 Excellent for Adult Beginner! |
| Review Date: September 19, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Suzanne Langlois, Georgia |
Once I got my hands on this book, I discarded all the other "beginner" books I'd purchased. No more having to play juvenile ditties like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
I'm an adult beginner violinist and Essential Elements 2000 for Strings with its accompanying CD & DVD has enabled me to teach myself how to play my violin while thoroughly enjoying the effort and without experiencing the boredom and humiliation of having to learn tunes better geared toward much younger students.
I've only been playing since July and I'm already about to graduate to the second book in the series. The curriculum is interesting, playing along with the orchestra on the CD is exciting, and realizing how fast I'm progressing is a dream come true for this 54 year old beginner.
I highly recommend this book as well as Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory Complete to anyone seriously interested in learning violin. |
Well thought out series.
|
| Review Date: September 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Gene Wie, Irvine, CA USA |
"For a real violin study, go with Suzuki." While that might work for a child that is ages 3-4 in a one-on-one or small group setting (which is what the Suzuki Method was intended for), it does not work well in large group learning situation for kids who are twice that age, beginning instruments in fourth and fifth grade. And to be honest, almost everything in the Suzuki method *IS* an arrangement of an original work (like the Bach Bouree from the cello suites set for violin), chosen because even in their simplified form they help teach the fundamental concepts.
This is my third year using EE2000 in my school program. I usually have between 30-40 students at each grade level in the orchestra. The books and their accompanying CD/DVD work really well and are of the appropriate complexity for the students ages nine through eleven. As a private instructor myself, I recommend to all my students to seek outside instruction, but EE2000 provides a good balance of technical development with ensemble skills for the beginners. Students coming into my program who already play don't feel bored because I am able to append more complex tasks in bowing and fingering to them using the existing material, giving them helpful exercises to expand their current abilities, while they help in encouraging their beginning peers.
Lastly, a smart child, if they are so motivated (as some of my kids are), can look at the directives in the EE2000 book and figure out a lot of things on their own ahead of the class, and they are provided with just enough information to accomplish those tasks fairly correctly, without doing awful things to their technique. The included instruction videos are very helpful in this case as well. This is not true with most other methods (and the Suzuki books are entirely useless without a proper instructor!).
Don't get me wrong; I was a Suzuki student myself for my first few years of playing and from time to time use some of their excellent pieces in my own private teaching (although I primarily teach advanced junior high through college age players). However, it has its target audience, which is entirely different from that which EE2000 and others like it are designed for. |
excellent violin method
|
| Review Date: March 11, 2005 |
| Reviewer: P. Meyer, Israel |
| This is an excellent first book for the violin. I have started learning violin again after a 24 year break! This book is aesthetic, has very clear instructions and diagrams and is designed beautifully. The progression of the exercises is completely logical, allowing you to perfect each technique before moving on. Every symbol is explained clearly, no new note or technique is found in exercises that come before their explanation. There are numerous scale and arpeggio exercises that are marked with a different background color, making it easier to find them. There are many orchestra arrangements (mostly duets), and even a duet with piano accompaniment. The accompanying discs are an added attraction. I don't particularly make very much use of them, but they can make practicing more interesting for children who generally have less discipline. This is a much better series than The ABCs of Violin. |
Learning to love your Violin
|
| Review Date: November 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. Green, |
| I played Violin before I got this book, but didn't know how to read notes and play it! I decided it was time I learned!! I LOVE it and recommend it to anyone!! Enjoy! |
A had success with this book
|
| Review Date: April 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Anonymous729, |
As an adult beginner, but not a beginner musician, I have found this much more helpful than many of the (fiddle) methods--which seem to be primarily a sequence of tunes. I have the patience for and appreciate the value of "graded" exercises. The salesperson at the store who sold me my fiddle told me this was a "must have" book and he was right--and it was cheap at about $6.99 or so.
As someone interested in old time fiddle, I would have liked to have seen "double-stops" in the book, but I understand that they occur very late in the ordinary (classical) string curriculum. Don't worry, they will no doubt appear in any other fiddle book you buy! :) This is a great book to start with. |
This One Is Essential
|
| Review Date: November 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Cathie Beck, Ca, USA |
I rate this lesson book high for beginners that live rurally or for any reason learning on their own
without a teacher. This book does actually have the essential elements for the foundation to pro-
gress in playing the violin, and it's very affordable.
To ehance the well written book, there is also a DVD and a CD of the music in the lessons includ-
ed to watch, listen and learn. The DVD is done in lesson segments with a menu, which is a great
set up to easily go to any segment for your practice sessions.
