Exposing Dark Secrets of the Violin Industry 

Thank you so much for sharing this Guys!! 😍 As a violin shop owner I get so frustrated _when I see a bright and up and coming student finding their perfect instrument only to be told by their teacher that they have a much better one for them (because the teacher can get a commission on that one). Often the string players end up_ with an instrument that is worse or doesn't suit them well... but they are stuck with it... I have seen students buy overpriced instruments with fake labels that were recommended by their teacher. That's just sad! I personally never have and never will pay commissions. I tell teachers if they want a commission, they can always buy the instrument of me and sell it at a higher price to the student. If a teacher does get commission they definitely need to DISCLOSE THIS to the student. I loose a lot of sales because I don't give commissions to teachers, but I can go to sleep at night knowing that I always work in the best interest of the string player, and allow the string player to find the instrument that suits them best.

can we just appreciate and support twoset for being brave enough to speak out.

Dark secrets of the violin industry: Everyone secretly stans sacrilegious bumblebee men

You could say a lot of these things for the flute industry as well.

My first (and last) violin was a "factory" Strad. My mother bought it at a pawn shop for $250 and honestly thought she'd made a find. She said to 9 year old me, "I don't think they knew what they had." She handed it to me reverently. I always treated it with that same reverence. Once I was playing semi-professionally and later studying with Kato Havas, I knew it had been made in a factory but didn't care. It sounded wonderful and it was still amazing to me. Many people, upon hearing me play, wanted to buy it or trade their FAR more valuable instruments, for my little factory fiddle. NO WAY! I never even considered "upgrading". I suppose if I had gone on to the concert stage I'd have considered some other path but as it was, my mother really did make a fine find.

As someone who’s not in the musical world directly (although I do want to learn to play an instrument someday), I really love this new style of videos where they just sit in front of a camera and talk to us about something. Am I the only one?

The one dislike is probably a teacher who feels called out haha

2021 is the year Twoset exposing everything and I'm all here for it

Pianist be like ''oh for once a good thing about not having my own instrument and playing the w/e random wood keyboard horrendous machine the concert hall ask me to play on :D''

I cannot imagine how my violin career would have been different if I didn't wholeheartedly trust my teacher. She took so much time and effort helping me pick my full sized violin and bow. She ordered 3 violins and 5 bows, had me sit turned away from her in a church and she played the same rift with each variation, having me pick my favorite sound. Then once I've picked my favorite bow and violin, she got another shipment just to do the same test again just to make sure it was the right fit! She was so amazing

In my country it's actually illegal to tell a student to buy from a certain shop. If the teacher wants to get a commission, they have to buy it themselves and sell it to the students by themselves.

Eddy mentioned the time that J.B. Vuillaume made a copy of Paganini's violin that was so uncannily similar that even Paganini could barely tell the difference. After Paganini died in 1840, Vuillaume made another copy of his Guarneri in 1864. It's still being used to this day. The owner? Hilary Hahn.

This is very risky... But brave. And I'm glad this comes after the mental health video because you're looking at all the ins and outs of the structure of the industry that pressures artists to an edge. Thank you Brett and Eddy. ❣️

Yes! When I was a poor student I bought a new violin from an equally poor young luthier... and was shocked when my rich teacher, who had a Strad and a Del Gesu called the luthier to demand a big commission. I only learned this years later. I am still shocked decades later because my teacher knew we were poor.

We can't even tell you how many teachers have called and asked us if we offer a commission... We can comfortably say that we have NEVER offered this and will NEVER, EVER, do that! (even if it loses us some business) We're so happy someone is bringing this up and we hope that everyone sees this video and spreads this news!

Dark Secrets of the Violin Industry: *not practicing*

I guess the nice part about being a vocalist is that you don’t have to buy an instrument 😂

As a band teacher, fake instruments are all the rage. When I start beginner students, I have to warn parents about how to spot fake or unreliable instruments. I will never turn a kid away for having one, but I have to warn them that their instrument won't last more than 2 or 3 years.

