Learning to play the violin

Hello,

I want to start taking violin lessons, and I was just wondering if anyone has some advice on:

- which violin should I buy? (I think it needs to be a silent model so my roommates don't kick me out of the house) My budget is about $100 - is that reasonable?

- how many hours a week should I take in lessons? Anything to think about when looking for the teacher?

- How long will it take to get to a decent level of playing? (Assuming I take lessons and really commit to practicing)

Any other random advice?

Thanks!

Do you have any experience playing other instruments? I'm not a violin player but i know it's a very tough instrument, and the amount of hours of lessons you take might depend on your knowledge of music in general. As far as 100$: i doubt you could get any violin that cheap, but maybe on ebay from china, who knows...

I was talking about this with a friend of mine the other day and he said that I definitely should not get a silent electric violin because the sound is just so different. He told me that I can buy an attachment to "silence" a regular violin which costs about 3 pounds.

I am going to look for a regular used violin with a budget of about 80 pounds...we'll see!

Thanks for your advice!