Well, in the end, all of us that are forced into it end up becoming absolute classical musicians to heart, it all ends the same way. Nobody else is carrying the legacy anymore from my family, they don't seem like they'll be trying to get their children into music classes like what we have been made to go through...I seriously doubt I'll ever get married, the future for this violin looks bleak. Maybe I'll secretly teach my three nieces.)
     
  14. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    ??
     
  15. LordOfPears12

    LordOfPears12 Well-Known Member

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    Why don't you just bring it to Rick's pawn shop to... Ah yes, it's closed.

    Know what? I offer you 500 bucks.

    I know you are currently thinking that this sounds like a bad offer but hear me out okay.

    I'm gonna give immediately 5 whole five hundred dollar *Smack your left with cheeck with the stack of money* Do you fell it?! The weight of it.

    Plus shipping expenses so i think all in all mine is a good deal and that you shouldn't foolishly refuse.
     
  16. joey183

    joey183 The Mysterious Entity

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    This made me remember the first time I ever played on a violin. I was extremely curious about the violin when I saw it in my sibling's friend house and requested to try it out. And after some minutes of tempering with it, I managed to bow out some sound and ended up playing the tune Mary had a little lamb on it and everyone went kind of shock and surprise when I did that because they all knew that was the first time I touch a violin.

    So, violin does seems like a nice instrument to learn. I'm honestly a bit reluctant to buy one since I've never been taught before and is afraid of being cheated as I'm a complete newbie.
     
  17. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Oh, that must mean you have the talent for it! Too bad you didn't expand on it when you were still young. As you grow older it becomes harder and harder to get good at it as quickly, bottlenecks are quite frequent. But since you seem to have a talent for it maybe you already have what it takes to master it...just, it still needs a lot of hard work.
     
  18. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Well, I'm not selling it. I just wanted to know the price. And well, the violin is worth a lot more to me than anybody else, so I wanted to know how valuable would it be to an outsider. By that I mean, to the rest of the world if it's just $500, it is still worth a million to me. That means that if it didn't belong to me I'd be willing to pay a million to get it just because of the significance it has to me....actually it's priceless to me, I won't sell it ever. That's the sole reason I wanted to know it's price....since I'm biased towards it I can't put a proper price on it.
     
  19. tak

    tak ignorant but well-meant

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    this sounds like someone will take your violin away legally (dogblood family inheritance fight idk) and you're trying to find the price to buy it back
     
  20. LordOfPears12

    LordOfPears12 Well-Known Member

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    I was joking