Violin for Toddlers

This was a question I had to ask myself and search out on my own to answer. Growing up there were many musicians whom I admired that wanted nothing to do with it, and openly admitted that they secretly cringe when they find out a new student was trained in the Suzuki method since many of them can’t read music. Note to self: no Suzuki for my children. But then Glen Doman praised Suzuki and his methods in his books, and I recalled that I knew some VERY talented musicians who trained in Suzuki. Some of the best musicians on campus in college, where I was a music major, had their start with Suzuki. Suzuki can start children out very young, and having a diabolical plan to turn my children into the next Trapp Family Singers (mwahaha!), I decided to give Suzuki the benefit of a doubt and read his book.

If you give a toddler a violin, a dump truck, a spoon, your cell phone, or any other item, be aware that to your child it will be a toy! It will be so tempting to tell your child to be more careful, to become tense and raise your voice as you see them continually drop their instrument, climb couches with it, drag it across the floor, and many other unspeakable horrors to a fine instrument you have invested in for your child. It makes no difference to a two year old. To them, it is a beautiful instrument just their size made just for them. It is a toy. Violins are not made of porcelain, they are made of wood. They are not terribly expensive to repair. If you are not prepared to allow your child to play with their violin (within reason! I drew the line when he hit his little sister with the bow…), then wait a few years. Peter’s violin has survived a full week, and he has really grown to love it. We took a risk and bought our 1/32 violin on e-bay and we were very pleased with the results.

Preparing the Environment

I am also very grateful to track 18, which says “Please tune your violin to the following tone.” It is only because of this track that Peter will surrender his instrument long enough for me to tune it. “No, Mommy. It’s MY violin.” Yes, Peter, it is indeed yours. In spite of some of the less-than-gentle treatment it receives, Peter is very careful and gentle with it his instrument when he puts it in it’s case. It is so endearing to see my little boy love his gift so much.
In light of preparing the environment, I found an article about finger games for the violin for toddlers which may be helpful.

Sizing the instrument for your child

This is a picture of my full sized violin next to Peters. It looks so tiny, but in his hands it is easy to see that it is just the right size. Getting the right size is crucial to your child’s enjoyment of the violin, and is fairly simple to do. Simply place the violin under your child’s chin and see if they can comfortably curve their fingers around the scroll. The right size for your child is the largest size with which they can comfortably do this. We tried a 1/16 at our local music store and it was too large for Peter so we knew that we wanted a 1/32. We would have had to ask the store to special order it for him, or we could order one ourselves. If children are given a violin which is too large for them, it can be very uncomfortable to play, and being forced to play it could even turn them off to playing the violin forever. It is not worth it. But giving them the right tool for the right job with the right environment with proper encouragement is bound to bring good results, and a positive experience for your family.