Hi all!

I've always really wanted to learn to play the violin but never had a chance to take lessons, and because of a very heavy university schedule I really don't have time to take lessons. I was wondering if any violinists here think it's possible to self-teach the violin? I know the technique is very complex, but I'm only looking to play for personal pleasure and not for performance, and I have a very good ear. I already play advanced clarinet and intermediate piano, I'm self-taught in flute (to performance standard) and previously played the alto saxophone as well. I've never played a string instrument before but know a little about the violin through playing in my university orchestra. Any thoughts on whether this would be feasible and/or how best to go about it?

Cheers! ^_^

Not many people self-teach violin, for two reasons:
1) Violin is HARD
2) Like martial arts, you can learn essential things only through experienced violinists

I think it's possible, but you may want to consider that very few violinists make it to performance standard. Unlike in piano where once you reach a certain level you never go backwards, in violin you will lose your touch if you don't keep sharpening your saw. It's up to how far you want to take it, I guess.

lol agreed. it's possible but not suggested. It is really easy to make mistakes in the learnng stages of violin that are rally hard to fix. i would advise a teacher but maybe meet less than once a week (like once or twice a month or every other week ... etc) that way you do get the experience of a teacher but with a more free practice schedule.

I'm a self taught violinist. I highly NOT recommend it.
There are several reasons from experience.

While is is possible, it took me a lot longer time for me to learn stuff where as when you have your own private lesson teacher. I realized this when my friend started nearly about the same time as me, but with a private teacher, played reasonably hard tunes after 3 years when I could only play Canon in D, no joke.

The second bad thing was I had a habit of bending my left wrist which is bad as it messes up your notes as a bent wrist makes you play sharped notes, and makes your fingers stretch more, trying to reach for the proper notes which can lead to very painful wrists over time ><". Can I say this habit was a very hard one to come over.

Third reason not to is with a teacher, he/she could teach you in a more organized way, where I had to research violin techniques and learn them by myself, no particular difficulty order.
With a teacher, I'd imagine that he could teach you the proper technique, rather than guessing how to do it after studying the theory behind it.

In other words, it's actually more time consuming to self teach than having your own teacher. The end.