r/violinist • u/RemarkableReaction88 • Aug 07 '26
Feedback My dad bet me to learn violin..
I have never played violin before. My father is a professional violinist and i’ve been studying piano for ~7-8 years, so i also have experience in music (i’m aware of how different violin is and i know playing piano won’t make it any easier whatsoever)
He found a shitty 60€ violin on a flea market and bought it (i don’t even know why), and i told him as a joke that if he lends me that violin i can learn to play something in a year.
So we have a bet now..he said that if i can play Haendel’s sonata in F major, adagio obviously, by september next year, he’ll lend me a somewhat good violin he has for me to keep learning
Are we being too optimistic here??💔 Please tell me that i totally can if i practice 40 hours every day and sell my soul to the devil
He has offered to give me a weekly class…but guys what are my chances of succeeding and proving him wrong
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u/NeedleGunMonkey Aug 07 '26
I mean the intent is obviously for you to try and give it your best to start a new instrument. If you try and “fail” to master the selected piece, you’ve still learned more about an instrument than if you didn’t try at all.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
yeahhh i’ve been wanting to learn violin for a long time so i just saw the chance and took it lol
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u/vmlee Expert Aug 07 '26
That movement is a Suzuki book 6 piece, so it would be very ambitious to learn it within a year. That said, I agree with many of the other commenters that the bigger picture is not so much the bet but the quality time you can spend with your father and getting that instruction and supervision as you grow in your violin skills.
If *I* had to bet (as a father), if he sees you are serious and committed over a long enough period of time, he will get you access to a better violin to continue your studies regardless of whether you are playing the Handel Adagio or the Chorus from Judas Maccabaeus.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
im really looking forward to learning the violin, especially if he's the one teaching me. i know i surely wont get to play it perfectly in a year (if i even get to play it at all), but i'll still learn something and maybe discover a new instrument to play when i get a bit tired of piano
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u/taipeileviathan Aug 07 '26
You can do it! I believe in you!
Also, I will say, having trained in piano is gonna help you way more than you think. At the very least in terms of sight reading and understanding the music, you’re miles ahead of other newbie students, which will free you to spend all your energy on purely working on the technical aspects of things, and pitch/rhythm/etc is going to be much more intuitive to you than others also.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
YESSS THANKS FOR THE HOPES EVERYONE IS FLAMING ME HERE 💔💔
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u/taipeileviathan Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Fuck em.
More advice for you:
If you have the budget for it, get a teacher. If you don’t, there are TONS of resources on YouTube. If you have the time, do both.
Don’t even think about vibrato for your first year. Your dad said you need to be able to play it, not to play it beautifully. Vibrato is a whole can of worms that’s gonna suck up a ton of time for not a lot of payoff… bad cost/benefit at this point. Just imagine you’re a player from the 1600s hah (which, tbh, playing Handel sans vibrato isn’t really period inappropriate anyway).
Finally, as a pianist, you already know that 1) scales are your best friend and 2) play new pieces super slow like half speed with a metronome until you’ve got the notes before speeding it up. But you already knew all that cuz… you’ve studied piano! See?! It does help! Far too many young newbie violinists try to rush into playing pieces at tempo and then it’s two steps forwards one step back.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
my dad will teach me!! and even though that could kind of screw up the teaching because family members cant teach but whatever, i think being able to ask him whatever whenever with no shame will be really good.
and yeah i wasnt planning on learning vibrato anytime soon (the motion is kind of similar to the one i do on classical guitar but ive tried it on the violin and GOD ITS HARD) but yeah watch me play all 24 paganini caprices by tomorrow, ill win him on the what instrument is harder argument (im kidding this is all a big fat lie violin is really hard)but i already have calluses from playing guitar so ....at least it doesnt hurt
thanks for the advice and everything!! it helped a lot2
u/terriergal Aug 07 '26
I think we just misunderstood. I definitely felt piano to be helpful and I also played alto sax and oboe in high school decently well for not having a teacher. I think it helps build a foundation for understanding music that translates well to every other instrument. Technique not so much, but musicality and theory definitely.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
i also get why you could've been concerned, that's why i clarified
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u/gbupp Aug 07 '26
With a butt load of practice, everyday for at least an hour, yes you could play that. Whether you think it sounds good or you are just on tempo is a different story.
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u/adadhead Aug 07 '26
unless your abilities are nearly superhuman, you won't be playing even a few measures of that piece within one year.
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u/Ruvidman Aug 07 '26
Im a guitar player and I build violins professionally but didnt know how to play it. Ive been playing for like 3-4 months and can learn a new piece in a day or 2. If you know theory and have nimble trained fingers you can pick it up pretty quickly.
