aiyo brudder, cost me a lot to learn that.

but i consider myself lucky, cause never destroy the instrument. just need to replace the parts.

pro? eh no la just because i'm so itchy only and trying to mess around with my instruments, so i learned quite a bit.

as i stated above, we can discuss further (including the place to study violin) via PM. shoot me a PM with your inquiries.

This post has been edited by little ice: Jan 20 2009, 10:52 PM

there, replied your PM.

if you have knowledge about music notations, you'll be fine with violin.

however, drawing a nice sound out of violin is much much more difficult, especially the bowings. also, violin's tuning is different - the guitars are tuned in 4ths (except the G/B string in 3rd), while violins are tuned in 5ths. on top of that, there's no frets, so you have to feel where's the place for the note.

a rm250~300 violin is equal to a rm60 guitar.

whether it's good to start, you decide yourself.

suzuki for violin is like yamaha for electone/piano.

it's very very effective method, but sadly many teacher only use the book but never really know how to teach. the suzuki book only teach surfaces, and 90% of the efforts are from teacher.

@empire - 30+? you serious or not haha. i tot violin teachers are so rare, you mean those "teachers" haha.

but seriously, violin teachers are rare, let alone the good ones. so you have to know what kind of teacher you're following. in fact, this also apply to other instruments teachers too, awful lot of teachers are not really qualified, having a cert doesn't mean a thing, you can just aim a few songs and be done with it after passing the exam.

hmm, good question lol.

if your teacher is not particular with the way you hold your violin, or your bowings are not stable or always off but never mention it. then there's some problem already. just like piano teacher always ask you to sit straight and curve finger. the rest, ya, you gotta compare a bit to know the differences. maybe should try teachers who's got nice feedbacks from students.

aiyo empire, i haven't take exam and got myself a diploma cert yet la. wouldn't consider myself diploma, let alone way beyond diploma.

i'm a young chick.

for me, yes, since 4 years old, not violin, but piano. i started violin quite late.

not sure what kind of suggestion you want. have you started violin yet?

if you want my opinion, if you're an adult or already able to play on a full size violin, i always recommend a rm1500 range or above if you're willing to afford that.

yeah, it's expensive for a violin. but it's really funny, parents are buying piano for their children, for like rm7000 and above and they're ok with it, but a rm1500 violin is expensive? doesn't make sense.

6k is not very very expensive, but it falls in the price range of what i call ambiguous range, usually from rm5k to rm7k.

because at this range it's what parents feels "right", not overly expensive, and there's some quality assurance (to them, anyway). this is where the market targetted and there're possible of all sorts of rip offs.

i'd ask for a trial before paying the money. trial is very very common for violin purchases. if possible, try a few instead of one, so you can compare. consider add in a few rm3000~rm4000 violins as well as some rm8k to rm10k. so you'll know which one you feel the best.

not to say if you find rm10k violin inferior to the rm6k violin it means the rm10k violin is rubbish. sometime you need some skills to appreciate the differences. if you don't appreciate the difference, better don't spend it just because somebody tell you that it's a long term investment (unless you really trust the person), and most importantly, something that you don't enjoy.

you don't overspend the money, you spend what suits you the best.

PS: don't care about the cert. of course, if it has, it's always better. but it won't justify the price just because the cert is there. most important thing is still the violin itself.

generally, more or less, yes. but not necessary sound "better", it'll sound more mature, more focused, and the respond will be faster and easier to play (means when you move your bow the sound will come out much quickly).

not too sure, something to do with the vibration to free up the wood. initially the wood is stiffs so the high and low frequencies won't be as prominent.

just like pianos. older and well played pianos will sound more brilliant and focused.

you're buying violin as your tool, or better still, your partner along your learning journey. don't do that kind of investment on violins, they're not meant for that.

also, violins are very, very individual. if you've found a violin you really like, keep it, don't sell it, you won't find another one that's as good or as satisfying maybe for the same price you paid. you may want to sell it when you got a better violin, but you can always keep it as your spare violin.

This post has been edited by little ice: Feb 1 2009, 06:50 PM

nope, haven't been there nor perform there before.

by the way empire stop promoting me la, seriously i'm really not that good lol.

if you have basics of music, you're fine with picking up a new instrument.

however, violin needs a lot of dedication than most other instruments especially for grown up person. you need a lot of focus on violin and a lot of thinking/problem solving when you're practicing violin. you also need to work a lot with hands too and pay attention most of the time.

say, when you practice, if you find your playing doesn't sound right, it could be out of tune, bowings way off, fingers/posture not correct. when you're dealing with a phrase, you need to think about left hand fingering, right hand bowing, AND paying attention to everything including the sound you produce. so many thing you need to figure out when practicing.

i wouldn't say it need hours or practice per day (if you can, it'll be great), just remember the important points above. an hour of smart practice is more efficient than 5 hours of plain finger/hand exercise.

i give an example, say first 2 bar of minuet no.2 by bach which involve both appegio and cross strings.

smart:
practice right hand first, left hand doing nothing. observe right hand all the time, and try to remember the "feel" of your right hand. then, add in left hand fingering, and play it very slow so that you can observe both hands. then, try to play in normal speed, but break it into groups of 4 notes, play 4 notes, pause, 4 notes, pause. then start to play all at once.

inefficient:
just spam with normal speed and hope to get it right after 3 hours of doing it. you probably won't get it rigth in days of practices.


notice i mention about the observation of your hand while practicing. if you don't pay attention, you won't find out what exactly is going wrong and fix it soon, perhaps wait for the teacher to correct you. but you see, if you wait for teacher to correct you, you might not be able to "understand" it fully. you must figure things out youself, that way you'll remember it forever.

glad it works!

just keep it up, if it ain't broken don't fix it.

welcome back, Cello. it's been a while since your last post.

essentially, even a teacher can't play or become rusty but they were once pass through that level before they teach. they know how to overcome certain problem during the learning progress so they can teach well. a teacher is to pass his/her knowledge down the next generation, so if the teacher didn't go through all the journey how to expect him/her to teach well?

i applause if there's any teacher who just learned until grade 5 but able to teach until grade 8 (let alone beyond that level), and teach them *well*. but i highly doubt so.

like empire, i've seen many, many so called teachers cannot even pass grade 5 and expect to teach. on top of that, many teachers think beginners are the easiest to teach, so grade 5 is enough. in fact, beginners are learning foundations, it'll seriously affect the future learning journey if the foundations are not firm. most importantly, even those teacher doesn't even acquire a firm foundation, imagine how's the outcome of their students.

i've seen too many sad examples. sigh...

This post has been edited by little ice: Feb 18 2009, 01:51 AM

aiyo empire, that's why i said stop promoting me la haha.

ABRSM and Trinity is basically share the same qualification although both offering different syllabus.

ABRSM is more famous for Grade 1~8 exams as it covers more stuffs than Trinity especially in the aural/hearing exam where trinity you only need to memorize one song (not sure if it's the same now).

Trinity is more famous for their diplomas, that's where you heard ATCL/LTCL/FTCL all the time when people are talking about diplomas. a diploma exam can take up to half an hours or more due to the required minimum length the songs you prepared, it's like a mini concert.

i took Trinity grade 8 exam anyway, cause i already took ABRSM piano last time so i lazy to redo the aural exam, so i memorized 1 song and i can skip those. i still need to do sight reading, scales etc though.

for modern songs, normally people are playing them by ear. they hear them, and play them out without scores. not 100% faithful to the original but you can transcribe them if you want.