Solos for Young Violists

January 10, 2007 at 11:47 AM

The comments already closed for my previous blog entry about this series, and I wanted to address a couple of points.

Man Wong asked:
I was wondering if it makes sense for me to get those couple Solos for Young Violinists/Violists books you mentioned. At what level of playing would I need to be before I can make use of those books?

One thing that's very useful about these books is that inside the back cover is a useful list of little descriptions of the technical challenges for each piece. You can look inside at amazon.com using this link (I had to search for the word "position" to find the exact page): SFYV

About the Bouree that I'm working on by Johann Adolph Hasse, for example, it says "bright baroque bouree with contrasting minuet, uses 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions" and that it corresponds to the Suzuki viola book 4 level.

Someone from the viola list mentioned to me that Barbara Barber compiled these collections in part to supplement the Suzuki repertoire, which she found heavily weighted towards the baroque style (but they have baroque too).

It sounds from your description that if you take lessons these books would probably be appropriate for you to start in 1-2 years, depending on how fast you progress.

From Man Wong
Posted on January 11, 2007 at 7:07 PM

Hi again, Karen.

Thanks for the follow-up reply on this. It's definitely much appreciated.

I hadn't realized that they are actually substantial series of books useful as supplemental repertoire for the Suzuki method -- and for post-Baroque works no less. Certainly sounds like a good way to go as I (and my kids) progress in the violin and/or viola. I will definitely keep them in mind.

Thanks again...

Kind regards,

_Man_

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

Solos for Young Violists

Subscribe

Laurie's Books