Customer Reviews

Improvising Violin

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This book includes a lot of history on contemporary violin styles from jazz to rock. Readers are guided to pioneers of each genre and prominent musicians are highlighted. There is also a section on amplifying your violin, where traditional/classical violinist who are new to "loud" gigs will find very useful. Amplifiers, pickups, solid violins and radical violin styles, effects are all mentioned and discussed. The third part of the book introduces a lot of solid practices for nearly all the styles that are mentioned in the book, and 'licks' and music scores are provided. It is a book with lots of worthwhile information and very clear instructions, but the limited amount of music score material on each style kind of leave you hanging for more after you are all hyped up. The author have put out new, more focused books on specific styles in 2001, and I can't wait to get my hands on those. Definitely a very enlightening and helpful book. Good for beginning fiddlers and classically trained violinists. Performing violinist might find the music material too basic, but in my opinion worth owning anyway.

I've always wanted to improvise real bad. I wanted to show all my friends that I could play a musical instrument, let alone a violin. I could do a bit of solo, but I felt that I have come to a dead end. What I want is to back somebody, improvise or at least know how to harmonize. That is what I know I will get out of this book. Just browsing through gives me a glimmer of hope. I'll just keep my fingers crossed. Great book. Interesting and fun.