The False Economy of Cheap Violins
When a child or adult decides to learn the violin, many people opt for the cheapest option available with the mindset that they might not ‘stick with it’ so there is little point in investing in a good quality instrument. However, that approach doesn’t take into account the effect a poor quality instrument will have on the enjoyment of playing.
Playing on a cheap instrument is painful
Playing on a badly set up or manufactured violin hurts. If the action (distance between the strings and the fingerboard) is set too high, you have to use more force to press the string down. Children in particular have softer skin on their fingers, and so this constant pressing down can cause pain, blisters and a reluctance to practice.
It’s also painful to the ears! A poorly made instrument will sound terrible. Sure, players new to the violin will sound terrible any way, but if they will never be able to get a good sound out of the instrument, their playing will never improve. People who don’t see improvements in their playing quit.
Ethical Implications of Cheap Violins
You might be tempted to simply type ‘violin outfit’ into that oh so well known internet shopping giant, if you do you’ll quickly see violins for sale for £69. These violins are what the industry call VSOs (Violin Shaped Object). Sure, it kind of looks like a violin, but the reality is that none of the measurements or materials will be correct.
Violins cannot be made entirely by machines yet. They are complex pieces of woodwork, so even those that are mass manufactured, are manufactured by factories full of people.
If you buy a violin for £69, after both the online retailer and the supplier have taken their profit, imagine how little there is left for the workers who made that instrument. Think about how quickly they must need to make it, in order to earn any sort of living. Working that quickly does not make good violins and it is no kind of working condition to be supporting.
The violin will be so terribly made that it’s very likely your teacher will request that you take it to a luthier to be adjusted (some teachers even refuse to teach a child playing this kind of ‘instrument’ as there really is no way the child will make progress, so it’s just wasting everyone’s time). The adjustments to get it barely playable will end up costing you £50+ so now you’ve spent at least £119 anyway.
So what’s the solution?
A reasonable quality violin for a complete beginner starts at around £250 if you’re savvy with your choices. But more likely the £350-400 range would get you something that would last into the start of intermediate level. It’s not realistic for every parent or adult player to invest £400 in an instrument they don’t know whether they’ll like. That’s a completely reasonable point of view. The solution is not to buy an extremely cheap instrument, but instead it is to rent one.
Some schools and local council music services have good rental programmes, but also most luthiers and violin shops will offer reasonably priced rentals with the option to upgrade or switch sizes as your child grows. You should check that the rental programme offers:
A professionally set up instrument
Comes with synthetic strings
Ebony or rosewood fittings
Prices for a rental instrument vary, but you can usually expect to pay £10-25 per month.
Let’s do the maths
If you are on a really tight budget and decide to find the cheapest rental option, let’s say you pay £10 per month for 12 months, that comes to £120. By that point you should have a reasonable idea as to whether you’ll stick with it – if not, you can simply return the instrument (no hassle of trying to sell it on). You therefore haven’t ‘wasted’ any money really – once we factor in what it would have cost you to get that cheap online violin put into a playable condition.
If you do want to continue playing, some shops will let you put some of that rental money paid towards purchasing an instrument. Or you can continue to rent if your child is still growing, as they’ll need to upgrade in size every 6 months-2 years.
But above all, your child is much more likely to want to continue at the end of that year, as they will have been playing on an instrument that doesn’t make playing the violin akin to trying to paddle a kayak using a sieve.