If you’re someone who has pondered this question as you think about starting an instrument, you’re definitely not the only one. 

There’s a widespread fascination with which instruments are “easier and which are “harder” with violin often being named as one of the so-called “harder” ones. Perhaps this is because of the well-known stereotype that beginner violin is not the most pleasant sound.  

Patience

When I was still a beginner, I remember getting frustrated with my sound and after expressing this to the conductor of the ensemble I was in he said something that I can never forget. He just laughed and said, “it takes five years to learn to play the violin badly”. Now, this may seem very discouraging and it’s also not a good idea to measure improvement by time, but in that moment I remember feeling a little bit relieved, because I realized that it was okay to cut myself some slack and it reminded me that good things take time.

Now, before we dive right in and see exactly how hard learning violin is, it’s very important to understand that all instruments are hard to learn and require a considerable amount of effort and time to gain any level of proficiency. Each instrument comes with its own unique challenges and each player might encounter different hurdles in the learning process depending on various factors such as previous musical training, physical development and work ethic to name a few.

So what makes violin hard to learn?

One of the main reasons violin is often named in the top three hardest instruments is because, unlike piano and instruments with frets there isn’t specific marked spots that you simply put your finger one and a certain note is produced. Instead, the notes have to be pitched correctly using inner hearing combined with muscle memory. This means that that player needs to have a good sense of pitch or spend a lot of time developing this. Another difficult aspect of learning to play violin is tone production. Drawing the bow across the strings in way that produces that beautiful sound that makes most people want to play violin is definitely a lot harder than it looks. Making a beautiful sound on the violin takes lots and lots of practice. Now, you may be thinking that surely all instruments require lots of practice to develop the needed technique? What can make this beginning period of playing the violin a bit worse, is that the sound of beginner violin can be quite rough on the ears!

So in conclusion, violin is hard to play but it’s not impossible, and with a little bit of determination and a good teacher anyone can learn to play the violin, so get started right way and Contact Us!