Gypsy Violin Basics: A Beginner's Guide (Mel Bay Presents) Paperback – 17 July 2007

This is an excellent book for giving the basics of gypsy violin .. I'm only about half way through - so my review is based on only what I've looked at so far. There are 3 versions of each piece..a fast version with violin & band, a slower version karaoke style..( but you are counted in and the violin starts you off.. which is very helpful) and then a very slow track with just the tune played on the violin so you can really work on your tuning. The only thing I would say is that the CD seems to have been copied from an old record and the first few tracks have very bad sound quality / some awfully loud crackles.. but it improves and the quality of the book / music tracks far outweighs this minor aspect.

As a newcomer to the violin / fiddle I bought a range of different beginners books including abracadabra 1, suzuki method 1 as well as a couple of easy classical song books. This one, however, I've kept coming back to as I've found it rewarding and steadily increasing in complexity along with my abilities. It's not a first book for the violin as you will need basic sheet music reading skills and some guidance in posture, bowing and fingering but you could certainly get benefit from this quite early on in your studies.I think perhaps classical violinists a bit further down the road in terms of abilities might also benefit from this book, if not just for a change in style and rhythm when you've hit a plateau!

Very nice, and not too expensive. I like it!

As a violin teacher I think this a great fun book for post grade 2 (abrsm)pupils. The backing tracks are excellent, giving full performance and then 2 slowed practice tracks for each piece. The pieces are mostly in easy minor keys (natural,harmonic,melodic and Fraigish)and 2 pieces are in 7/8 time, the first of which is a really catchy tune which certainly gets my pupils practising.There is a fault on the slowed practice track of the 1st. tune which is a bit annoying. The book introduces technical and stylistic challenges in a logical way, from simply the key to double stopping, very fast string crossing( The Peddler- a real challange!)spiccato, trills, glissandi and even flying spiccato, so the standard does get way beyond gde II, so could be used over the years.For something a bit stylistcally different which has really attractive tunes I don't know of much better. Certainly gets them more confident in minor keys. I fully recommend.