Recently my father bought me a violin. Never did I imagine how hard it would be, but I really want to be able to play it. I'm having a lot of trouble in the tuning department and understanding the notes and finger placements. I've looked up some information but it only helped to confuse me. I can't afford lessons at the moment so I'm trying to teach myself. If anyone could direct me to some helpful sources or advice. Please do. Thank you.

Learn how to play the violin (http://www.the-violin-guide.com/how-to-play-the-violin.html)

Hello h:

If it was me, I'd scrape, borrow, and baby sit in order to pay for at LEAST 3 lessons... I say this, because in those lessons they'll teach you how to HOLD it, and how to HOLD the bow. They'll teach you how to make a "sustained" note...

These are basics. Why I suggest you learn them, is because if you develop BAD HABITS, and you will WITHOUT proper instruction, they're MUCH harder to BREAK than learning it the right way to begin with..

excon

Sorry, the violin while perhaps possible to learn, you are going to learn many "wrong" things, why in the world did dad buy you one and not provide for lessons. That is just silly.
You put in away and save up for lessons or see if there are teachers who will do some work with you for charity.

If you learn too many bad habits it will be much much harder to learn to play it correctly when you do start lessons.

Do we know the age of OP? The various schools in my area (both adult ed AND elementary, junior high, high school) teach whatever instrument a student cares to learn.

I also wouldn't buy a violin without knowing the skill level of the person intending to play it but that's just me.

And, yes, I played (very badly) in high school.

Ah. Well sorry guys he already got it. I can't send it back now :P It was a late Christmas present. The price was really cheap for a violin or he wouldn't have even messed with it. My parents have some financial issues because they are already having to pay their own bills and other peoples bills on top of that. I'm an adult so I think its up to me to get the lessons. Any way thank you all for your responses. I will see if perhaps there is someone who could work with me.

Have you tried adult ed?

How much do you already know about music? Do you know why there are black keys and white keys on a piano? Do you know what a major scale is?

A violin might be tough for a newbie because there aren't any frets, that is, you have to know the tone of the notes in order to play correctly. You don't have frets to control the tone. Your tone is controlled by the placement of your fingertip. You can be in tune with yourself, but when with other musicians you'll all have to be in tune.

Looking at a piano, the white keys going from C to C, is the C major scale. The black keys between are the flat/sharps. The four notes without black keys between them are E,F and B,C . When you start learning music, you'll learn that the major scale intervals are whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. When placing your fingers on the fretboard, your interval between E & F, and B & C, will be less when in the key of C. That's my theory lesson for you.

I play guitar. The internet has a lot of free stuff for guitarists. I bet there are lot of the same for violinists.

Tuning is simpler nowadays, because there are clip-on tuners. New learners may break a few strings. Check here: Ebay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=violin+tuner), Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=violin+tuner)

I've picked up a violin and immediately knew the basics because of my guitar experience. I've never taken violin lessons, but I imagine there are similarities.

Learn your notes in the first position. Learn your notes on a single string. At least the notes are closer together than they are on a guitar.