First, a little bit about me

I’ve been playing guitar for about 2.4 years. I’m starting out on violin. I owned a mini keyboard since I was a kid, and have had a crack at it too. However, I’ve not taken any formal lessons on the keyboard, but I am planning on doing so, and I have indeed read method books on keyboard/piano techniques.

A fact you will hear about all the three instruments

“It will take you a few months/years to learn, but a lifetime to master…”

That’s not just true for any instrument there is, but also for games like Chess. So, it’s nothing new.

If all the instruments take so long to master, then how can one of them be tougher than the other? Or is it just an illusion?

The answer lies in “instant gratification”

Instant gratification? What’s that? To explain, let’s start with the simplest looking instrument amongst the three. The keyboard.

The reason I chose the keyboard is because you can give it to a child, and the child can start playing meaningful tunes within an evening.

The child most problably will have a lot of problems getting a nice note to sound on the guitar. So, playing a series of notes (the melody) in a nice legato fashion is out of question. Chords are out of the equation, at least for the evening.

Now, what about the violin? The child might not even master holding the bow in an evening. Even I won’t be able to, as a matter of fact. It takes practice and time to get a hang of it – to get it naturally. We haven’t even gone to the hard part of putting the violin in proper playing position, and playing at least a single meaningful note.

So, is violin the hardest? No!!!

When the child plays a simple (or even complex) melody on a keyboard easily, he isn’t using all of the techniques properly. There is a very specific way in which you have to keep your hands and fingers, and the child might not be doing that.

And, you have to play with both of your hands, if you ever want to reach the true potential of the instrument. The left hand gives the underlying base or rhythm, and the right hand gives the melody or again a rhythm. In short, the left hand plays in the bass clef while the right hand plays in the treble clef.

It’s difficult to get the co-ordination right. It’s difficult reading two lines of music and playing them correctly, in tempo and smoothly.

Not just that. In a piano or higher end keyboards, you add dynamics (volume of your notes) by choosing whether to press the keys harder or softer. You have to have good finger independence to make sure you don’t accidently press any key, for it will sound horrible.

And of course, you should be able to play the chords comfortably. It’s all simple if you follow the right technique, but it’s not easy. Remember, by saying simple, I mean simple as in to understand. By saying it’s not easy, I’m implying that it does take work (as in no easy money).

And there are loads of other things which even I have not begun to explore…

And what about the guitar?

Sore hands and fingers. The picking hand not striking the right string. You’re not able to get a smooth melody line, for it all sounds very detached. You have to keep looking at both your left and right hand to make sure that they’re at the right position. All these are the problems faced by a beginning guitarist.

Chords, and thus chord changes are even more difficult. Strumming a chord properly (the right hand technique) is also tricky. The up-strum is what takes some time to get a knack of.

And don’t get me started on the ‘Dreaded F Chord.’ It takes a while to get hang of. Some people get it right at first. I had no problems with the full barre F chord, but a lot of problems with the 4-string ‘mini’ version.

And there are a lot of strumming techniques like muting, dead strokes, accents and chord variants that are needed to give a really great, full-sounding rhythm. Even I’m not yet capable of that, and it might take some time to get there.

Many argue that there are a lot more guitarists that violinsts, which should imply that violin is more difficult than guitar. But they don’t realize that the majority of hobbyist guitarists would never have enough skill to become a session guitarist, for most of them can’t even sight read.

Finally, the violin

The violin requires a lot of learning even before you play a single note. This comes in the form of holding the bow properly, holding the violin properly, and having a good posture. After all that, you get to make your first bow stroke, that too only in the middle portion of the bow. You have no begun fretting any notes so far either.

After good amount of practice, you will get a hang of it, and will become better.

The one difficult thing in violin that everyone claims is vibrato. Violin allows one thing that the other two instruments don’t, that is sustaining a note. However, if you sustain a note without a vibrato, it sounds pretty horrible. With vibrato, the sustain feels natural. A person not so inclined towards music might not even “hear the vibrato” as such, but will find the sound pleasing.

So, is vibrato that difficult? Yes. But not just in violin. A good vibrato technique is quite difficult to master even on a guitar. Great guitarists have their own signature vibrato techniques. It might take you a year to get a good vibrato with all of your fingers, both on a guitar and a violin.

