My friend has a violin that he is going to sell for a nice price.
I myself am learning the whistle at the moment.
But I was thinking that it might be fun to play a string instrument too (string as in violin/fiddle, been playing guitar for 15 years).
Does the sound from a violin differ very much from the irish fiddle? Is it a good place to start? I guess fiddles are a bit more expensive and hard to come by…
Thanks in advance!
Physically its the same animal, violin = fiddle.
If you’ve studied music for years and are now taking up the fiddle you just might discover you haven’t been listening as closely as needed to play the fiddle
or not
but its a safe bet that nothing in your musical life up till now has prepared you for the physical techniques needed to play the thing.
Have fun.
Fiddle and Violin are the same thing. The term fiddle is the now out-dated english translation of the italian word violino, but classical musicians being such a peculiarly fussy animal, they’ve made the very word fiddle to have connotations which include barn dances and other sorts of low activities, while the word violin is reserved for high art…
…can you tell how much classical music school is making me bitter?
I see then, I thought that the fiddle played in irish music was something different from the violin, as you probably gathered.
I am not at all classically oriented. I’ve listened a bit to Carl Orff and Wagner. I can’t even read notes.
So as to what pedantic classical teachers say, I don’t care, barn dances are fine with me. And the word fiddle just sounds better than violin. 
My condoleanses to your bad experiences anyway.
The violin in question is of the brand Allegro, and costs about 300 euros. My friend is selling for 250 euro.
For a beginner, that should be a fair price tag right? I mean, if I get really hooked I will buy something better, and it can’t be that crappy?
I thought the term violin was of Italian origin, and fiddle of Germanic origin. But I’m no entomologist. 
Regardless, the fiddle is the same basic instrument as the violin. Fiddlers tend to prefer a few things adjusted differently from classical, like the bridge, action, etc.
Well, fiddle is germanic in origin, but then again english is in the germanic family of languages, so I suppose we can’t be too surprised if it shows up elsewhere. I have a deep love of etymology so I am sorry for derailing the post a bit to express that love. If you ever want to know almost as much as humanly possible about the fiddle (or violin if you prefer), then I recommend a book entitled “Violin Making: as it is and was”, which was written by and englishman in the mid 19th century, and covers pretty much everything you could possibly want to know. Very interesting for the first few chapters, but after that its only interesting from the perspective of a builder. I desperately want to find a good book that covers the evolution of non-classical violin playing, but alas, I may have to give up hope.
A fiddle is a violin that’s playing dance music.
Then there’s a fiddler like Mark O’Connor who blurs the boundaries.
I’ve heard Itzhak Perlman do some really hot Klezmer fiddling too.
Germanic includes English, as was said. English is a Germanic language. Sorry that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine- people referring to native English (ie Anglo-Saxon) words as “German” or “Germanic” as if they were borrowed from another language, or even say that native English words “come from German”- which they don’t. You might as well say that most of Spanish or Italian vocabulary was “borrowed” from Latin.
I know nothing about the fiddle. I tried to play; it was fun but I sounded terrible. I like the instrument. My girlfriend is an amazing violinist and violist; she was second violin, third chair, in the Guam Symphony Orchestra, and is now first violist, first chair. But I haven’t yet been able to get her into the fiddling thing. I try, but oh well. As you can see I brag on her every chance I get.
I have no problem with an etymological discussion at all.
It’s always interesting to know more.
Though, I’d like to know still what you think about the violin in question.
Will it, at that price, be extremely bad (unfit for playing or even practicing), or will it be an okay practice instrument?
Two things;
The common suggestion is for a potential fiddle student to go shopping with a person who already plays fiddle.
Another common suggestion is for a potential fiddle student to get their fiddle checked out by their potential teacher.
$300. is not a bad price for a beginning fiddle in the USA if its playable. Much less than that and it becomes a matter of luck.
Does it come with a decent bow and a case? I upgraded my bow long before I needed to upgrade my first fiddle.
