Looking for the best violin to buy? Whatever your needs or budget, here is a professionally reviewed and recommended list of highly ranked violins. 
Toy Violin; pretend play for future musicians
As a young child, I wanted a violin! I didn't know anything about an actual store bought toy violin or I probably would've been hunting Santa down at malls when I was 5 so that I could demand one! I did make my own violin out of anything I could get my hands on; shoe boxes with holes cut and elastics stretched around, boards with nails at each end and string wrapped back and forth in between. Probably the most basic instrument I resorted too was the classic foot-long ruler as the violin, and a pencil as the bow.
I was hungry to play. I would sit and watch my aunt play beautiful music on her violin, and dream of the day I would be able to do the same. When I was seven years old, Santa finally answered my pleadings with a treasured real half-sized violin. I have often reflected on my feelings as a child and wondered if perhaps the wait wasn't somewhat strategic on my parents behalf. My violin teacher believed that students should be a little older when they begin to play, maybe she had urged my parents to wait in buying me a violin. Whatever the 'case' the combination of wanting to play, and then having to wait to receive my first violin became a very powerful tool in my drive for success on the violin.
Perhaps it was my own success that I experienced and having to wait to receive my own first violin that caused my skepticism about toy violins. Why give them something that doesn't really play and that will just break? In fact, I originally believed that play violins could create bad habits in how students would someday treat their real violin. I have since changed my 'tune'. It may have been becoming a mother myself that changed my mind; or maybe attempting to teach students that were way to young. Whatever the case, I now believe that 'fake' violins can be beneficial and even educational when given to the right kid. Reflecting back on my own childhood I realized that I did have a toy violin, even if it was simply a ruler and a pencil.
Read the benefits of buying your child a toy instrument.
We feature two handpicked play violins that have been tested and approved by our readers.
(coming soon)Watch videos of kids playing our featured toys.