Violin Facts

For the last several years pages of "violin facts" and e-mails with "Fun Violin Trivia" have been circling the web. We decided it was finally time to see if there is anything to these claims. The page below includes all of the violin facts we have come across. We are now beginning the process of validating them one by one. Check back as we update this page with what we find!

• While playing the violin you burn 170 calories an hour!
• The modern Violin contains over 70 separate pieces of wood. [True, according to Etienne Vatelot in a foreward to Menuhin's "The Violin"]
• Handel was nearly killed in a sword fight at the age of 18.[Not true. However, Handel DID in fact get into a duel once with composer Johann Matteson over who got to play the harpsichord for an opera]
• The worlds smallest violin is only 37 millimetres long and is small enough to fit in a box of matches. [Almost true. The smallest violin we could find measures just under 2" or about 50 millimeters - still pretty small]
• An old Italian term for the violin is "kit".
• If a violinist is placed into an MRI machine, we can see that a much larger area of the brain - the right primary motor cortex - is devoted to his or her left fingers when compared with a non-violinist. Two or three times as large, in fact. Violinists also have more connections between the two sides of the brainwhich account for the better co-ordination they have between each hand compared with a non-violin player. Yay us!
• Joseph Merlin of Huy, Belgium invented the roller skates. To introduce his invention he entered the ballroom-playing violin in 1759. Unfortunately he did not know how to stop and crashed into a full-length mirror, breaking his violin.
• The violin is the most popular instrument for children, it is also the most indemand instrument at the professional level.
• • The violin was officially designed by Andrea Amati, an Italian lute maker. Amati was asked to build the violin as a lighter alternative to the lyre.
• The most expensive violin was sold for $18 million dollars [Almost. It is actually on sale currently at that price. If sold it will be the most expensive violin ever sold see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/7873971/Worlds-most-expensive-violin-expected-to-fetch-12m.html]
• The modern violin has been around for roughly 500 years. It was designed in the 1500s.
• The violin is the most popular instrument among children.
• Playing the violin burns 170 calories an hour.
• Violins are generally either maple or spruce.
• Violinists are able to use both sides of the brain better than most non-violinists.
• Though the violin used to be an instrument for the lower class, today it is highly regarded and respected as a difficult instrument to learn.
• The violin can trace its history back several thousands of years ago to stringed instruments known as the ravanstron, the rebec, and the rabab. In the 16th century the Medici family of Italy commissioned the famous lute maker, Andrea Amati, to build a small wooden stringed instrument that was as melodious as a lyre but was easy to carry around.