Being a violin maker myself I can’t even express how much I appreciate this video and how important i think it is to start addressing this issue. Unfortunately I’ve quite some stories I could tell and there are a lot of shady things in this industry and I know perfectly well how difficult it can be for a young maker to enter certain markets because even when you approach a musician with a much better instrument (in quality, sound and price) than the one that the teacher recommends (because teachers can get up to a 50% commission by doing this), most students will still end up buying that one because of their full confidence on the teacher.

Wow, I have been a performer and teacher for 26 years and I have NEVER done this. I didn't even know this was a thing. If I go with a student to help a pick out an instrument, they just buy me lunch. That is it, I get no money. I am shocked by this.

Yo that commission story is crazy...I was fortunate enough where my violin teacher had a small business where she went out and worked with a close luthier friend to restore violins and sell them. She explained the process when I bought the violin, and I knew where all the money would be going. But to think teachers would take such advantage of students and their parents like that...

I had such horrible commission experience before. When I was 13-14 I wanted to upgrade my piano and then I asked my teacher’s opinion. She insisted a brand for me to buy and even arranged an agent to serve me. At the end I refused and she was really mad at me and scolded me for being irresponsible or something (I did not promise anything to her and the agent btw) As a 13 year old kid then thing I only know is I let my teacher down and then I blamed myself so hard How horrible that we trust our teachers but they just want to make profit from us........

My high school orchestra director once answered a question I had about the value of my instrument. When I asked him how much it was worth he said “Do you like the sound?” “Yes, I love the sound. “ He then asked” “is the violin easy for you to play?” “Very.” He played the instrument for about two minutes. Then he asked “Do you want to sell it?” “No. I just want to find out if it’s valuable. “ He told me “The violin is probably worth around $1200.00. But if you love and it and wouldn’t sell it, then it is priceless. Instruments are like people. You can’t put a price tag on something you love. “ He was a very wis person.

Weirdest thing was when I bought my latest violin from the seller, he recommended an expert to look at it to see if it was in good condition. The expert was like “yeah I’ve actually seen this violin a long time ago” but then LATER we found out that that expert was actually the OG maker...it was really strange but the violin sounds great so 🤷🏾‍♀️

People. Join the revolution, buy new instruments from makers that are alive, based on how they feel and sound. This is also the only way to keep the tradition and skills of instrument making alive. By there being demand for new instruments that are of good quality. Doesn't matter what's your classical instrument, support the artisans and legit manufacturers.

When my sister started to learn how to play the violin, her teacher told her that he could sell her an instrument at a good price, just to talk to my parents so they could pay half of it first as a securing mechanism, and then when he gave us the violin the other half. My dad agreed because he thought the violin had a good price plus if it was recommended by the teacher it meant that it was at least a nice sounding violin. To not make the story long my dad payed him half of the money and the guy never brought us the violin, he would make up thousands of excuses on why he hadn't given us the instrument yet, to the point where my dad got fed up and went to talk to the principal at the school. Funny enough it wasn't the first time he had done this, and the authorities knew this and proceeded to do nothing about it and we never received our money back. This happened on the National School of Music at my country which gives independent courses for people who want to learn an instrument and then from 7th grade to 12ve grade it becomes an actual high school for aspiring musicians, where my sister now attends. She told me that as for today that guy still works at the school ( giving independent courses).

Dark secret of the violin industry : they print their music sheet

7 years ago I bought my first violin. My teacher (who was very well known in the community) told me that the shop she recommended would give me a discount because she didn't take the so-called "commission" and instead asked that the commission money be taken from the price of the violin instead. Didn't think too much of it because I thought a "commission" was just normal - they did after all recommend a specific shop. Only realized now that many teachers could use this for their own advantage. I saved quite a sum from my violin thanks to that teacher. Beautiful violin who has aged with me quite nicely.

My teacher put pressure on me to buy a bow for 400€ although it was probably worth around 70€ Later I found out that the guy who sold these bows was a close friend of my violin teacher

All these dislikes are the music teachers and scammers ruining musicians lives

These 2 are literally putting their career on the chopping block for us. May Ling Ling protect you two from the army of critics that are gonna butcher you guys worse than Vov Dylan, that piano kid and Ben Lee doing a record-breaking piano-violin duet of Flight of the Bumblebee.

