Post: #1

Folks,

Here's the situation -
A close childhood friend of mine was detected with cancer --- doctors have given her 2 years max.
She's a huge fan of the Game of Thrones and is an excellent violinist.

I'm planning to make her a video of the cover on the violin for her 24th birthday ( mid January).

Thing is, I've never played a string instrument before.
Thinking of buying a cheap $40 violin off of Amazon.

Heard that playing the violin is crazy difficult.

Feasible?

I'm 25 and cannot read music if that's of any consequence.

Thanks for your responses.

Post: #2

It's entirely feasible, depending on how much work you're willing to put in per day. The level of command over an instrument needed to play simple melodies isn't that greatˌ so four months should be plenty to prepare.

If your only goal is to play a certain tune, then after the first week or two of learning the basics, spend the rest of the time just preparing that tune.

Post: #3

That's an awesome gesture on your part. Unfortunately, the violin is insanely difficult to play and learning it takes over a decade of work before it starts sounding like anything resembling what you hear on recorded CDs.

I'd suggest finding a violinist either in your local orchestra or music school (if one is in the local university). I'm sure they'd probably do it for free if you explained the situation. You'd have to put in hundreds of hours to even get close to producing a decent sound on the instrument, so you should let a professional do it.

Post: #4

Thanks Ocelot, thepianoman -
that is what I was thinking... Maybe get some help from my university's music school ppl.

The piano man - the gesture is something I want to do for her and getting someone else to do it, while still great, doesn't hold much purpose for me personally.

She's saved me from suicide waaaaaay back when I was an utter beta, and I want to do something in return.

I could spend like 2 hours a day now and much mmorearound December when my roommates head out for Christmas.

Post: #5

You think you can learn to play the violin well enough to record a song in a few months?

Is your last name Mozart? I'm guessing no.

This is a silly idea. Why don't you just spend time with her? Maybe get a violin and see if she can help you learn to play it. Something you could do together, and that would show her that you still care enough to spend time with her during this difficult time. That would probably help take her mind off things.

I really don't understand this Millennial generation obsession with making videos for everything. Stop trying to attention whore. Your friend is dying of cancer, and your first reaction is to make a video starring yourself? This shit has got to stop.

Post: #6

She lives 4500 miles away now
Appreciate the input.

I Dont want to learn the violin, just one song practiced over and over again till it is acceptable.
Fair enough with the attention whoring bit though, I was coming to the same conclusion as such.

Post: #7

(09-06-2014 03:04 PM)ThePianoMan Wrote:  That's an awesome gesture on your part. Unfortunately, the violin is insanely difficult to play and learning it takes over a decade of work before it starts sounding like anything resembling what you hear on recorded CDs.

I'd suggest finding a violinist either in your local orchestra or music school (if one is in the local university). I'm sure they'd probably do it for free if you explained the situation. You'd have to put in hundreds of hours to even get close to producing a decent sound on the instrument, so you should let a professional do it.

I disagree. The learning curve on the violin is definitely one of the steepest (perhaps the steepest?), but if your goal is to play a simple melody and you set about gathering the required skills in a systematic way, there's no reason four months shouldn't be sufficient to accomplish said goal. Of course there will be lots of subtleties missing, and you won't sound like a concert violinist. But neither would you after five years of practice.

If anything, I would expect the limiting factor to be your ears, not your fingers (assuming you don't currently play any musical instruments). Be prepared to watch a lot of instructional videos on youtube - a nice feature these days is that you can slow down youtube videos in the settings menu.

Post: #8

Sorry to hear that. It's a bit of a crazy idea but if you think it'll mean that much to her then go for it.

It's going to be tough at your age to become proficient at a classical instrument. With violin, intonation is everything, and the difference between a beautiful melody and the sound of two cats fucking is very slim.

It requires very precise dexterity and nimble, accurate fingers. I never played violin beyond just fucking around on it, but I did play cello for several years so I've got a foundation in string instrument technique. They're not the easiest instruments to learn, but not the hardest either.

