In the case of classical violin, artisans have been making them for centuries and the best players have generally played on excellent instruments. If we look at instruments in other fields, though, we seem much less of this. Popular music is full of people who learned on relatively cheap instruments, many of them sticking with them as professionals. Looking at old electronic tech is probably the most interesting here, where a lot of sounds come from the limitations of the technologies available then, and people now try very hard to imitate them.
Personally, I’m in favor of starting with cheaper instruments and then getting better ones when you start to run into their limitations (and only if you play them enough to justify that). Among other things, this means you can afford more instruments and developing good audiation can benefit from playing a bunch of different things. For example, my main instrument is keyboard and I play a heavily-used Yamaha P85 that would probably sell for about $200, and for playing drums with my feet I use ~$75 Yamaha KU100s that feed a DTX 500 brain that’s ~$100. Bringing this back to violins, my 9yo is learning to play on a Cremona SV-130 1⁄4 size that was $275.
I’d just explicitly ask the teacher if they’re happy with the instrument’s setup. It’s probably fine, but maybe they’ll tell you it needs work. Generally 1⁄4 instruments aren’t going to sound great anyway, but the setup is still very important.
It seems that having a teacher tell you when to move up/onwards is critical. Otherwise, it can be tricky to realize that the hardware is the limitation after months of working on your own abilities/skills.
In the case of classical violin, artisans have been making them for centuries and the best players have generally played on excellent instruments. If we look at instruments in other fields, though, we seem much less of this. Popular music is full of people who learned on relatively cheap instruments, many of them sticking with them as professionals. Looking at old electronic tech is probably the most interesting here, where a lot of sounds come from the limitations of the technologies available then, and people now try very hard to imitate them.
Personally, I’m in favor of starting with cheaper instruments and then getting better ones when you start to run into their limitations (and only if you play them enough to justify that). Among other things, this means you can afford more instruments and developing good audiation can benefit from playing a bunch of different things. For example, my main instrument is keyboard and I play a heavily-used Yamaha P85 that would probably sell for about $200, and for playing drums with my feet I use ~$75 Yamaha KU100s that feed a DTX 500 brain that’s ~$100. Bringing this back to violins, my 9yo is learning to play on a Cremona SV-130 1⁄4 size that was $275.
I’d just explicitly ask the teacher if they’re happy with the instrument’s setup. It’s probably fine, but maybe they’ll tell you it needs work. Generally 1⁄4 instruments aren’t going to sound great anyway, but the setup is still very important.
Yes, the teacher is fine with it. When it’s time for a larger one that will be a deeper look.
It seems that having a teacher tell you when to move up/onwards is critical. Otherwise, it can be tricky to realize that the hardware is the limitation after months of working on your own abilities/skills.
I’ve spent most of my time as a musician exploring areas where there aren’t teachers, for better or worse.