This kind of dealership (commisions) is illegal in my country. Back in the day this díd happen my dad told me and all teachers that were caught got fired. Not only did they get fired, they also lost permission to teach in ANY musicschool anywhere in the country for the rest of their lives. In a timespan of 10 years this entirely dissappeared because the risk for the teacher was just too high. Im glad our country was able to deal with this issue, and i hope other countrys will find a way to solve it as well.

OMG! I thought this was just something that happened at my school. My parents happened to buy from a different shop (my uncle recommended it) and the music teacher went off to the whole class about how we can't trust other shops and to only buy somewhere because they were affiliated with the school. The principal found ut and the teacher was terminated suddenly. The instructor had a few other shady things going on (like accepting parent bribes for auditions), but I always thought it was a really freak incident.

I have a violin that was only $2,000. The lady who ran the violin shop I bought it from was very honest and told me how there is a lot of unknowns about the origin of the violin. She knew a few details about its past, but not the full story. Yet despite the fact I don't know who made the violin, I love how it sounds and it is more valuable to me than violins that cost 10x as much with a different sound. I feel like we really need to start encouraging musicians to use their own sound preference when buying instruments, instead of just buying what they are told to.

That's why it is better to buy the musical instrument first, then look for a teacher, and NOT mention where the instrument was bought from. Just say it was a birthday/Christmas gift from someone, and they won't say from where the bought it. Then there will be no commission for the teacher. Then look around and find other teachers and see how much they charge, to see if the first teacher upped the cost of the lesson to "get" the commission she would have got from whoever you bought the instrument. Do this with all teachers you look for, and choose the best available, and the one whom appeals to you more.

As an adult beginner，I would like to say that the experience of buying a violin by myself last month was so exhausting that I didn’t even want to start learning it. It feels too bad to not trust anyone.

That is extremely awful. Just imagining the musician tricked by these people. Its great TwoSet is using their platform to spread awareness and educate people on the issue.

Petition for Brett and Eddy to make a video about them playing the violin for their parents or siblings Or even teacher

It's really upsetting how many scammers are out there. I never would have thought this would be an issue with classical music teachers of all people, just... wow. Thanks for brining some of this to light, Brett & Eddy.

It's a difficult issue: As a former choir student, I was VERY attached to my choir directors and to the school band directors- even if they were upfront that "hey, if you go to this shop for x, I get a kickback", I would feel pressured to go the shop they mentioned. If I played an instrument and I knew I could get better somewhere else, I'd have still gone to the recommended shop out of "loyalty" to my teacher...

omg I think this is SO helpful for anyone who's buying a new violin (upgrade etc). During the time when I went hunting for a violin upgrade, few shops would ask "who's your teacher" but the biggest violin store we have here, none of the staffs EVER asked me who's my teacher. I went around a few shops testing violins of similar "priced" range. Note i said "priced" because some shops DONT EVEN HAVE A PRICETAG ON THAT VIOLIN THEY PICKED FOR YOU SO IT WAS REALLY SUS. I almost got one of the violin from the smaller store which didn't have pricetag, had a sus owner who talks really well, and claims to have a luthier from czech. It was the first store i went, starting my violin hunt and spoiling my ears because obviously the violins all sound better than my $200 first violin at home. Kinda liked the sound, was told its a french. Looked at the label and it looked like an imitation JTL logo. After going through MANY trips to different stores with similar price ranges, I started to really hear/compare and realise that it sounded like there's a huge problem because the strings DO NOT sound balanced and I can't seem to get power out of it when I need to. It sounded like a sick violin.. But anyway, happy ending, I got my current french century-old JTL baby, from the bigger/well-known store here. The store's been around for many years and has a good reputation so I'd say I can trust them on the pricing even if my judgement sucks regarding whether if the violin is worth the price. But I'm satisfied to have paid the price for this baby's sound so I'm a happy violinist now :) ALWAYS COMPARE AROUND IF YOU'RE NOT SURE..!

My late grandfather's probably European violin has a fake Josef Gurnarius label inside, made a century or more ago. But, to my late grandfather's thirteen year old great-great granddaughter who discovered it in its dust covered, long forgotten case and now is learning to play it, it is genuinely a family heirloom. She wouldn't trade it for the world! And it sounds good, too!