You might try posting your questions over at fiddlehangout.com
I understand that maybe none of you have experience from that brand. What I was referring to was more if violins at that price can be alright for beginners, or if they are simply terrible even for someone just starting to learn. My fault for being vague, or expressing myself wrong.
I will, as with all other instruments, learn mostly by myself. I won’t go to any teacher, and the person I know playing violin is not really an expert in the area. So I’ll have to rely on the opinion of people on forums when choosing the violin.
I will try fiddlehangout.com as you recommended.
I have a cheap $100 Chinese-made fiddle. It’s fine for beginners. The people I have observed with fiddles have everything from precious beauties with fancy flamed woods to old beater-uppers with the chin thingie broken off and the bridge super-glued on.
I’m glad I only paid $100 for my fiddle. I find the darn thing very hard to play. As a friend says, you have to embrace sucking for a very long time. I am just not that patient.
If you are serious about learning to play the violin or fiddle, then you need to get a playable instrument. Violins that are not set up correctly are hard to play, even for someone who knows how, because the strings are usually too far above the fingerboard, and it hurts your fingers to depress the strings. It is good advice to have a knowledgable person help you with your first purchase of a violin. Don’t expect the music store salespeople to give you good advice. They may or they may not.
With regard to fiddle or violin, the great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, often referred to his violin as a fiddle and not in the context of dance or folk music. I think the terms are interchangeable, although people often think of violins in a classical context and fiddles, as has already been said, for dance or folk music.
I’ll chime in also about set-up. The price you mentioned for a beginner’s instrument seems reasonable. And there are many good beginner’s instruments in that price range. Ease of play is the thing, so the action should at least be checked by a luthier.
I’m just learning fiddle, also on my own with the help of friends. I’m having loads of fun with it. I bought a school grade Romanian made fiddle (Gliga Genial 1 Guarneri), and swapped the stringd over to Corelli Crystals. Very easy to play. My fiddle playing friends have tried it and pronounced it good, and seem quite surprised at the price I paid. It’s quite Plain-Jane in appearance (no real figure to the back, nor sides), but it has a rubbed out oil varnish finish. For the money I could not be more pleased.
Best of Luck, Mike
There’s a luthier who frequents Fiddlehangout by the name of Steve Perry. He’s explained in the past how much work he does to property set up a violin to bring out its best voice and what it costs him in man hours.
Perhaps you can find that explanation in their archives.
Another list that is good to at the very least lurk at is Fiddle-L
Here are their archives
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A0=FIDDLE-L
Fiddle-L is a bit more old fashioned in format that Fiddlehangout but its where more fiddlers who play professionally seem to hang out.
I was introduced to a friend’s father a few months ago. The man is in his mid 80’s and played fiddle all his life. I encouraged him to break out one of his instruments. I was amazed that even with significant hearing loss you could tell that he had been very, very good! He described taking old 78 records when he was younger and playing them over and over very slow to learn the tunes.
I asked him if there was a difference between a fiddle and a violin. He said, “If I’m playing Bach, it’s a violin. If I’m playing Blackberry Blossom,
it’s a fiddle!”
and least we forget, doing that is not the same as the slow down software we have now.
Slow down a record and you change the key. You have to constantly be extrapolating the intervals to within the key everybody else plays the tune in.
I have no brain for that, not yet.
If I learn a tune on a five string banjo in double C tuning, for the life of me I just don’t get it on the fiddle played in the key of D until I slap a capo onto the second fret of the banjo and try it again.
I’m no fiddler/violinist, but isn’t there a common, if not universal, practice among fiddlers concerning the shape of the bridge that violinists don’t employ?
One could say that that might be the difference, if used.
I was told the difference between a violin and a fiddle is that one has “strings” and the other has “strangs”. This was from a lady in the deep south with that typical southern accent. That put it all into perspective for me an now I am happily learning the fiddle!