Violin
Gift shopping for someone who plays violin is never going to be as simple as gift shopping for someone who happens to like music. Violinists, violists and cellists are people who’ve spent years getting to know an unusually fussy instrument. They put hundreds of hours into honing their craft out of pure love. They know the difference between something you picked because you care, and something you picked off Amazon because you googled "musician gift".
Trust us. We’ve seen the cringe faces people make when they unwrap your badly chosen presents. We’ve felt the sinking dread firsthand when you reach Christmas morning and realise your musical gift recipient has already received seventeen other variations on the treble clef keyring.
We’re not going to do that to your loved ones.
Instead we looked for gifts that fit the life of a violin player. Functional things they’ll love receiving. Gifts that recognise how hard they’ve worked to get to play the violin, and how much tighter that instrument is woven into their lives than it is for just any musician. Goods that aren’t novelty. For violinists.
Novelty has its place, don’t get us wrong. But picking gifts that “look like a violin” is never going to show you’ve put any effort in. Every other retailer will sell you glittery laser pointers and pewter bookmark-cum-score stands that nod to your violin player’s hobby in the cheapest way possible.
Everything we picked understands the nuance of playing violin. The feel of the instrument itself. The length of a practice session. The tension before a big recital. The way violinists tend to be particular about their gear and their sound. It rules out some of the most common gift suggestions – if it’s cute but isn’t functional, or expected but not beautiful, you can find better elsewhere. For violinists, beautiful is almost a requirement.
We picked gifts with a range of violin players in mind. From your kid brother who’s just started having lessons and can’t stop talking about Suzuki to your old college friend who still gets_HOME videos about every time their orchestra meets, all the way up to professional-level students who are working toward ABRSM grades or conservatoire auditions. All these violinists are really, really different people with different needs and resources. We wanted gifts that work for anyone on that spectrum without reverting to the same saxophone-shaped cookie cutters perennial every other music gift guide recommends.
Some of the gifts in our list are wonderfully practical in ways that every violin player will understand. Some of them are things you think “yeah, someone gifted that to me and I use it all the time!” but wouldn’t dream of buying yourself. A few things are honestly just beautiful, and knowing your violin player will appreciate beautiful things shows you understand how special their instrument is to them.
None of our gifts are entry-level anyway – if someone needs to own thirteen other neck creams before your gift will work for them, then we didn’t want it.