They mentioned when Brett's bow got switched out. As someone who does electronic repairs, I can say that happens to people's phones and consoles, etc. Too. If anyone reading this takes their stuff in for repairs to a shop, take pictures of what your device looks like before hand. Doesn't matter how well known/ trusted the shop is. Stay safe friends ✌

twoset: talks about things seriously **everyone liked that** edit: petition for twoset podcast!

As a conductor I had no idea about this, at all. Thank you TwoSet for the honesty, our industry needs it.

I would love you guys to do a video about the best modern violin makers around the world! That would be so useful. I would like to get a modern instrument but I’m too scared to be left with something I can’t sell on or that wouldn’t develop once it’s played in.

I took violin lessons when I was young and my first teach was a somewhat, highly rated teacher in the area. I was too young to remember this, but apparently she tried to get my parents to buy a starter violin worth about $800, for $1500 from a shop about 3 hours away. It seemed sketchy to my mom, however she took me over there anyway and we tried out the instrument. It was certainly a scam and luckily my mom, who was a violinist noticed, but I doubt any average person would have known any better. I never continued violin after that, we tried to find other good teachers in the area, but we were "conveniently" turned down because all of them were "booked". Nowadays I play classical guitar and I've been learning piano, way less scandalous.

Omg! I teach at a middle school and our band teacher got contacted by a former band parents who wanted to be the “sellers” for band program and the band program would earn a cut of the profit. Luckily my band director looked at the list of instrument brands they were offering and she didn’t know any of them and the few she knew are awful, cheap brands. They didn’t know anything about instruments but they swore these instrument brands were top notch! They were taking what you guys are talking about and trying to make it into a larger practice and make money off of students and parents who are trying to buy “quality” at a cheaper price.

I'm almost positive my HS director got a cut from a local suit store where she pushed hard for us to buy all our concert clothing from.

I didn’t know Brett and eddy were secretly Sherlock and John solving the mysteries of the violin cartel, I’m intrigued

My dad, also a classical musician, warned me about bad instrument scams and taught me how to buy a good instrument. I love my dad!

I‘m shocked to hear about the commission scam! I’m a harpist and I‘ve never heard of anything like that. The harp community is quite supportive (at least as far as my experience goes), and prices are quite transparent. The internet is full of videos and recommendations for harps, so even a parent who doesn’t know much about music or harps would be able to get a basic idea of which brands are good and trusted. Most harp manufacturers have a price list on their website and while prices can vary slightly depending on where you get your harp from or if you’re importing your instrument from overseas, you still kinda know what to expect in terms of price. I’ve never met an untrustworthy harp teacher or know anyone who has been scammed by their teacher but even if a parent or student had concerns about the price or quality of an instrument, there’s always a way to get more information from an independent source.

''If you are musician, listen to this video.'' Well i wiill listen anyway...

Me, a pharmacist, listening the guys talking about commission in music industry : Wait, what?

Whilst my mum was being taught cello 45 odd years ago at around the age of 15 she used my great grandfathers cello and bow which was owned by my grandfather and handed down to her. On her last lesson the teacher swapped out her bow for a crappy look alike and my mum didn't realise until started playing again a few years later. Being worth a few hundred pounds back in the 50s i can only imagine what it would be worth now. The horrible things people will do sometimes in the name of greed is truly appalling. i suppose the musical world is no different. be well and Stay vigilant folks

Thank you guys for talking about this, being a trained luthier in italy i can confirm that those are not just rumors. Teacher's will often ask for commission and will talk bad about your work if you refuse to pay them. Also, shops that offer certificates take a commission based on the value of the instrument, so i guess that sometimes they push the boundaries of what could be an expensive original instrument. However i also need to tell you that there are also some very nice and honest people in this trade, that really care about giving the best service to their customers!

I am a piano teacher and there's a music shop that I buy introductory music books from for a cheaper price because I am a teacher, so that I can request the undiscounted price from the parents.. But I end up taking from the parents the actual discounted price I got it for :) it feels really good to do that, and you earn the trust of the parents and the student and there's no better feeling than that compared to getting a couple of extra bucks for selling a book...

