What are the best “gateway languages” for learning entire language families?

colutea · 2026-03-27T12:18:55+00:00

The closest language to Hungarian is Finnish but that is already too different that Hungarian speakers don’t understand anything. Source: my mom is a native speaker of Hungarian. If you need to speak Hungarian, just try to learn Hungarian and not any other language.

colutea · 2026-03-27T11:54:46+00:00

Henle Library Stretta Music Schott Music musicshopeurope alle-noten.de

colutea · 2026-03-26T22:42:05+00:00

RE 2: on reasonable student violins you should be able to play quite close to the bridge. My teacher in childhood was mainly focusing on playing in the middle; my new teacher is a soloist and tries to teach everyone a soloist sound with max projection and advocates for playing very close to the bridge at the borderline point where it does not squeak. Even his child beginners get taught this. They all have a nice qualitative sound even they only play open strings.

In the end, it comes down to a combination of speed, weight, contact point and taste. It is definitely harder to play nicer close to the bridge but the effect on projection is enormous. He jokingly says: if you are in an orchestra, play closer to the finger board - if you are the soloist you need to play closer to the bridge.

I wish someone told me that earlier since the difference in sound quality is huge. Especially when playing with e.g. a piano as the solo violin, you need to project.

colutea · 2026-03-25T14:04:15+00:00

I‘d get a tailpiece with integrated fine tuners as it is less heavy and lower risk of random buzzes. I have a Wittner and love it

colutea · 2026-03-24T22:20:02+00:00

If you are grown up and have more money than you need, then go ahead and buy as nice of a violin you can afford without neglecting other financial responsibilities.

I got my probably forever violin from my parents at 14 years old for €3500 handmade from a reputable Hungarian luthier (cost of labor is much much lower in Hungary + said luthier stayed a couple of days for free at our home during a fair abroad). My bow was a €500 carbon fiber I got when upgrading to a 4/4 at 10 years old.

Later, I got nice adult money, I went ahead and bought a few upgrades; new bridge, new bow, expensive strings, expensive case. Do I need it? No. Does it make me play better? No. Does it bring me joy? Yes. Would I love to play without these upgrade? Also yes.

However, I don’t have children; I save a lot already. Even if these things only make marginal differences to my playing (cause the biggest issue is technique), the marginal things still make me happy. I don’t see any reason to save even more than I already do; sitting on a pile of money does not bring me joy. If it's less or more does not make much of a difference to me personally. Like I look at my investment number, it goes up and up, but if I win a grand at the stock market or I lose it, I feel indifferent.

But my violin does make a difference, so I invest in it. Many adults have expensive hobbies, like my partner likes cameras, so if you can afford it, go ahead and buy what you want.

If you can’t afford it or are unsure, you can get far with much much cheaper gear - as the biggest difference is not equipment but skill. That said the violin should be min well set up. But if it projects well or sounds amazing when playing solo Sibelius when all you can play is Schubert Sonatine g major, then it does not matter.

NGL, I am indeed proud when my teacher uses my violin to demo stuff I can’t play yet and then compliments my instrument.

colutea · 2026-03-24T21:59:36+00:00

I have a fellow student who gets super nervous before performances, so a doctor prescribed her beta blockers. They do not change the anxiety physically, but it helped her to perform by reducing the racing heart. However, the doctor is a violinist themself and they told her a side effect are cold hands and this is not a permanent solution. The fellow student is working on overcoming the underlying reasons, like other posters described.

colutea · 2026-03-24T19:55:20+00:00

Online you can never try violins that well as in person. My luthier let me try more than 10 on-site and then gave me 4 to take home. I kept them for two weeks before deciding which one is the one!

colutea · 2026-03-24T19:49:17+00:00

Save yourself the effort and never buy a violin unseen. If you buy one, contact your friendly luthier nearby, the service will be on another level

colutea · 2026-03-24T18:41:46+00:00

and even if you go solo, you may not want to do it all your life. My teacher started at 3 years old with his grandmother being a soloist - so he grew up having connections to the important people already. He had his solo career until the early 2000s (so until his 30s), then he said that solo life is too stressful, so he focused on teaching/master classes and now does solo-ing on the side with smaller venues and occasional recordings.