The benefit of the violin is it's tuned just like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar (by bottom I mean the 4 bass strings, these are called bottom whereas the treble strings are called the top)

There's also the benefit of learning in treble clef instead of bass clef, which I think is more difficult. I do highly recommend you learn to read music if you're going to take this seriously. It's not nearly as hard as some might make it out to be.

If you really apply yourself, you can play a simple piece well after your first year. This is with 1 hour of daily practice. At the 6 month mark, you should be doing 2 hours of daily practice.

Post: #9

For the sake of argument I'd say brass instruments, particularly French horn have the steepest learning curve

Post: #10

agree with thedude in general, but:

(09-06-2014 03:28 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  The benefit of the violin is it's tuned just like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar (by bottom I mean the 4 bass strings, these are called bottom whereas the treble strings are called the top)

The violin is tuned in 5ths, not 4ths, so it's not the same as guitar. It's the same as mandolin though (I've always wondered if someone who can play both guitar and violin can just pick up a mandolin for the first time and bring down the house haha).

(09-06-2014 03:28 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  There's also the benefit of learning in treble clef instead of bass clef, which I think is more difficult. I do highly recommend you learn to read music if you're going to take this seriously. It's not nearly as hard as some might make it out to be.

Learning to read music is always a good idea, but I'd personally leave it until after this project, if you decide to continue learning. Since the goal is to be able to play a specific melody to a reasonable standard within four months, I'd focus solely on that goal until you achieve it, since it will be quite a challenge.

Good luck,
Ocelot

Post: #11

You're right it's backwards.

The bottom four strings of a guitar are tuned EADG from bass to treble, where violin is GDAE from bass to treble

Post: #12

Sharkie, don't let others' opinions dampen your passion.

Get your ass in there and do this! Once you start asking other peoples' opinions, all you're going to get is seeds of doubt planted in your noggin.

Life is too short. Be a crazy idealist.

The idea is not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, to me it's touching. What do you have to lose? Nothing, really.

Just don't spend much for a violin. Get some cheapo for $50 and go from there. It is not hard to produce a few notes on a musical instrument. No one expects you to be proficient.

She will be impressed just by you're trying. That's all that matters. And I can't think of a more poignant memory you would have than doing something like this.

There is no downside here. At worst, you've learned how to handle (in a rudimentary way) a new musical instrument.

.

Post: #13

(09-06-2014 04:37 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  
Life is too short. Be a crazy idealist.
The idea is not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, to me it's touching. What do you have to lose? Nothing, really.

Thanks.

Violin ordered off of Amazon!

Funny thing, the guy who owns the local hookah shop actually learned the violin in school, turns out he's been playing for 17 years!
He went all teary eyed and offered to teach me the title cover. Fucking small world.

Pumped.

Post: #14

(09-06-2014 04:52 PM)Sharkie Wrote:  Violin ordered off of Amazon!

It's a little-known fact that Perlman also buys his violins on Amazon.

Post: #15

^^^ I play that on guitar. It's a bitch

Post: #16

(09-06-2014 05:04 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  ^^^ I play that on guitar. It's a bitch

Segovia's transcription. Yes it is.

Post: #17

Tuth I've known for a while that you play classical guitar but what are the odds that two guys on this forum would both be familiar with Segovia's Bach Chaconne in d... gonna dig up my sheet music and run through it tonight to see if I still got it, at one point i had it all committed to memory.

Playing Bach is one of life's most sublime experiences.

Post: #18

(09-06-2014 04:37 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  Just don't spend much for a violin. Get some cheapo for $50 and go from there.

(09-06-2014 02:54 PM)Sharkie Wrote:  Thinking of buying a cheap $40 violin off of Amazon.

Joking aside, I strongly disagree with this philosophy. It's almost guaranteed to fail.