Dark secrets of the violin industry: Eddy and Brett and actually being held hostage by Editor Chan

Luthier here! Commissions for teachers can be absolutely crazy. The shop I work at actually doesn’t give commissions to many teachers, only ones we know really well. We have absolutely had teachers bad mouth our shop just because we didn’t want to give them a commission. We have had a few teachers refuse to take commissions and we will go absolutely above and beyond for those teachers because it’s just so nice to see teachers that are pushing for a more ethical buying experience for their students. I personally don’t really mind that some teachers want to make a little money for taking the extra time to work with a shop and help make a sale, but it has to be done openly and ethically. Also avoid buying instruments directly from teachers. From my experience, you could be paying at least twice what the instrument is actually worth. I’m glad you guys made this video so people are at least aware. Faking instruments is just a whole other can of worms. If nothing else, most shops should have a trail period available and you can take the instrument to other experts during that period. I would not mention where you got the instrument from when taking it to the other experts though. People in this business can be unbelievably petty and if they know the instrument is from a shop/person that they don’t like/is their competition, they will say the instrument is crap just so they can possibly sell an instrument from their shop instead.

Thanks for bringing this up. The commissions issue has been dogging small violin shops for a long time. The best thing would be for all shops in an area to band together and refuse to pay commissions (which sometimes happens). As a violin maker, I tell parents looking to buy an instrument to pay the teacher for their time when helping to choose, same as they would for a lesson. As far as antiquing an instrument, a lot if makers do it because a lot of musicians associate “old” with “good” and would not want to be seen with a contemporary looking violin. As long as the instrument is honestly labeled and sold, this is not a problem - it’s just a matter of personal preference.

Fake instruments: exists TwoSetViolin: “kinda sus, vote them off”

"commission" sounds more like extortion tbh.

Being a music education student for orchestra, I’ve never heard this phenomenon and my teachers definitely haven’t mentioned any of this of a secret commission. My main course of action when I am a teacher, is to inform my students and parents about everything orchestral especially to families who only speak Spanish and don’t have the resources to help them find instruments. It’s incredible and worrying being suspicious of everyone including of people who you trust in your musical career. Now I’m worried about my violin that was recommended to me by my teacher but I hope it’s untrue especially because the violin I needed to have was a 7/8.

My musicschool occasionally sold instruments, but they were alsways really nice deals. It was more like "We want to replace a smaller marimba for a bigger and more expensive one, so we will store the smaller instrument until someone wanted to buy one anyway and sell it for like half the price (and if it was damaged even less)". They were really transparent about it so it was great. These instruments don't really lose any value at all, you can resell them for nearly their new price, and they never had bought any bad instruments for their price since they really cared.

Thank you for sharing this video. Here at Simply for Strings, we're proud to have never engaged in secret commissions - and we never will. We really value the input the teacher provides during the purchase of instruments, but we strongly believe that commissions could end up negatively impacting the player, which is certainly something we don't want. Luckily, our community of teachers here in Brisbane work closely with us at Simply for Strings to ensure every player finds the sound they love, at a budget that suits them best. Win win!

As an educator, you're supposed to look out for your students, have their best interest at heart and groom them to be the best versions of themselves, not exploit them. I'm so sorry for all those who have fallen victim to these situations. I'm an educator myself (though not music), and I have no words for these people, really. Brett and Eddy, I know it's not an easy topic to talk about, but thank you for bringing awareness to all of us. You truly are great educators.

Dark Secrets of the Violin Industry: Violins disguised as violas get sold as the only good-sounding violas in the world

There's this store I usually go for violins for students.. the owner first says the price and asks me how much should he add to the bill. I take my students with me so no such complications happen. Its pretty disgusting.

As an Adult beginner, I purchased a Viola from a large on-line retailer in Florida. Most of their equipment is made in China (less than $1,000) and then some more expensive ($5-6,000) "nicer" instruments made from other countries as well. They have a staff of luthiers setup each of the instruments. I payed less than $600 for my first viola and once I changed strings it really started sounding much better. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do a video on finding a Good instructor. The one I have now is awesome, she pushes me, yet understands that as an Adult, I don't always have time to practice 40 hours a day. She did stop be from buying a "better" instrument ($2-5,000 range) until I had gotten everything I could out of my current one.

