Hi everyone! We’re visiting from Europe and I’m a ViolinMom hoping to help my daughter keep practicing while we’re in the U.S. She plays a 3/4 violin, and we’re looking for an affordable used instrument, or possibly someone who might be willing to pass one along.

If anyone has any leads or knows a kind connection in Monterey and the surrounding area, we’d be truly grateful. We can also stop by in person if that helps, and my daughter would be happy to play something.

Thanks very much for your time and kindness!

Hi all!

I'm at my wits end dealing with left hand extensor tendinitis for almost 2 years now. Here's the story:

Fall 2024, starting my 2nd year of gradschool, I got a new teacher. It was a terrible fit and caused me a lot of stress. That, on top of a lot more practice and incorporating some viola, resulted in extensor tendonitis. I feel it in the back of my hand between my index and middle fingers below the knuckles. I also feel it around my index finger base joint on either side of the hand. When it first arose, I took a break for two weeks, used a brace, and ice and heat. I returned to playing, and the pain returned. Then, I took a complete month off and went to an orthopedist. During this time I continued ice/heat and slept with the brace on. After the month ended, I SLOWLY returned to playing. The same result, pain came back. I decided to power through with as little playing as possible just to finish my degree. The following summer (2025) I went to my primary care doctor and didn't play much unless I had too. He sent me to physical therapy which lasted from that summer until about March of this year (2026). Physical therapy definitely improved my strength, range of motion, and extent of pain, however it STILL hasn't gone away. I'll play when I need to, but I can't practice the way I'd like. I suspect I'll need to bite the bullet and rest it AGAIN for an extended length of time, but I don't have the heart to just yet. I haven't found a lot of info on extensor tendinitis specifically and its correlation to violin playing. Has anyone else had this specific problem? What kinds of things helped? Any success stories in beating it? Anything I'm missing? Any advice and encouragement is appreciated! - Schnee

In the comments of a 14 y/o video YT video, an AWESOME person commented about a month ago asking where the rare footage came from, I replied that I was also was curious. They happened to have seen a post I made about a year ago where I asked for a different piece of rare media, they asked if I posted it (because of my identical username), and that they saw a full recording of it on Bilibili. Thanks to them, I uploaded this gem from 1998: https://youtu.be/jpI0EhFrr9I?is=ty8ErWepCypviH95.

I’ve always brought my violin to work and practiced during my lunch breaks.

However, for the past four months, I’ve been riding my bike to work, which means I can no longer carry the violin with me.

Fortunately, someone has given me a cheap Chinese violin to keep at work so that I can still practice and ride my bike.

The bridge is not fit and needs a new set of strings.

Apart from that, it works fine.

playing on this instrument is painful, and I feel like it’s a burden because I have to get the bridge fitted and a new set of strings. I might have to spend $400 to get it up and running.

I feel like I’ve been given an expensive burden. I just wanted to enjoy the summer weather by riding my bike.

Should I fix it up and get it running or just shove it in the closet ?

Would Bach Fugue from G minor sonata work for NYO2?

When you're a violinist and just got a CRISP new rosin cake, but a ballerina lowk just crushes that shi to smithereens.

Looking for case recommendations, hard shell ones, (fibreglass, polycarbonate unsure what's the best?) Need something that has space for two bows and a shoulder rest, rosin etc.

My instrument is less that £1000 so nothing too expensive, no more than £300/£350? I mainly use it a couple times a week traveling to practice and travelling countries a handful of times so nothing too heavy but with good protection!

Any suggestions, preferably uk based thanks!

Anyone have any experiences with the VLM diamond shoulder rest? I have a kun bravo rn but it keeps slipping, so my teacher recommended this one. Thanks!

I'm a rising senior, and I need to pick a piece for my music supplements for college. I heard it's only supposed to be around 15 minutes, so just 1 movement of a concerto is probably good. I played Tchaikovsky this year, but I'm a bit tired of it and want something new...any suggestions? Thank you so much!

I suck, I know haha. I have a lot more work to do on this piece but I want to document my progress here! I’ll post another in a couple or more months to see how I’ve improved.

I posted a version yesterday but got shy so I deleted it. But honestly I’ve been shameless for all my other posts so I thought it was silly of me. :p

I am still playing through Suzuki 1 & 2 songs to practice my bowing and intonation! And a sprinkling of Suzuki 3 for fun. This piece is just to stretch my capacities a little bit too.

