Customer Reviews

Violin: An Easy Guide to Reading Music, Playing Your First Piece, Enjoying Your Violin

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In short, this is a reference book and not a how to book. Not organized very well, many advanced topics are covered before more basic ones. Assumes some working knowledge and does not define all terms used.

Chris Coetzee's approach is unique. This book is a mixture of music appreciation and violin tutor. It avoids the drills and repetitions that most beginners' books use. After a few simple exercises for finguring, bowing and the mandatory Mary Had a Little Lamb, the author launches into a chapter on interpretation, with pieces to play by Elgar, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, etc.

Each piece in this section has an accompanying 1 to 3 pages of text on the composer, style, history, etc. and the reader is encouraged to do further research to make sure they have thought about interpreting the style. E.g. before playing the first piece, by Elgar, Coetzee tells us to "find out what you can about [Elgar's] life and the time in which he lived, to get some insight into how to interpret his music". Seems a bit like jumping into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, for folks who, if anything like me, are still struggling to hit the right strings and draw the bow so that it doesn't sound like a screeching cat.

Rather than having music theory points interspersed throughout where relevant, Coetzee puts it all in a ten-page chunk at the beginning. This might give you an overview, but I imagine it would be difficult to synthesise all the information for easy recall when it is needed.

This book is definitely not one for kids. And avoid it if you just want to learn some stuff about simple violin technique and some tunes to play. I also wouldn't recommend it if you prefer to play by ear, as Coetzee focuses very much on reading the notes on the page. This book might be interesting for those who want some background info on the major western classical musical styles as well as some music to play on their violin.