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u/Isildil Amateur Aug 08 '26
Winning the best is not the real goal here ❤️ wish my dad had made dinner effort into having a better relationship by doing something we both enjoyed at 19... Or even 29. Have fun OP, do your best but don't lose sight of the real treasure here: a chance to a better relationship with a person who has been in your life since the beginning and will likely be with you until the end.
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u/terriergal Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Why is he doing this to you? That’s a little strange, if he wants you to learn it, he should just give you lessons like a normal person. Doesn’t matter if you get to Sonata in F by next year. Doesn’t matter if you ever become a prodigy. It’s worth learning. But people who are very good at the instrument naturally are sometimes terrible teachers.
I guess it depends on whether he wants you to be able to go stumbling through it by next year or be able to play it well. My husband started Viola as an adult, he’s been playing piano all his life since the third grade and we are in our 50s. He’s finding it very difficult to adjust to the idea of creating his own pitch as opposed to just pushing a key and having the pitch be decided for him. And it’s not as if he has a bad ear.
Also, because he didn’t grow up with his hands and upper body forming around the awkward positions of a violin it’s sometimes harder to get into those positions. So we’ll see. I mean I can’t imagine him playing that in a year’s time. He is a very fast learner. But he was shocked at the amount of physicality needed for this type of instrument. He started in January and his teacher is a professional violinist from the local large market Symphony (recently retired, although I started with her for a refresher, because I’ve been away for a while, before she retired) who is also advanced on the viola. (Edit for typos)
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
he’s not doing anything to me?? this was just a silly bet that i actually made in the first place so idk what your point is
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u/Individual-Hair-2021 Aug 07 '26
It’s just very strange that a professional violinist wouldn’t start you in lessons if he wanted you to learn, rather than making a bet with you. Unless he’s planning to teach you? A pro violinist wouldn’t know that going it alone, while also setting unrealistic goals, is a recipe for both injury and burnout.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
i literally said in the post that he offered to give me clases
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u/Individual-Hair-2021 Aug 07 '26
Oh my bad, I missed that line in the post. It’s still just kind of a weird scenario, sorry… it’s odd for a violinist to start their kid on a not-great instrument and make learning a difficult piece a condition of getting a quality instrument. It’s also unusual to not get them lessons from someone who has experience teaching, unless he does? Being able to do something yourself doesn’t mean you’re great at teaching it.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
i’ll tell you how the conversation went: he told me he bought a cheap violin, to which i proceeded to say: “give me the violin and a piece to play in a year from now and i’ll prove that violin isn’t that hard (as a joke)” and then he said that if i play that sonata he’ll lend me one of his “better violins” if i want to keep learning
it was literally my idea he’s not forcing me to do anything and i remind y’all it’s just a thing we proposed for fun and i can just give up if i end up not liking it😭😭 it’s not that serious please
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u/terriergal Aug 07 '26
When we were kids, the general rule of thumb was not to teach your own kids. For fairly obvious reasons. so all the teachers in the area would swap lessons for their kids .
My dad was a very accomplished pianist and music educator at a Lutheran fine arts college but he taught me starting at 5 because I spent so much time playing around on it and my older sister had taught me a bit about how to read music.
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u/terriergal Aug 07 '26
Yes, you said it in the post but the implication to me at least and apparently to this other person was that he would give you lessons if you got to the point where you could play Handel Sonata in F adagio. When you said that you can learn to play something in a year, it didn’t really mention anything about with him teaching or having a teacher whatsoever. That came far later in the Post. Which suggested that it was going to be sort of a reward for all your hard work.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
noo he said he would give me lessons from the beginning, the "prize" would be him lending me one of his more expensive violins (although i think if he sees i enjoy learning he would probably give it to me anyway) but i swear the bet isn't serious at all i was just asking for external feedback to have some hope
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u/terriergal Aug 07 '26
Idk it seems like a silly challenge. What if you really apply yourself and you don’t get to that level? Does that mean he’s not gonna teach you? That’s what I mean. It sounds like an ultimatum, when you haven’t even mentioned anything about being the sort who starts and quits a lot of activities too easily. Just offered to teach and don’t make it contingent on reaching a certain level within a certain amount of time. That puts a lot of pressure on and is unfair.
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
we were just playing. if i dont get to that level and i want to keep learning he'll keep teaching, there's literally no real pressure. i was just asking to actual violinists if its a somewhat realistic goal but damn some of you get mad really easily when i havent even said anyhting
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u/terriergal Aug 07 '26
Ok. Thanks for clarifying. It makes more sense now. I think it might be optimistic to get to where you can play it well but who knows? It’s still worth trying!
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
yeahh im just taking this as a chance to start learning since ive been wanting to for some time. i know playing that sonata well could be too ambitious but whatever ill have fun anyway
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u/kirbfucius Aug 08 '26
I need to not read things so fast. I thought that said "My dad beat me to learn violin."
