Today was a big day. After thirty one lessons I was ready to commit to my own violin. I started on a rented violin to see if I would actually like to learn. I did. Then I was lucky enough to borrow a better violin from my friend Tina. She earned to play the violin when she was in high-school, and she played the same violin on my wedding day. And now it was time to buy my own.
I took my daughter to West End to pick up Laura, my teacher, who I can't thank enough for giving up her personal time on a Saturday to help me with my purchase. I doubt I would have done anywhere near as well as I did without her help. We went to Simply For Strings. I have bought a set of violin string from them (which I still have not used) and a Wolf shoulder rest. At first the lady who served us, Juliana, thought we were there to buy a violin for my daughter. I wonder, how many adult or mature-aged customers do you get in your fine establishment?
I asked for a Concerto. The outfit retails at $790. They only had one. Odd. Last time when Laura visited to try some on my behalf there were several there and Laura had picked out a few she thought might be suitable for me. Juliana brought out two other violins. The first was a second-hand Cantabile violin for $500. The other was what I believe to be an Allegro. Juliana said it was the next model up and it retails at $1290. At first glance the Concerto and the Allegro looked very similar, especially since the Cantabile was a significantly darker colour.
Laura played a scale and some music on each of the violins. The Concerto sounded good at first, but when I heard the Cantabile I though "wow, that sounds much richer". And so did the Allegro. Pretty soon we discarded the Concerto. I played both of them next, and by play I meant some long bows on open strings as I was not confident enough to play anything else.The first thing I noticed was the lightness of the bow. Juliana had given us a carbon fiber bow to play. Tina's bow is wooden so it was noticeably heavier than this bow. Having said that, I like the carbon fiber bow, but preferred to have a little more weight in my bow. That might work against me in faster pieces that require nimble bow work, but I am yet to encounter those so my decision might change later.
In the end, we decided to go with the Cantabile. I was getting about the same sound out f both of them. Certainly the Allegro was not twice as good. Laura said the Allegro probably had certain things going for it that would make it a better violin, but as far as how I played them, those things made next to no difference. And by choosing the cheaper violin I was able to spend a bit more on the bow to help get an even better sound from the violin. Apparently the rule of thumb is the bow should cost about a quarter of the cost of the violin. This is true in Laura's case. Her violin is valued at around $20,000 and her bow around $5000. I ended up with an upgraded bow - a Dorfler - that had a little more weight in the tip.
With that out of the way, we looked around the shop a little more. Laura picked out a book for me to learn from: Super Studies for Violin Book 1.
While we were there Laura also checked out some cases. There was one gorgeous case there made from leather with a lovely lining. The price tag said it was around $500 but that was obviously a mistake. It was actually around the $2000 mark. Ouch! And on the way out Laura noticed a black sparkly violin. Juliana said it was a carbon fiber violin. Laura was skeptical but gave it a try... and she was very impressed. It sounded really good. Not as good as her violin, but certainly good enough to play on, especially considering it was $1000. Juliana said it did not sound as good when it first arrived but has improved a fair bit since then.
And there you have it. I now have my very own violin that I have named Patience :) Now, if you forgive me, she is calling me and wants some attention. "Coming dear..."
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