Unless someone plays music seriously, they don't recognize the difference between a $50 instrument and even a still-rather-inexpensive $1,000 one until you show them. The differences are massive. Not only is it often a chore to play physically, a shitty instrument will fail to train one of the most important parts of you musicianship--your ear. A shitty instrument wastes your time and effort, impeding progress, and leaving you frustrated and that much more likely to quit. The irony is that spending more money upfront is usually the smarter strategy.

Furthermore, you should show the art the respect of a real commitment. You don't know how to read music? You're only willing to buy an instrument that costs as much as a book of sheet music? This level of hubris isn't the recipe for success with an instrument, never mind on this accelerated timeline that you've set for yourself. Just proper tone production, on a basic scale, would take months. Never mind playing this:







I'd hate to be negative, but unless you suddenly develop a genuine love and respect for the violin overnight, this will result in--at best--a cringe-worthy rendition of this song that your friend, who actually did commit to the instrument, will merely pretend to enjoy.

Post: #19

I largely agree with you.
But at the same time i am loathe to spend a lot on what might be a passing whim, sunk cost and what not.

Maybe if I develop a genuine love for the instrument later on.

This was more as a decent gesture on my part for her but I may not have the time or money to spend on playing the violin for some time after January, and music is not the focus of my career. Hence personally it makes more sense for me to get a cheap one up front.

Your perspective does make much more sense in the larger sense of learning a musical instrument though

For what its worth,

http://www.amazon.com/Full-Student-Violi...rds=violin

Post: #20

(09-06-2014 03:13 PM)scorpion Wrote:  You think you can learn to play the violin well enough to record a song in a few months?

Is your last name Mozart? I'm guessing no.

This is a silly idea. Why don't you just spend time with her? Maybe get a violin and see if she can help you learn to play it. Something you could do together, and that would show her that you still care enough to spend time with her during this difficult time. That would probably help take her mind off things.

I really don't understand this Millennial generation obsession with making videos for everything. Stop trying to attention whore. Your friend is dying of cancer, and your first reaction is to make a video starring yourself? This shit has got to stop.

Agree: spending time together and giving her positive emotions is a 1000x more helpful than making a short video. Idea: one way you can spend time together is have her teach you violin! Im sure she would enjoy that a lot.

Post: #21

I was gonna say the absolute lowest I would go for a classical instrument is $500. Any lower than that and it's going to be some chinese piece of shit that is impossible to play and won't stay in tune.

I've got some expensive ass guitars but my cello was a cheapo since it wasn't my primary instrument. One year I attended the Aspen Music festival and started selling weed to some cellists. One night one of them let me play their cello, it was worth $300,000 or something ridiculous, I just played a couple lines of the Bach suite in G and I was blown away at how good it sounded. Not only how good it sounded, but how EASY it was to make the instrument sound beautiful. My hunk of crap, by contrast, felt like I was fighting with it to get a sweet tone.

Post: #22

(09-06-2014 05:34 PM)Sharkie Wrote:  But at the same time i am loathe to spend a lot on what might be a passing whim, sunk cost and what not.

Then don't do it. Commit or don't. No half measures.

Why are you picking violin, anyway? Just because your friend plays it? You can play that shit on your own instrument that you can be confident enough to commit to.

Post: #23

Oh well, now that I've gone ahead and bought it I'll be much more prone to defending the purchase.

I'll probably come back in January and tell you that you were absolutely correct.

Thanks.

Post: #24

Unless you want to have a new hobby of playing the violin I wouldn't bother. I've been playing for 14 years and to be marginally proficient in playing at least takes a year. You'll be screeching and a cheap violin will sound just as such, a cheap violin. Both of my instruments are at least 5+ grand in value and the strings alone were 60 a pop.

Post: #25

Are there any music/instrument stores near you? Go to a physical music store and see about renting a violin. It may not be the highest quality, but I'd imagine it's better than a 50$ amazon violin.