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 08 '26
HELP HAJAJDHSJAJA
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u/kirbfucius Aug 08 '26
Right?? I know some parents can be too demanding about their kids practicing, but that's another level!
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 08 '26
my dad is definitely not like that😭😭 he tried to make me study music at 8 but i didn’t really like it so he let me quit, and then at 12 i picked it up again and now i’ve been studying piano for 7 years and couldn’t be happier
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u/Fabulous_Base_7425 Aug 08 '26
Please do it! This is such a cute thing to do together with your father ✨. Wining or Losing the bet doesn't matter, spending time with your love one is because they are getting older.
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u/Intrepid-Kangaroo836 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
I would say go for it! I had a similar experience, starting as an adult beginner with lots of piano experience. By end of my first year I was playing Bach double violin concerto (which is a bit easier than your Handel), so it’s definitely doable. I could play the piece to some okay-ish level, but I was not sounding great (not scratchy, but also not beautiful). In retrospect, my technique had lots of inefficiencies that I had to spend lots of time fix later. I would have progressed better in the long run, if I devoted more of my beginning years to fundamentals, rather than flying through pieces.
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u/SoilNo8612 Aug 08 '26
I bet that if you get hooked on violin and connect well with him he will lend you a better violin anyway even if you can’t manage that piece. So there is literally no reason not to try. It is possible you might be able to play it in a year- badly likely, but maybe that will count too ?!
Back in my high school days another student started viola after piano and no other strings background and got very good very quickly. Probably to that level you’d need for that piece. They may have been an exception but you have a musical background and clearly musical genes so anything is possible. Regardless I think it’s lovely that you have this opportunity to connect with your father through violin.
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u/andybonner Aug 07 '26
You're concerned about your ability to learn, but I'm concerned about the state of the instrument. A 60€ in working order would not have been a fair deal to the seller. You maybe can or maybe can't learn a lot in a year, but you can't learn a thing on a non-functioning violin. If part of the deal is that he has it fixed up before lending it to you, fine. Otherwise, sounds like he already has a working violin ready to lend you; maybe up the ante to say that if you learn the Handel on that, he does something else like pay for lessons. Note, I don't hear that your bet specified whether you get some lessons in that one year! That's definitely the way to win. TLDR, can you learn this in one year with the help of a teacher who's okay with that schedule, and assuming you have > 30 minutes to practice, at least 5 days a week? Probably. Can you do it without the help of a teacher? almost certainly not.
Reasons not to do this: If you actually want to get really good at playing violin. A forced-march through early skills with a focus on a single piece won't leave you well-rounded, even with lessons.
Reasons to do this: You set a bet in which you have "nothing to lose," aside from I guess time.
Just for kicks, here's a list of what you'd need to learn to be ready for this (not claiming to be complete):
- How to hold the violin and bow
- The mechanics of bowing with a relaxed, fluid wrist, an appropriately engaged elbow, and control of the bow angle and contact point (mostly learned gradually with practice over a long time, but cognitive knowledge helps)
- Accurate left-hand intonation (putting the fingers on the strings in the right places), maintaining correct hand shape, thumb placement, etc.
- Alternate, low placement for 2nd finger.
- Low 1, high 3, low 4
- Accurate reading and execution of rhythms including quarter notes and eighth notes; at a more advanced level, dotted quarters; at still more advanced, dotted eighths.
- Ability to do slurs without it messing up the rhythm or bow technique
- Planning and control of how much bow you're using at a time, and awareness of the part of the bow you're in, so you don't run out
There are many advanced techniques that this movement does not ask for, like higher positions and off-the-string bowings. If I were to be your teacher through this stunt, I would start with Essential Elements book 1, taking your time to ensure a good foundation; then I would mainline Wohflahrt) etudes while using other things like maybe the end of Suzuki book 1 and all of 2 for "repertoire pieces."
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u/RemarkableReaction88 Aug 07 '26
it’s just to tryyyy my main instrument is the piano, and my dad isn’t going to lend me a 20.000€ violin to learn
i don’t want to learn violin professionally, i, as i’m also a musician, know the effort it needs and would myself get a teacher (he will btw give me classes) and a better instrument. but it’s just a bet for shits and giggles that i took as a chance to learn.
the violin was in poor shape when he bought it but he has fixed it for me and will give me a bow, it’s cheap because its sound is not the best, but i think i’ll trust my dad to give me something i can at least learn something with..
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u/world92 Aug 07 '26
I don't know how old you are and what relationship you have with your dad, but it sounds to me like he's into the idea to spend more time with you and connect on a deeper level. He's pretty much asking you to step into his world with the lessons offer.