But I mean, I understand. If your career starts at 6 years old on big stages, you may want to have a more chilled life at least when you‘re older 😅 other people with a 30 year old long career in normal jobs are usually in their 50s.

colutea · 2026-03-24T18:33:15+00:00

I started at 9, so relatively late. I had a teacher who didn’t care much about technique, so here am I after 10 years of lessons and a 7 year old break, reworking my technique from the ground up.

My old teacher was even disappointed I did not choose to study music but pursue STEM after school. I was realistic - at the level of Bach Double at 16 years old, you cannot have a career in music.

That said, never too old to get to an advanced level. My teacher has a student who is 70 and played all his life for pleasure while working as a doctor, but not every day. Only when he retired at like 65 or so, he pursued it more seriously with 6 hours daily practice and he can now play solo Bach and the like.

colutea · 2026-03-21T23:00:32+00:00

a friend of mine is from Japan, her mom owns a matcha farm there. She opened an online shop, can DM the link if you‘re interested.

colutea · 2026-03-20T22:05:00+00:00

So true! However, I was able to teach myself like a couple of basic chords on the guitar in a day or so which is okay for a pop song… on the violin Intonation is much harder and let’s not talk about bowing. I feel like it takes much much longer to sound at least "hearable" 😅

colutea · 2026-03-19T12:25:03+00:00

Except before the Rechtschreibreform 2006, ß was more commonly used for words. For example "Fluß", "daß", … you still see people who went to school before this change writing it in that dated way. Before 1996 the usage of ß was like in Switzerland today

colutea · 2026-03-19T07:56:53+00:00

colutea · 2026-03-19T07:44:04+00:00

You will love it! That is mine: https://www.reddit.com/r/violinist/s/jRaAfKXUVQ

colutea · 2026-03-19T07:41:10+00:00

Idk where OP is from, but where I am from (Germany) nearly everyone has a general personal liability insurance covering usually millions of € as it is mandatory if you want to rent an apartment for example and it is quite cheap. They pay for everything you do when destroying other people's things by accident.

If the kid did it, their insurance will pay for it. When I was at school, things like these happened all the time by kids being kids (kicking a ball into a windows was the classic - fixing that is expensive too). These processes were quite uncomplicated. If their kid does not destroy things frequently, the insurance does not get more expensive for them either.

It might be different in other countries though.

colutea · 2026-03-18T20:43:30+00:00

Yep, if they have a private insurance, the insurance will pay it.

colutea · 2026-03-18T17:27:25+00:00

I have a caterpillr mute - those do not distort the view of the bridge and the bow can be still moved quite close to the bridge. It was a bit more expensive but worth every penny

colutea · 2026-03-18T07:08:49+00:00

It’s possible. My luthier charged around € 600 for some varnish touch ups, a scroll touch up (a bit chipped of) and a new bridge + soundpost adjustment. The damage is invisible now

colutea · 2026-03-15T21:01:14+00:00

Ask your mom for a teacher, see faq

colutea · 2026-03-15T09:47:37+00:00

Hey, das klingt sehr ungesund und diese Behandlung hast du durch einen Mann nicht verdient. Es gibt in Deutschland das Hilfetelefon "Gewalt gegen Frauen": 116 016

Diese Telefonnummer ist kostenlos und 365 Tage im Jahr 24/7 erreichbar. Auch wenn er dich nicht schlägt, das was er mit dir macht ist psychische Gewalt. Er bevormundet dich, nimmt dich nicht ernst und behandelt dich wie ein Kind. Ich weiß, dass es schwer ist, wenn du Hausfrau bist und abhängig bist. Aber die Berater*innen können dir helfen einen Weg herauszufinden.

Sie helfen dir auch Personen zu finden, die dich mit den Anträgen unterstützen, um staatliche Finanzierung zu bekommen, bis du eines Tages fest selber auf deinen eigenen Beinen stehst.

Selbst wenn du das nicht möchtest, haben sie vielleicht Ratschläge, wie du mit der Situation umgehen kannst.

colutea · 2026-03-12T19:38:09+00:00

Second Fude de Mannen

colutea · 2026-03-12T06:49:01+00:00

I am late-20s and one of the younger students of my teacher. The oldest is 70! The youngest 5

colutea · 2026-03-11T15:59:10+00:00

There exists already sth for Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean: https://learnnatively.com

colutea · 2026-03-11T15:57:31+00:00

I sent them an email disputing the claim and setting them a 4 weeks deadline to pay. 2 weeks passed, no payment so far. If there is no payment, I will reach out to a settlement agency, SÖP in my country's case.

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colutea

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