I've tried a lot of books in teaching myself to play violin, but I got stuck until I bought this one. It
has the information others don't have for reading music for the violin. |
A Good Book
|
| Review Date: May 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: H. LE, Garden Grove, CA, USA |
| I bought this book for my son to practice violin. It is very helpful to him. |
Great Book
|
| Review Date: November 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: N. T. DeLoatch, Silver Spring, MD United States |
| This book is great and has helped my daughter learn how to play the violin. |
For the Newbies and up
|
| Review Date: April 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jess, Va Beach, VA |
| I'ma newbie when it comes to playingthe violin. Have no idea how to tunea violin? I didn't know either. The book and Cd's tell it all. Great booklet. |
just try it
|
| Review Date: November 2, 2008 |
| Reviewer: D. Baker, VT USA |
| Easy to follow, this is a great way for a complete beginner to get started. Simple steps lead you right along. Good for adults as well as kids. |
Good book but slow in shipping.
|
| Review Date: February 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Miles Xu, |
| Received in good condition but took like 2 1/2 weeks to received the book. Thanks! |
good introduction
|
| Review Date: June 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: ryunokiba, Alajuela Costa Rica |
| ihave been studying violin already for 1 year and i still think for my self as a beginner, i purchase this book and i was really amazed about how good is to explain the basic of the possition of the violin and the fact is that end up lerning a few new stuff, since some times the simple is the best, i strongly recommend this book to every one who is starting to play the violin, but i recommed it as a good material support, not as a guide, since the best option for me will be always suzuki methot, still the book offer a CD and a DVD that have very good tools to help you to reed music sheet better, i know beacuse im very bad leering :P so i only can say that and really think that no one will regret this purchase and will be good for every one that want to add some mote techniques to his/her violin class |
The songs are not the original composition..why..??
|
| Review Date: February 24, 2007 |
| Reviewer: C. Williams, Pa USA |
Becuase how else would you learn to read music and interpret that music properly with your violin if you already knew how the song was going to progress?
This makes it "cheat proof" for young and old alike. I like that. It forces the student to concentrate on the notes and actually read them instead of memorizing. It's the best and most organized book of its' kind.
The cd and dvd are included as is some very useful computer software. You do not have to go out and buy everything seperately. This helps on the students, or parents, pocketbook. Lessons are expensive enough without having to go out and spend a fortune on material for the lesson. Save some money and a whole lot of sight reading headaches down the road and get this book. |
Violin tutor
|
| Review Date: November 5, 2007 |
| Reviewer: E. D. Stauffer, South Africa |
| Very methodically worked out, contains a wealth of material that can be downloaded onto computer. I would suggest that this might be a drawback to many users, as not everybody has a computer available where they practice. |
Big Help
|
| Review Date: February 28, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Sara Swihart, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA |
| I'm just taking up the violin after playing the clarinet for 8 years. Well, I'm not so good. However, this book has been a big help with getting started on the violin. I know my strings, now I can work on the bowing! LOTS and LOTS of work on the bowing. :c) |
Best Suited for Children
|
| Review Date: August 15, 2006 |
| Reviewer: jumpfrog, |
| I bought this book because it had a DVD and CD. I had already started learning the violin, and most of the pieces in this book were far simpler than the ones I had been playing in another beginner book. The DVD shows only very basic information, and is full of admonishments to "listen to your teacher, do not do X until your teacher says to". This book is really for kids, as the very simple arrangements and 'compositiion' assignments show. I hoped that the bowing exercises would be useful, and they are, but not enough to justify buying this book for an adult. |
Essential Elements leaves much to be desired.
|
| Review Date: May 4, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Viola Master, West Plains, Mo |
| If you are looking for a book that will teach you a variety of music and styles, this is not the one. All the songs look like they were arranged and composed at the last minute. Only 1 song (simple gifts) is anywere near the original composition of the composer. For a real violin study, go with Suzuki. |
slow and uninteresting
|
| Review Date: December 26, 2007 |
| Reviewer: JackyNiles, Ontario, Canada |
It's a much too slow moving violin book. It lingers on the open strings for nearly half the book, in little small songs that don't keep your interest. The other half of the book is pretty much unhelpful, piano duets that are at a level for which you don't get to be prepared for.
A CD is included, but it's useless and confusing, with the unnecessary orchestra accompanying the bland simple melody. It's only useful if you haven't a metronome.
There's software included, but as a beginner with little music background, there's not much use for a program to write your own music. But, I suppose the software is the nicest thing out of the package.
The DVD's okay, giving a little video tutorial, but it's not substantial.
There are better beginner violin books out there, I'd recommend the ABC's of Violin! |
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No video reviews found for this product.
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