Mel Bay's Fiddle Tunes for Beginning Viola Book/CD Set [Paperback]

Stacy Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2001

This book contains a selection of fiddle tunes arranged for the beginning viola player. The idea is to supply a sampling of melodies that will give almost instant gratification to the novice. One of the drawbacks of the classic ways of teaching viola is the boredom of some of the early pedagogic repertoire. This book is meant to be an antidote to that tedium. Fiddle tunes are great ways to become accustomed to typical manipulations of major scale and to introduce the sound of arpeggios. The only technical requisite for the music is the ability to play a major scale of some sort. The tunes were chosen for their fun melodic content while demonstrating some typical aspects of fiddling. They are grouped by key with a couple of exceptions and roughly arranged in order of difficulty with each key group. The included split-tracked CD demonstrates many of the tunes with guitar accompaniment and will help teach the swing phrasing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications (August 28, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0786647728
• ISBN-13: 978-0786647729
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,349,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, some fun for the violists, September 24, 2003

By 

Meredith D. (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mel Bay's Fiddle Tunes for Beginning Viola Book/CD Set (Paperback)

This book is a great introduction to learning how to play in a more 'swing' like fashion as opposed to the classical manner most folks are taught in school. The songs aren't TOO simple either (for those of us with a few years of training under our belts.) One of my favorites is the very short but sweet 'Hogeye'. The included CD is what makes this book great... you can hear exactly what the tune is supposed to sound like and play it over and over again. The sheet music also includes guitar chords above the viola music so a friend with a guitar can join in (that sounds really nice) and some comments about piano accompaniment are included in the beginning of the book. For those that are very new to the instrument, fingering notation is written. Most songs have some comments about the key it's in, or about the best tempo to play the particular song. I was hoping for one or two songs that utilized double stops, but alas, there are none. 'Cluck Old Hen' uses some pizzicato. I believe there is only one tune that stretches out of first position, and that was only for a single note. Fun!
A few more songs that I particularly like in this book are: Too Young to Marry, Rabbit Where's Your Mammy?, Tombigbee Waltz, Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, Down Yonder, and Joys of Quebec.
All in all, a very good book. I recommend it.