The only difference with violin is that vibrato crops up much more early. Since sustained notes is the primary feature of violin, you need to master vibrato in order to use it. With guitar, you can play a lot of great music without knowing about vibrato. But you can add a lot of color to the music once you learn it.

In the end… what’s the verdict?

All the three instruments pose specific challenges. Some crop up early on, while some occur later. But it takes a lifetime of effort to master any of them.

All the instruments have some special features that differentiates it from the others. To use those special features, you need to develop special techniques unique to that instrument. That’s the reason you can’t compare the skills required to play two different instruments, for they’re different all together.

Which instrument to learn, then?

Listen to music from each of the instrument. Which one of it do you like? If you’re a huge Eric Clapton fan, then you might go with the guitar. For more classically oriented people, violin might be a great choice. Keyboard/Piano works for both types of music.

Your job is to find out which instrument will help you play the songs/music you like the most, and then learn that instrument! There is nothing wrong is learning multiple instruments.

Good online violin resources

I’ve mentioned two good online resources for learning violin. One is free, and one is a subscription. I’ll tell you the merit of each.

Learning violin does require a lot of discipline. If you are self learning, then you need to be very strict with yourself. You need to concentrate on doing something “the right way”, instead of just somehow managing to do what you want.

1. Todd Ehle’s free violin lessons

You can find a list of lessons on his site here. The videos are listed in order, and link to YouTube.

Todd is a great teacher, and he also has a very great story behind why he created these online lessons in the first place. You can read it here.

His lessons are great. However, it is recommended that you use it in conjunction with the free Violin Masterclass site. Todd may miss out on certain things which you might see covered in the Violin Masterclass site.

For most part, Todd has done a great job. However, you can always refer to the Violin Masterclass site to get a more in-depth view on certain things.

2. Violin Lab lessons by Beth Blackerby

This is not free. But it’s amazing and of great value. You can visit the site here. This is the resource that I recommend if you’re just starting out, and have little outside guidance, i.e., no teacher to teach you.

The lessons are very detailed and very organized. Since the website is paid in nature, the authors can put in more time and money into producing useful videos. This is in contrast with the free videos wherein the authors have to use their free time to record videos.

Violin Lab comes at a great price. It’s $19.99 for a month, or $29.99 for three months, or $42.97 for six months. For renewals, you get 20% off the current membership rates.

So, why is Violin Lab so good? First of all, I have no affiliation with Violin Lab. And yes, I am a member. So, I have nothing to gain by recommending it to you. The reason I wrote this post was because of the huge amount of time it took me to find Violin Lab. All kinds of useless websites rank so high when it comes to violin lessons that people miss out on good sites like Violin Lab.

The beginner method, consisting of 67 videos should put you onto a good start. You spend the first 26 lessons learning about the Violin, holding it and learning how to bow properly. No left hand used till now. That’s the amount of detail Beth gets into.

However, does this mean that your bored with a lot of unnecessary details? Absolutely not! Every detail is as essential as it gets. Each video is mostly below 10 minutes, except for the practice videos.

Violin Lab also has a great community where all members can chat and share their thoughts. You can post a video of yourself and can get feedback from Beth. Or, there are numerous other experienced violinists who are glad to help as well. This is as close to getting a teacher as it gets.

Believe me. Make that small investment. It helps to learn the violin “the right way” from the very beginning. Sure, you’d be spending a month just practicing the hold and bow stroke. But when you do master them, you’d be flawless. It’s very important to be disciplined when self-learning, for there is no one else to discipline you.

Suspicious “miracle” courses for Violin

I wouldn’t name any product. But you’d find some products being named as the “best violin learning resource ever.” Normally, a lot of review site will positively favor such courses. You’d find that these “review sites” hardly go into any detail of the course itself. Your best bet is to stay away from such products and the hype surrounding it.

Anything else?

Well, unlike say, Guitar, the Violin has pretty scarce number of online resources. It’s a much more formal instrument. People who pursue the violin are normally serious about music itself. It’s not like they only wish to strum a few guitar chords.

So, keep in mind the resources I’ve mentioned above. Books can’t teach you the technique. You’ll need good videos for that, which I’ve mentioned above. You can then use the Suzuki books to supplement your learning. Violin Lab also includes a set of videos on Suzuki books 1 and 2 to help you glide through them.

Have a nice violin learning journey!