I really learned to trust my instincts nowadays, after more than 20 years as a student, teacher, orchestral player.. when trying a new instrument, if I like it, after really exploring its possibilities, THAT"S IT. A nice sounding instrument is what it is, no matter there is a label in it or not.

Thanks for this

The first discussion is the prime definition of extortion. These “teachers” need to charged with racketeering. This must stop!

I taught violin for years and the thought of trying to weasel a commission out of local shops never even occurred to me. People are shady AF.

In the flute world, there was a case in 2018 where a flute technician from Cincinnati stole several flutes that were worth thousands of dollars. She was supposed to do maintenance to those flutes and she never give them back.

Had a similar experience when I was 15 and bought a clarinet. My private lesson teacher purchased it for me, and looking back, I'm sure she increased the price and took a cut. Good for you for bringing this to light!

I remember when my band director sent a bunch of our school instruments to be repaired (and there aren’t many repair people near my area), and the guy straight up stole a couple clarinets and a flute. My director tried to get them back, but he couldn’t do much.

I searched for violins and violinshops before I bought one (as an adult, so that makes a difference). So I was aware of prices etc. I went to the chosen shop on my own, mentioned my budget and could choose between 3 different violins. The violins were Czech. The shop owner was a violinist so I could listen to her playing the instruments. So I knew how they could sound. I played them myself but the only thing I could play at that time was twinkle twinkle little star. I may have played it 30 times before I chose the instrument I liked best. This was 4 years ago and I haven't regretted it for one single day I did it like this. Btw: the violin sounds better every month!

After someone accidentally took my bow and left me theirs, I started drawing little hearts onto the tip in pencil. No more confusion.

This video comes just in time as I am planning to upgrade to a new violin now. I watched many videos by Olaf (he has his own channel) where he spoke about VSO- Violin Shaped Objects, that are fake violins sold in many shops and then different things to look out for when buying violin. And now you guys sharing more info about the industry, I'm gonna be extra careful when buying a new violin. It's amazing that professionals share this knowledge with us to make sure we don't end up getting fooled. Thank you so much! ❤

I am no musician or whatsoever but I feel really bad for those who were like scammed and fooled by these kinds of people.

yeppp when i had to get a new saxophone my teacher warned me away from going to one of the big sax shops in London because he knew they'd just try and sell me the cheap bad saxes they couldn't shift

Ughhhh that manuscript shirt is so cool. Keep up the great work with two set apparel.

Dark secret of the piano tuning industry: Tell the music school to help you call up the piano technician/tuner and part of the tuner's service charges has to be taken away as part of the music school commission... Poor tuner... P.S. I just recently found out this when I called up to ask for the tuner's number and the music school clerk refused and she kinda slipped out the words =O

my teacher asked me to buy a violin from this shop, and it cost around a freaking four hundred dollars, when the other shops were selling the same thing (or maybe even better) at least 7 times less the price. and my parents are not musicians themselves so it is natural that they were oblivious, but now that i know that we have been scammed, it is just disheartening to know that my teacher could not care less about a student's needs.

This is why I like the tabla. No commission, only a handful master tabla makers, and THE MOST expensive tabla set I've ever seen was only $2000.

This is not only normal but achingly standard in many fields where value is treated as far more subjective than it really is.

I really hope none of my teachers are ones who ask for commissions from purchases....

