By Laurie Niles: Procuring a violin can be tricky business.![violin case]()
This week on Violinist.com we've explored several different ways that people do it, from securing the loan of a 300-year-old fine instrument, to buying or commissioning a brand-new instrument, fresh off the bench of a luthier engaged in today's thriving art of violin-making.
For most of us it is rather more simple: we buy it at a violin shop, or on the Internet, or borrow one from a friend or relative.
Over four decades of playing, I've found violins a variety of ways, both simple and logistically complex. At first, I borrowed one from my elementary school, then eventually my parents bought me a little student fiddle. When my family realized I was getting serious about it, my grandparents drove across the country to bestow my grandmother's violin on me - it was a lot better than the one we had bought. Eventually I outgrew that, and I began to explore modern instruments, even traveling to a luthier's house, where I learned so many new things about that art. I did buy a modern, then years later fell in love with an antique fiddle that I bought from a shop (and spent years paying off!).
What is the story of your current primary instrument? And what other options have you explored along the way?
Thank you to Morgan Watkins for sending me a bunch of vote ideas, including this one! I invite you to e-mail me with your ideas!You might also like:
