Learning the Violin, Book One: Expanded Edition

I am a violin teacher and I recently got this book to use with a new student as a way "try something new". I love it. It is making me rethink the way I am approaching teaching. This book introduces tunes one finger at a time, and then presents the student with the opportunity to play that tune on each string. I love the idea of learning the same tunes on each string and reinforcing the fingering while practicing on each string. I teach cello as well, and I am ordering the cello version of this book now too!

This is a great book for a very entry level kids or adults even, who may not have access to a teacher. I was able to get my son started with knowing how to hold his violin (we bought) and understand the strings and start practicing basics. I want to gauge his efforts and interest before I bother to enroll him in the local junior high's program. I wouldn't hesitate to get this book for a beginner adult or child who have zero access to a formal teacher and have never played at all. As a former casual player in childhood, this book would have even helped me tremendously and I had an instructor everyday.

Good book! VERY BEGINNER LEVEL. This is the basics. Literally, the basics....perfect for a young (or old!) beginner.

I absolutely loved this book, I didn't know not one thing about playing violin and this book has helped me so much, I can now play the violin not perfect as I've only been learning on my own without a teacher for 7 months, but I can play a tune because of this book... Great for absolute beginner and so easy to read and understand

As the book states; “This book is an introductory violin method for the absolute beginner.” And that is what you get.For the cost it is better than most beginning books. All of them start with Twinkle, twinkle and Hot Cross Buns.Easy to read (big print, easy to read from music stand distance) and follow.It will get you along and then you will put it away, just like all other beginning books.

I have a few beginners in this book now. What a time saver this book brings to the lesson. Cassia has created a friendly way to get students involved with playing their violins day one. One of the most difficult things to get a new student to do is create a beautiful sound both with plucking, and bowing. This method helps achieve this before adding too many ledger notes at the student. Songs are introduced first with finger numbers, and rhythms, so the focus of playing is with technique first, then note reading.

This is a great book to learn on but you need to look at the back right away because that is where the fingering chart and notes are. It starts by finger 1 , 2 etc and then goes on to the notes. It is great for a beginner even if you are older. It has 80 pages to it and it has been my favorite so far- others I tried not near the quality of this one.

It is obvious that the primary audience for this book would be a child who is learning under an instructor, by using this as a class textbook.For example, it says nothing about whether or not to use a shoulder rest (and if so, how). It doesn't even begin with how to hold the violin, or the bow, or even that the student must first apply rosin to the bow, in order to generate enough friction to sound the notes.There's nothing at the start about tuning the violin before attempting to play anything at all, or how to deal with that pesky bridge, which apparently wants to fly across the room whenever the strings are not tuned more or less together, or how to use the fine tuning screws on the tailpiece. Anyone using this book without an instructor is likely to become frustrated with how uninformative it is about basic setup and maintenance of a violin. The book does discuss how to play with a bow, which is helpful.The book also assumes the student is not yet trained in reading music, so instead, the writer uses a bare-bones offshoot of a guitar's tab scoring. That in itself is not a problem, but since there is no accompanying CD or DVD, there's no visual or audio reinforcement of what the notes should sound like, when played correctly.I think someone much younger than me would likely benefit from this book, but only if they have an instructor to help with what's been left out.