Free Violin Lessons for Beginner Violinists

It’s NOT too late! You can learn to play the violin as an adult beginner

I’ll help you every step along the way. On this page you’ll learn to buy your first violin, tune your violin, hold the violin and bow properly, play scales and beginner songs. You can learn all online by yourself at your own pace.

What do you need to start playing the violin?

You need a violin (duh) with a chinrest and shoulder rest, violin bow, rosin, violin case and music stand.

Best cheap beginner violins to buy online

Most violins you buy online come with a chinrest, case, bow and rosin. You need to buy the shoulder rest and music stand separately (or play without).

As an adult beginner, look for a 4/4 size violin

Here’s my violin size guide.

From my experience working in a violin shop for over 12 years and teaching the violin for over 15 years, I’ve selected the best beginner violins:

• Here’s how I play the Bruch concerto on a $ 29 violin showing you can get a violin within any budget
• Can YOU hear the difference between this cheap, but awesome $ 67 violin and my antique violin?
• Here’s a good quality $ 200 violin that sounds great and you can play for years
• For $ 500 this is absolutely the best beginner violin I’ve found online

Oh no, my new violin doesn’t sound!

No worries! First tighten your violin bow, rosin it and tune your violin:

How to Tune your Violin as a Beginner Violinist

Use my free online violin tuner on the left, where I’ll explain first how to tune and after that I let all four strings sound, so you can tune. 

As a beginner an electronic tuner is very handy! It recognizes the string you play and tells you of you need to tune it higher or lower. Absolutely fool proof! You can even use it to check if you’re playing in tune while playing.

Once you got the hang of it, I recommend learning to tune with a tuning fork.

Tips for self learning the violin

#1 Spend plenty of time on proper violin hold and bow hold

This will save you a lot of struggles and time in the future. The hold of your violin and bow determine if you can make progress.

#2 Practice on open strings

Don’t move to placing your fingers on the strings right away. First make sure that you can get a good sound from the violin on open strings. This is hard to correct if your attention is divided.

#3 Follow a step by step plan with scales, exercises and songs

You can find thousands of violin lessons online on YouTube, but if you don’t know in which order to take them, you’ll only feel overwhelmed and stuck.

In my free online beginner course I give you a step by step plan from a century long European tradition. It teaches you from scratch ALL the way to your first concerto. Click here to join 12,500 students from 50+ countries in my free beginner violin lessons.

More practice tips:

• More self study tips to play the violin fast
• 10 mins or 5 hours? How much should you practice the violin?
• Note reading crash course
• 20 best violin teachers on YouTube

Easy Violin Lessons for Beginners

Play your favorite songs on the violin:

Free Violin Fingering Chart

As an intermediate violinist you might want to explore the whole fingerboard of the violin:

Advanced Violin Lessons Online

You’re an advanced violinist when you’re comfortable with:

• Vibrato
• Playing in several positions
• Different bow techniques like spiccato and staccato

With 1,500 violin lesson videos made I guess I’m a record holder, haha!

Make sure to use the search bar on the top right of this website to find exactly what you’re looking for.

PS: Hope you enjoyed this and my lessons are helpful to you. Want to hire me as your online teacher? Check out the possibilities right here.