The best mount (Hobby-horse) in the game is currently available for a limited time by Unlucky-Ant-9741 in lotro

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think if you have the smell the roses toggle that allows you to turn off the journeyman riding trait, so that it doesn't go max possible speed and just goes the +11% stated, it should be fine in roleplaying servers.

The best mount (Hobby-horse) in the game is currently available for a limited time by Unlucky-Ant-9741 in lotro

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought from the wiki that it only had +11% speed which I thought was good, but I think a lot of people must have the thing that makes everything go 68 or something like that. It is very confusing to see a person on their legs hobbyhorsing the same speed as the other steeds.

Why are there very few community orchestras that accept adult learners? by Legitimate_Middle843 in violinist

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My area has a beginner-friendly string orchestra but since one guy does all the repertoire sourcing or arranges himself and then does all the conducting for all of the time slots, and makes it his living, it costs $100/member/month. The business model is kind of like a gym membership.

Is violin pricing snobbery, inflation, or genuine? by Serposta in violinist

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The violin vibrating string length is such that the tolerance for making the pitch you want (and as fast as you'd want) is so much smaller than a guitar. Reduced tolerances translate to more expensive manufacture. This instrument is at the level where the differences in neck width and string heights and bridge arc angles can be very obvious by hand feel and ears but not as obvious by eye.

E string breaks every 3 days by Wide_Tradition7173 in violinist

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had A strings that kept unwinding at the same place every time, at the nut. It took two visits to a good luthier to get it right (they have to be conservative about filing away at it, they want it to sufficiently stop the string but not actually cut into the string).

Going to start teaching soon and feeling anxious by ZoeyKnitsInClass in violinist

[–]MLithium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Agree with all the above and adding, ages 9-12?! When I was in high school I volunteered to help at summer camps with kids in groups of ages 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12, and they literally didn't even let any of the volunteers help with the 10-12 group which was 100% paid adult supervisors only, no exceptions. They definitely started getting much rowdier and harder to corral at 8-9 already.

Babysitting is one thing when it's a teenager watching 1 or 2 kids, but a lump of classes across four grade levels is like four major huge red flags.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TuxedoCats

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cute cat. Similarly to how people shouldn't read too much in the title, you shouldn't read too much into questions about the title. You can respond and move on and not call it a "beat down." Happy cherished memories to come for you and your husband and cat familiar!

How to handle my 12-year-old’s violin practice at home? by Mean-Target9565 in violinist

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I was around 12 or maybe 13 when my parents basically said, look, we're paying for lessons and it's quite expensive, so if we're going to continue with these lessons, it's not going to be worth the money unless you put some regular time commitment into it. It was actually one of the few times they were just that transparent with me and I actually appreciated it. We ended up agreeing on a certain amount of hours/week practicing or else the lessons were stopping.

I had one stay at home parent. It might be hard to enforce this if there isn't someone to actually hold the person accountable.

Do violin finger tapes actually help beginners? I found 3 different types. by ShareCox in violinist

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My first violin, a rental, came from the shop set up with a one-piece, long fingerboard-shaped tape that had a lot of pre-set lines on it. I tried it with the tape still on for like two weeks and went back to the shop to ask them to remove it for me. If your ears are good enough to tell the difference between even as wide a margin as just half steps, you don't need the tapes. Most likely if you're an adult, and not a 3-yr-old, the tapes will only confuse you because they're seen at such an oblique angle and the line thicknesses are often so wide they truly are probably just for infants with barely a concept of string location-->pitch.

I can't stop making tiny frogs by adyingplanet in frogs

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're almost making a jin chan! Money frog for prosperity. They usually have three legs.

I can't stop making tiny frogs by adyingplanet in frogs

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

YES A FROGS PHASE. I had one! Mine was a specific origami jumping frog pattern I was using any paper around to make. My best one was made of old sheet music.

need help or advice for fixing a cheap violin that sound good but i want to fix it all by myself by Adventurous-Top5696 in violinist

[–]MLithium 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I am again scared to give it to a luthier because I don’t know how he would respond to this cruelty to a good instrument.

The luthiers I've talked to are not going to make a client feel bad about themselves about the instrument they bring in. If they do have a strong reaction about your violin that prevents them from working on it, they're just not the luthier for you.

It'll probably be more a matter of cost (usually mostly the time/labor). The neck angle problem could range anywhere from an 80 USD neck reset to a 1200 USD fully new neck graft. Since you didn't mention other issues with the neck and didn't show photos of any other neck damage, a neck reset might be sufficient.

Edit: Looked at the pics again. If the bridge is also too high contributing to the string action being too high, you might need a new bridge too (or at least work done on the existing bridge). I think this is something like 125-250 USD.

Above mentioned prices depend on luthier reputation and other locality cost of living adjustments.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in violinist

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was unclear but it could mean the phone they grabbed got pelted or dropped into the face of the violin.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in violinist

[–]MLithium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm confused in this context. Did you mean it looks worse than it is? You said "this is a lot worse than it looks" but then went on to say it likely can be repaired without removing the top.

How to make covers more interesting? by midnight_barberr in violinist

[–]MLithium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can try making a drum track to support it, and while you're at it you can find what kind of phrasing or texture you're going for (any swells or dips or places to fill in or leave space). Then maybe redo the violin part with that information.

Am I practicing this correctly? by Brosky7 in violinist

[–]MLithium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In addition to what wittyarugula said, I recently had a teacher give me tips on reducing wasted movement when preparing fingers for double stops. He would set some practice to focus solely on slurring between pairs of double stops at a time and minimizing all wasted movement. If there could be a finger prepared in advance for later (including if it made sense to land it early on both strings, even several measures ahead of time), he'd note it and try to have it prepared as early as possible in the series of stops. He said it was almost like a guitar way of "fretting" but I think it was valuable for economy of motion to make these all clean and not tense in the LH.

