A11 systematically played her way through eight full size violins this afternoon. It is time she moved up from her ¾. We went through the same process with L13 a few years ago and faced the difficult decision of choosing one from a range of new and old violins.

Our method today involved asking no questions about the violins which were laid out for us. All eight were within the price range that we had specified. A11 played a scale, a fast piece in the higher register and a slower piece in the lower register on each violin in turn. L13 also played them so A could listen.  One by one we eliminated them until there were three left. At this stage we learnt that one was a hundred year old French violin, the other two were new, one Bulgarian and one German. We narrowed it down to the two new ones which surprised me a little, as I like the more mellow sound the older ones often have.

With the German and the Bulgarian in hand we headed off to have our teacher look at them. She was strongly in favour of the German so I returned the Bulgarian one. We now have the German one on trial for a few weeks, so the decision is delayed until the seller is back in town next month.