Violin For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies)) Summary and Reviews

Violin For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies))
by Katharine Rapoport

Violin For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies))
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Book Summary Information

Author: Katharine Rapoport
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-09
ISBN: 0470838388
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: For Dummies

Book Reviews of Violin For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies))

Book Review: Very informative, serious book full of very good advice
Summary: 5 Stars

To be perfectly honest, I have never wanted to touch any of these books "For Dummies", since their title and style puts me off. I bought this one because there wasn't very much else on the subject, and I now realize how wrong I was in my prejudgment! This book is excellent! Of the 5 or 6 violin self-study guides I have bought this is definitely the best by a very large margin. The author is an accomplished violinist who has also got lots of teaching experience. She gives good practical advice, mentions lots of things that other books simply assume, and writes very well and clearly. The book comes with a CD that contains all the music as MP3 files and some demonstrations as video clips. All the information one needs is there and easy to find. (She claims that you can find things faster than you could say "Paganini".) There are witty comments like that, and some very nice little stories (like the one about the trick that Leopold Mozart had for getting his prodigy son out of bed), but the book is definitely serious. I am an adult beginner who started to play violin in order to help my 5-year old son practice. I work full-time and thus don't have time to take lessons. I have picked up some things from my son's Suzuki book and accompanying materials by the local music school, but I still needed more help. This book has given me exactly that. It tells you several methods of how to get a good bow hold, it explains step by step how to move your fingers for playing a particular passage, it gives an introduction to music theory, it tells you how to handle and care for your instrument, there is information about how to find a teacher, and on how to go on playing beyond the book, (and lots more). Overall, the best things about this book is that very obviously the author plays and teaches violin with a great deal of enthusiasm - and this shines through on every single page. It's like having a good teacher who wants you to succeed! Thoroughly recommended!

I should add that although the book is written for the US market (and the author lives and teaches in Toronto, Canada), it is equally useful here in Europe. The only times one notices that it is a US book is when price ranges are quotes in US $.

Enjoy!

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