Violinists over here please .....

Ouch. Some music shops offer the take it away scheme which is an interest free loan funded by the arts council which can help.

Or an assisted purchase scheme is an option, where you pay the local authority the net amount (without vat) and the shop invoice the local authority instead who pay the full amount. So that can also make it cheaper to buy but without a loan.

fiddlerman.com is a great resource for self teaching. Also if you have any traditional / folk music clubs around they may do cheap group lessons. Another option would be to talk to school if your dc is already learning 2 instruments - my dc's music department are really good at supporting students exploring new instruments.

I think learning alone may be very hard work and frustrating.

Talking I guess if it was through a school, I could understand that the school was funding the day to raise interest, which is fine.

I teach privately in my home, and if someone gets in touch and is interested in lessons, I offer to meet them, give the child a mini-lesson, explain what I do, and see if lessons still appeal to them. I always do this for free. If someone pretended they were interested in lessons, but just wanted me to restring their violin, and give them a free lesson, but wasn't actually interested in lessons, I would think that it is not very honest.

However, if someone told me they couldn't afford lessons, but asked for a little help, I would be happy to go out of my way to help them. I have given lots of free lessons to people, and don't mind doing that.

Piranito are very similar to tonica both made by pirastro, they'll be fine for now.

As others have said it can be hard to get them out of bad habits after awhile if they've learnt without regular lessons but not insurmountable. See how they go and find a teacher if they love it.

Dd now makes me cry when she plays beautifully 😳

clara why is it pretty crappy? The music school offered free tasters of instruments to everyone in order to get people interested in an instrument. Some people would have tried an instrument and decided against it. Some would have tried and decided to wait until the child was older. Some might have tried and decided to go it alone or have a tutor who can come to them instead. Im sure the music school would have thought all possibilities of the marketing plan out fully and still thought it worth while. Otherwise they wont benon business long.

Proper lessons with max one week gaps in between are a must. Otherwise it's too easy to get the posture wrong esp position of leftwrist and right hand bow hold. Having to correct bad habits can be disheartening.

Re lessons, one of the biggest problems with not having proper violin lessons is left hand fingering. Dd was not taught properly when started and it takes time to sort it out

Pirastro are better than astrea. Get the best you can afford really. Agree with cheese slicer comment. If you get them in music shop they will tell you which are the cheapest ones bearable anyway. You will have to tune them a lot the first few days as they stretch. I have app on my phone Tuner Lite which makes tuning very easy.

Agree with don't only get a free taster! That would be really mean. If a real teacher is too expensive for casual learning maybe a sixth former would teach the basics cheaply. There is a risk of learning the wrong things though.

Electronic tuners are cheap, & they will let you tune multiple instruments.

Talking a free taster with no intention of continuing is pretty crappy. If you are honest about what you want, lots of teachers might help for free.

My 6yr old has had three violin lessons now and the teacher recommended abracadabra violin.

One of her lessons was a free taster. The teacher sorted the strings out in that lesson. Could you have a free taster to get started then revert to self taught.

I work in a violin shop and my Dd plays. Pirastro tonicas or preludes are good strings for beginners and not too expensive or pirastro chomcor (bit more). They have a brilliant sound but yes they're more.

Obligato or dominants once they're grade 4-5 or if you don't mind forking out extra.

Our shop changes the strings for free, you just pay for the string. And there are some amazing apps for tuning. Dd's app is great but I'd have to go and look to see what it's called on her phone.

My dd has never sounded screechy or terrible, so I hope you'll find the same. They start with finger plucking often anyway before bowing on open strings.

Strings are easy to change. Expect to tune new strings a lot over the coming week.

I completely sympathise with not wanting to pay for and bother with lessons on more than 2 instruments. You are absolutely right about that!

I was just thinking that a couple of lessons from the right teacher after your daughter has been trying on her own for a while would be a good idea, because of the challenges of holding the bow and the violin. I am a teacher, and would love to help a self-motivated student, who really wanted to learn, even if it was just a couple of times a year.

I think it's worth paying for better strings because aside from the fact that they sound nicer, they are much more comfortable on your fingers. Cheap strings can feel like a cheese slicer.

String instruments are harder to begin with, I have to admit, but the rewards if you go a bit further with them are just amazing. The most wonderful and diverse music! The most wonderful opportunities for playing great music with other people! The classical chamber music for strings is just amazing, and orchestras have 30 or so violins, but just a few of each wind instrument and no piano.

A violin should sound ok pretty much right away. Not amazing, but not painfully screechy either.

I know she is teaching herself, and I think it is great that she has the enthusiasm and interest- worth more than a teacher.

Having said that, the violin and bow are really hard to hold in a way that makes it possible to make a great sound. At some point, after your child has tried for a while, it would probably be really helpful to have occasional lessons with a good teacher who is open minded and interested in supporting someone like your child who wants to learn in their own way.

We use dominant strings, they are about £40 but I like their sound. 3/4 violin is big enough to buy proper strings and making violin sound nicely regardless of grades.