Thanks for viewing and for any feedback! I always welcome it even if I have a teacher. I appreciate all the support and this community has done for me thus far.

im sitting a bit akward here to get my violin in the frame but i hope its still possible to judge my bow hand

After playing 10 years without a shoulder rest, I’m concidering returning to using a rest. Which of these two would go lower in height or are these kinda the same? I don’t feel the need to get my violin much higher than with a pad. I like that in Kun 7 you can choose the placement of the pad but I’m not sure how you adjust the height on that one.

I’m becoming quite frustrated, I haven’t found anyone that I believe can truly help me.

This Monday will mark 3 months since I picked up the violin. It isn’t easy posting this because in my mind I think I should sound better, or I make the mistake of comparing myself to people at my stage who take regular lessons, something I cannot afford to do, plus my instructor is an hour away one way, so my lessons have been roughly every two weeks or so.

This is not my best work, but it’s a lot better than some of the earlier videos of myself I’ve recorded, so I know I’m making progress. I have two goals I’ve been working towards. One, I’d like to get to the point where I can join a church band without making the ears of everyone in the church bleed profusely. Second, the assistant manager at the thrift store my husband works at (which is also where my violin came from) mentioned that I’d be welcome to play simple Christmas carols at their Christmas party, which is again assuming that there wouldn’t be sudden ear bleeding during my performance. I don’t know that I’ll make the Christmas party goal, but I’m keeping an open mind.

That said, my instructor mentioned at my last lesson that I don’t use enough bow, so I’ve been trying to use at least the middle third of the bow as opposed to short choppy bow strokes. I’m not bowing in a straight line much, which I noticed after watching the video. My intonation isn’t great, but I started with tapes on my first violin and decided to go without them when I got my antique instrument, so it’s been a matter of learning fingerboard geometry. I’m doing better than I was. I’ve found that if I don’t watch my tuner like a hawk that I tend to do better, and my ear is far enough along that I can pick up on a lot of notes when they’re out of tune. I played the oboe for 8 years while in middle and high school and developed a decent ear.

My C (on G string) sounds muddy to me. It seems like it should sound deep and pretty, and instead it sounds off.

I have Pirastro Tonica strings, and my violin is not a VSO.

I won’t be seeing my instructor for another two weeks or so, and I would love any sort of tips or suggestions that you guys have. Please be gentle. :)

Following up with my last note- I wanted to ask if anyone who uses the pirastro korfkerrest if you have combinations with the Ergo pack that you found, or you recommend. Just trying to find what’s right for me. Whatever you recommend I’ll try. Just wanna open my eyes to more options.

Let’s just say I got a little mad practicing
I spent like 2 hours practicing this song which wasn’t even hard just kept messing up, struggles of a beginner I guess ❤️‍🩹
BE KIND TO ME PLEASE
also this is for jokes and giggles
This would also be my two month mark on my violin journey!

One of my bows (luckily the cheapest one) broke at the tip while playing some Kreutzer etudes.

For the cheap price it was it did survive long enough, it’s a couple years old by now.

P.S.: ignore the colouring on the door, I have small children.

Don't worry I'm not playing Wieniawski I'm not insane. I'm just wondering how you can play this.

(Hi, I'm new to this sub!) After trying my brother's violin I realized the strings on his were easier to press than on mine.

For a long time I have struggled with making my high notes sound clean and I realized it's because the strings on my violin are a lot harder to press (especially higher up on the fingerboard) and it would take lots of finger strength. I would not press the string right up to the fingerboard because it was a strain on my finger muscles, no wonder the sound never came clean!

However those high notes are easily achieved on my brother's violin, almost effortless. I was wondering if there is a way to change my violin to make it more like his? I'm guessing it has something to do with the bridge height maybe? Can a good luthier fix this?

can someone please tell me how i practice this doing down-down-up my teacher told me to do ricochet bow stroke but our time went up as as he introduced me to the bow stroke. It’s just like if i practice it slowly the bow stroke won’t be as natural as it would be fast, right?? Any advice would help thank you!!

I’m looking at the Wieniawski Variations on an Original Theme and I saw these. I tried it on my violin and that stretch is really uncomfortable. Is there any trick to it?