Customer Reviews

Tipbook - Violin and Viola: The Best Guide to Your Instrument

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This is an excellent book for the beginner! The following chapters are included: The Violin and Viola, A Quick Tour, Learning To Play, Buying Or Renting, A Good Violin, Good Strings, A Good Bow, Accessories, Tuning, Violin Maintenance, Back In Time, The Family, How They're Made, The Makers. Also included is a glossary, index, extra sources, and pages to write down your own information on your violin and strings. The book is very straightforward and teaches all the concepts well. Of major bonus is the fact that it emphasises that all violins sound different with different types of equipment -- it doesn't say, "this is the best violin" or "this is the best string". The illustrations are clear and help explain a lot of the concepts. This book teaches you all the basic (and some more advanced) ideas of the violin and its accessories.

Books like these are treasures. I can't think of a single topic the author left out: the history, the major names, how the viola differs, how the violin works, how it's made (even how the trees are cut!)...and on and on. The pictures are skillfully drawn, too, though the prose hardly needs them. And yes, the prose! I'd say buy the book even if violins hold no interest to you. When you have writer's block, pick up this little gem and read a chapter or two. The beautiful prose alone will get your own words flowing again. Throughout the book are wonderful little anecdotes as well. Somehow, this book says so much in scant few pages. The author clearly knows his subject and how to communicate it. I wish he'd written my calculus textbook!

I'm a new violin player and this book has been extremely useful. Not only does it cover the basics like care and maintainence, but it also has information about buying a violin. This will be very useful when I upgrade from my student model. I also learned at there are different kinds of strings, so when I broke one, I had a little bit of a clue about what to ask for at the music store. This book has been a huge help to me and would be great info for any new violinist.

As a beginning violin student, I feel the need for lots of information presented in simple terms. This book does just that. It seems like every time I have a question about the violin, this book is able to answer it accurately and concisely.

I just started learning the violin at the age of 42. I have never read music or really played an instrument. I have however always wanted to learn the violin as it plays to my heart when I hear it. So, I went and bought a violin and started with some lessons. I however felt I always needed to know more than just - here, play this. This book is a valuable resource. I read through this in almost one night. It so help me to understand about the violin and what makes all the sounds, how to take care of it, what I should look for in a bow and violin and etc. I will keep this little book forever and I am sure will refer to it often on everything. A must get for someone who is starting out and really is serious about their violin. I think that every violin teacher should hand this out with the first lesson.

If you're used to the Rough Guide travel series, you will recognize the practical, relevant information they offer in this violin/viola guide.
The book is tailored to people who are new to the instruments, and it makes a very good buyers guide. If you are interested in buying a violin or a viola, I strongly recommend this book. All the questions you should ask are outlined here.

In addition, regular maintenance of your violin, such as string replacement, is clearly explained: it not only tells you how to tell if your strings need replacement, but also has diagrams to show how to wind the string properly on the peg. The most common damages, and how to check for them, are also listed. This makes the book a very useful reference for the more experienced violinist as well, however, I would recommend it most to new players (or to parents of children outgrowing their rental violins.)

I bought this book back in 2003 at a music bookstore. At the time I had been playing the violin for about 12 years when I first bumped into this handy little book. When I saw that it was a Rough Guide book for violin, I just assumed the book was meant somehow to the layman who "wanted to know a little more" about violins, and so I assumed that "there would be nothing there that I already didn't know". Boy was I wrong. As soon as I started flipping through the pages, I was hooked....and amazed about how much I DIDN'T know. As previous reviewers here have mentioned, this little book covers all the nitty gritty about the violin and bow. The prose/writing style is also superb. It's amazing how they were able to fit so much information into a small guide book like this. I don't know if all Rough Guide books are written this way, but we violinists/violists are sure lucky to have such a book available to us. Aside from recommending this book to beginning students/parents, I would also recommend it to the experienced violinist. I would imagine that experienced luthiers would be pretty much the only ones who would have the right to say that they know everything in this book...and then some. For everybody else, we have this little book :-)