I tried to find the link and failed, but here's the story I recall: Several professional violin soloists were invited to play a dozen violins, ranging from a Strad and a Guarneri down to mass-produced economical eBay violins. They played blind-folded, each using the same mid-range bow. Everyone loved the vintage violins, but many of the lower-end violins scored surprisingly well. And the violinists were shocked by what they had selected. The net "lesson" was to trust your ears and hands above your eyes and wallet. This was repeated with violas, with similar results. It turns out that modern techniques of processing wood for musical instruments have truly captured the ancient craftsmanship at an industrial scale, leading to surprising quality for a tiny price. Anyone can have the templates for the construction. It's the ingredients that matter, the wood, the glue, the finish, and how they are assembled, even if it is on an assembly line. My instrument is the ukulele. About the size of a violin, with the same number of strings. Only we don't need that bow thing: We strum instead. And our pizzicato is just finger-picking. Other than that, they are very much alike. Including when it comes to scams. It took me a while to develop an "ear" for the instrument itself, separate from how it was played. As my own playing developed I kept outgrowing my uke and kept getting new ones (6 total, so far). Each was a step up, but looking back I know I paid way too much for way too little of a step up. I do not feel I was ripped-off, but I do feel the store took quiet advantage of my ignorance. When I bought my last uke, I wanted it to be my "forever" instrument. So I shopped really hard, both online and locally, learning each manufacturer's strengths and weaknesses, learning about materials (and that whole "Hawaiian-made" ethos), and learning about how ukuleles aged, due to both time and use. What I wound up buying surprised me, as it wasn't very expensive, and it was also the last one in stock and was on sale. It was a "now or never" opportunity, and I took it. No regrets whatsoever. It holds its tune when the weather changes, when all my other ukes need frequent retuning. It even sounds good with so-so strings, though it truly sings with better ones. It gently lets me know when I make a mistake, and rewards me for correcting it. Though I bought it with my eyes closed, allowing my ears and fingers make the decision, I am so happy it is truly beautiful. While we should never let our eyes deceive us, it is always great when they delight us after the decision is made.

Never have I been more glad I play trombone

Even the Violin Industry has its own Dark Secrets And one of them is you are not practicing right now

In my opinion; All industries are dark. There are many unethical things that happens.

Dark secrets of the violin industry: Nobody actually practiced 40hrs everyday 😔

When I bought my instrument my teacher had an arrangement with the shop where he would go to the instrument makers to test and pick up a couple models, some for students of his and some for the shop. I then was able to try them all out and pick the one that worked best for me. Surely he got a good cut for this too, but it was planned. Thinking back I believe this was an honest business and hearing about other experiences really makes me feel thankful that I had this opportunity.

When I used to play the flute, my teacher made a deal to my family, he would sell us a flute that was supposedly way better than the flute I had ( I can’t remember the price but it was expensive ), he told us not so say anything to the school about it, when I got it, it didn’t sound different from my previous flute and it kept breaking and I needed to bring it back to him every two weeks or so and during lockdown I couldn’t get anyone to fix it. I now realise that he most likely scammed us, he probably didn’t want us to tell the school so the school wouldn’t find out that he was scamming people. I’ve since stopped playing the flute because I want to focus more on piano because I just prefer the piano and I have asthma so I was getting an asthma attack every time I played the flute.

This is common knowledge here in small town Texas, now expanded to music schools and university. My 80 year old retired orchestra violinist friend says its always been there, kickbacks.

Teacher: Where did you get your Violin? Student: Craigslist.

Thank you very much for sharing! I’m personally in the process of getting to a Luthery school and it’s very helpful to know these facts. I’ll try and be prepared to face these challenges in the future. Thank you once again

These commissions do not only happen in the world of musical instruments. I remember in college that I must buy this $80 calculus and $55 history books to pass my courses. The calculus book, I study "ONLY" one chapter and the history book "did not study it at all". Why? the teachers wrote the books and get commissions from the school and the publishers. If you get to see, Judge Judy, there was a case about this businesswoman learning violin. She bought a violin from a music shop at a mall. Her teacher bullied her to buy his violin and told her that his violin is far superior that the malls violin. She bought the music shop owner and another bullied classmate and sue the teacher on Judge Judy.

I was like ''Oh when did they upload this? I guess 3 years ago, from dark times...'' *3 minutes ago*

I had to sell my cello to pay medical bills-a very painful thing to have to do. It was a decent instrument (Gemünder) and I had had it evaluated for how much to insure it for a few years earlier. So I took it to a famous dealer with a sense of its value in my mind. The dealer asked how much it was insured for and I told him honestly. He kept the instrument so his luthier could check its condition. When I came back, the dealer said he could offer the same price as what my insurance value was, but no more (which was a little disappointing, but what could I do?). So I sold it to the dealer, along with the unremarkable bow and the decent case (but the dealer didn't pay me for the bow or case; without the cello those were no use to me). A few months later I saw a sales report that showed the dealer had sold the cello for DOUBLE what they paid me. That was heartbreaking. I needed that money! Also I didn't know if it was a "fair" price to ask the new owner to pay. I'm still angry about it, and I still miss playing a lot.