Elaine Fine has a book of violin pieces out from Mel Bay, A Tunes: Capricious Pieces for Beginner Violinists:
Incorporating skills taught in many popular violin methods, these tuneful solo pieces offer a fresh alternative for teachers who would like a stimulating supplement to their usual method. These entertaining and whimsical compositions reinforce and develop violin skills through repetition disguised as lyrical musical phrases. They strengthen the left hand, exercise the fourth finger, and use rests in musically compelling ways that keep the student attentive.The description continues on the Mel Bay website.
Elaine has written two blog posts — 1, 2 — about how she came to write these pieces.
As a teenager I was baffled by a Mel Bay book of chord progressions for guitar. It was like trying to read cuneiform. And now here I am, married to a Mel Bay author. Life has surprises.
comments: 3
I don't understand any of the music bits, but I like the description, "entertaining and whimsical compositions reinforce and develop violin skills through repetition disguised as lyrical musical phrases."
It sounds like Elaine has done a good deed for violin students!
Yes, she has. I’d say she invented the tools needed to do the work. With clever titles too. I’ll make sure she sees what you wrote.
Thank you, Fresca! I wrote these to keep my students (who I have been teaching remotely for a year) engaged. I'm very excited that it is entering the "mainstream" of violin teaching tools, and hope it adds a little whimsy to people's musical lives.
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