Customer Reviews

A New Tune a Day for Violin, Book 1 (A New Tune a Day)

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I bought A New Tune A Day For The Violin not knowing a thing about the violin. I always wanted to play it, and now, as an adult, I needed a book that would take me right from the beginning in clear, small steps. This book doesn't assume you know how to read music, or have any musical experience.

It starts off with 2 pages of basic information about musical notation - the names of the notes, how they are written, and where they sit on the musical staff. Very simple and easy to follow. Then a few pages on how to hold the violin and bow. All of this is on the DVD too, in short, clear segments.

Lesson one starts off with the open strings - you don't need your bow for this one. You see that the four strings are called G,D,A,E from thickest to thinnest, and where these notes are on the staff. Then you're doing exercises and playing songs along with the CD using these notes.

Each lesson progresses at a comfortable pace, so you're always doing something new, but not too overwhelming. Just the right balance to be both challenging and fun. Plus there's a test at the end of each section to check your progress.

All the songs in the book are fairly short, easy to learn, and a lot of fun to play along with on the CD. There's a lot of songs, too, over 40 I think. Each song has a full version, with the violin in it, so you can hear how you're supposed to play it, and then a version with just background instruments and you play along. Each song is very do-able for the lesson you're on, but also challenging to get your fingers in the right positions, and the bow making clear sounds.

This book will take you from an absolute, don't-know-a-thing beginner, and give you confidence and a nice solid foundation upon which to build. From here you can move on to other learn to play violin and fiddle books. Overall this book has been fun, and got me addicted to playing the violin!

One thing I would highly suggest is getting a chromatic tuner, like the Korg CA-30, along with the optional tuning clip. They're not that expensive, and make tuning the violin ridiculously easy. Once you're done tuning, leave the tuner on, and start playing your songs. The tuner tells you what notes you're playing, so you can tell right away if your finger is not in the exact spot it needs to be in, and then make the necessary adjustment. After a while you learn where your fingers should go, and what the notes are supposed to sound like.

A beginners violin book with CD is the way to go, especially if you don't or can't find an instructor. This book has the same simple tunes and drills most beginners books have, The CD lets you hear the tunes, and that is a help. It only took me 2 weeks to get through the book. Not that everything doesn't need a lot more practice yet, but I found the ABCs of Violin a much better book. Even Mel Bay's First Lessons book with DVD will get you up and going faster.

This is not a bad book, I just found that it wasn't needed with already having the ABCs of Violin and have bought the books with CDs and DVDs in that series now, 1-4.

I've worked my way through about one-half of this book and it is fantastic! The tunes are very reachable for a high-level beginner, even if you're not working with a teacher. I wish some of the tunes were a bit longer, though. A worthy investment.

I think this is a good book the only problem I saw is that the instructions on how to tune was little to none. I did not know it at first but tuning a violin is harder than I thought, and it took a bit of internet research to figure it out. It is a good instructional book, but lacks the detailed tuning instructions, and I still don't think my violin is tuned correctly. lol

Just got this book in the mail and I'm sort of on the fence about it - I'm working on Suzuki Book 2 & 3 with an instructor and this book is not much of a challenge. This book has a ton of short little tunes and the CD in the book is great. I don't think I'll buy a book any more without an accompanying CD - such a great idea. You just can't learn songs without hearing them first. The tunes are very easy and very short but they are probably a good way to familiarize yourself with tunes that you might want to play as well as scales (great fingering diagrams). The tunes are short. Really short. And the tunes are super easy. I think I could have played all of them when I was an absolute beginner. Anyway. I wish I would have bought it when I was a very beginner. Would have been good variety. Consider it if you are looking for some variety in easy beginning songs.