If you have always loved the sound of string instruments or have always feel inclined to play an instrument in the string family, the violin is a great place to start. No matter what your age or musical background, the violin is a relatively easy instrument to learn. It is a low cost instrument in comparison to many other orchestra based instruments. Once you have learned the violin, learning the cello and the bass as well as the viola will come very easy. There are many people who begin one string instrument and soon discover that they want to learn how to play them all. This is very possible, since the string instruments all play and operate under the same basic concepts with similar, if not identical, notation when it comes to the strums, fingering and other basic instrumental operations.When you begin looking for violin lessons, look online to see what local music schools may hold inexpensive group lessons. While this may not give you the one on one time you imagine and hope for, the advantage of going to group violin lessons at a music school is that you won't pay as much as you would for private lessons from a private professional working out of his or her home or coming to your home. Also, it is likely that the school may run a special whereby you take a certain number of lessons in the group atmosphere and you can even use the school's violin during that temporary period of time while you decide whether or not you want to play the violin for the longer run. After a half dozen or so lessons in a group setting at a school, then you can decide if you want to invest in purchasing a violin to keep, if you may want to switch to yet another string instrument such as the bass, cello, viola or something else entirely, or if you want to convert to private one on one lessons because you now know that it will be well worth the money paid for one on one tutoring. Whatever you decide, you are sure to enjoy the violin.