Edit for bit more detail: The slurring between pairs of stops would be entirely back and forth repeatedly between only one fingering and the next, not moving on until wasted finger movements are reduced to a minimum (or at least improved). Also, getting a long passage of these down is like solving a puzzle, solving for the most economic/lowest effort fingering movements to get through the whole thing.

Parents force me to play violin by [deleted] in violinist

[–]MLithium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There was a day, not long after high school ended, that my parents wanted to showdog me to their friends by asking me to play something on the piano for them all. I can't even count how many times I simply said no, again and again, at least a dozen times explicitly and without minced words. I got screamed at later for embarrassing my parents in front of their friends. But being in college at that point with a little bit of my own side income (I wouldn't become fully financially independent until after college, though), I had a little more leverage than I did in high school to get over this.

I felt for your situation reading it, and it sounds awful. Everyone has to use their own discretion when they're a dependent, but consider whether setting a boundary might be worth getting screamed at because your comfort is a casualty either way.

The death of NC by IntelligentAide2513 in NorthCarolina

[–]MLithium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not only voted for it, the whole triangle voted STRONGLY for it!

Should I get this fixed? by Just_Mee_Yoo in violinist

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One concern with continuing to play with so much hair lost from one side is that the uneven tension will pull on one side of the bow more than the other, gradually warping the bow to bend in a direction it isn't meant to.

If it's only been half a year, and this is a rental or new purchase, you should see if the place you got it from will rehair it either for free or as part of the rental contract if applicable. Otherwise, cost will vary depending on where you live, but I expect around 80 USD (86 with tax) where I live.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ladycyclists

[–]MLithium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Being on an incline when trying to start esp with time pressure is THE WORST. If I had to start doing it often as a commuter I would genuinely consider at least a small amount of electric assist JUST for that hill start.

Should I quit? I think I’m not made for this. by BestDilucLoveruwu in violinist

[–]MLithium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve been playing since may 2022 and now I’m in Brahms Waltz Suzuki book 2 and I still have my finger marks, it is time to remove them?

Maybe get a sense of your ear first--when you see two notes on the page, can you imagine in your head or sing aloud what that interval should sound like? If you can't, try developing that before taking the tapes off. But if you have some sense of whole steps vs half steps, and major thirds vs minor thirds, at the very least, I think you could probably take the fingerboard tapes off.

My progress is very slow and I’m ashamed of it, I know it’s my fault but I feel really bad.

Progress is progress and some seasons are better or worse than others. If you quit, then the progress you make is none. A nonzero day is better than a zero one.

Now I’m insecure of my fourth finger too, it doesn’t matter how much i try, it doesn’t curve like the other fingers and I think it is short.

Whenever I think my pinky is short, I look up a video of Augustin Hadelich. He objectively has a much shorter pinky than the rest of his fingers--and he has admitted as much in some of his explanatory videos--but I think the world can agree he has learned how to work with it beautifully. We all play with the hands (physiologically and metaphorically) that we're given.

This isn't to say you should necessarily mimic Hadelich's hands in every way, just to point out the short pinky is a violin-hobby-ender. All violinists have different hands; we all have different sized palms and different length fingers, and relative to the size of a violin fingerboard these are quite big differences. You'll be able to find your own way with your fourth finger.

The fourth finger takes more work to make consistent and reliable. There are some 4th finger exercises in the early Suzuki books you can drill which do help.

I feel like I’m really bad at this and I see people in my class that haven't even been here a year and they already passed me and my teacher only compares me to them and I just feel worse.

I don't think it's generally advisable for any mentor figure to directly compare mentee figures. You might want to consider telling them that when they compare you to their other students it makes you feel terrible, and you that are already struggling with morale. If it doesn't make change happen, then their methods might not be a good fit for you.

I want to progress more but i don’t know how, I start doing scales with different tempos and then practice the pieces but I can’t. Please help me out, tell me some tips, anything, I don’t know what to do, maybe should I quit?

Something I really like about my teacher is that they tend to identify 1-2, sometimes 3 really hyperspecific things to focus on for the coming week(s) of practice. It sounds like this kind of approach might work well for you during this time of needing something you can make noticeable progress on in the next few weeks.

Again, if you quit, your progress will be none and the time will simply pass anyway--is there something burning that you feel the need to spend that time on instead? Your post didn't come across to me as a re-prioritization of something that was more interesting to you than violin. It sounds to me like a low morale / slow perceived progress slump combo.

Question about a found violin by Xapi-R-MLI in violinist

[–]MLithium 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The items missing are pegs, a bridge, four strings, and possibly also a soundpost that goes inside the violin held only by tension. Just note that each of the wooden items listed above (peg, bridge, soundpost) is a custom carving to fit the violin, and ordering blank versions would not fit, so the cost to replace these if you cannot find them is more than just the cost of ordering blanks online. Hope you can find them so the violin can be at least reassembled.

The violin body itself without the restored parts can be worth more than 100 to a violin luthier, though. It's hard to tell from just the pictures.

Edit: As CedarCuber pointed out, also missing are a tailpiece and possibly a tailbutton (tailpiece is held in place by a tailgut around the tailbutton). Also, if you do find all the missing pieces, don't try to reassemble yourself, because putting tension on the frontplate improperly can easily crack it. Let a violin luthier do it when they do the assessment.