From the Publisher
The Suzuki Method
The Suzuki Method of Talent Education is based on Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s view that every child is born with ability, and that people are the product of their environment. According to Dr. Suzuki, a world-renowned violinist and teacher, the greatest joy an adult can know comes from developing a child’s potential so he/she can express all that is harmonious and best in human beings. Students are taught using the ‘mother-tongue’ approach.
Titles include:
- Allegretto (Shinichi Suzuki)
- Song of the Wind (Folk Song)
- Minuet 1, Minuett III from Suite in G Minor for Klavier, BWV 822 (J. S. Bach)
- Gavotte (F. J. Gossec)
- The Happy Farmer from Album for the Young, Op. 68, No. 10 (R. Schumann)
- Etude (Shinichi Suzuki)
- O Come, Little Children (Folk Song)
- and more
Revised Edition Features:
- New engravings in a 9″ x 12″ format
- New editing of pieces, including bowings and fingerings
- 16 additional pages
- Additional exercises, some from Dr. Suzuki, plus additional insight and suggestions for teachers
- Glossary of terms in English, French, German and Spanish
- Musical notation guide
- Fingerboard position
- New photos
Regina –
The ease and helpful info.
I used the book for practice.
Celexi –
Great book! Love the exercises.
I’m a 51 year old beginner and I love this book! I use it as a companion to the Wolfhart book my teacher uses and it helps a lot. The exercises are great and you can go to YouTube and hear how they’re supposed to sound if you didn’t buy the CD. This book is not intended for students without a teacher; if you’re self teaching then you’ll need to use a lot of the resources on the Web not just this book.
7 people found this helpful
Miss C –
Book is Great, Kindle Version is Horrible
I gave this 5 stars because the book itself is very good. I play and teach piano and woodwind instruments, and I’m just starting to learn the violin. While I don’t necessarily agree with teaching students to play by ear before learning to read music, many Suzuki teachers teach note reading early in their students’ training. The songs are challenging and fun to play, the diagrams are very useful, and it progresses at a rapid enough rate to keep someone like me interested, but not so fast that students get frustrated.The Kindle version, however, is horrible. It’s hard to navigate, parts of some diagrams get cut off, and the diagram of the parts of the violin is too small to be readable, even when zoomed in all the way. I bought the Kindle version first, thinking I could save a couple dollars have it be more portable, but after reading through it I realized I had to buy a hard copy of the book.
4 people found this helpful
David –
Great book if you are familiar with music theory already
I purchased this with the hope of it being a great starting point for me to teach myself violin. As far as violin stuff is concerned, this book is great. However, it contains almost nothing covering music theory. Someone starting off with nothing music wise, this book didnt get me anywhere. I sought out learning material on music theory and after a lot of catching up, I can finally open this book back up.Moral if the story, if you are familiar with music theory already, this book is great. If you are NOT familiar with music theory, get something to help you learn music theory TOO, so that when you are up to speed, you can hit this book running.
44 people found this helpful
Mia –
Good book but bad delivery
The book is good. But I don’t know why the Amazon just left the book in front of the door on the heavy raining day. It’s wet.
Hisashi T. Fujinaka –
Got it 34 years after last playing the violin.
I started out with the Suzuki book and I wanted to restart playing after 34 years. There are lots of instructions for holding the violin that I ignored, but there are also exercises for tone and for bowing. It was nice to start with the progression of exercises to get the rust off. The worst part is I don’t remember ever playing the last piece and it’s a little tricky.I also had a heck of a time finding Liquid Paper. I used the Liquid Paper to cover up some of the fingering on the music so I could try to just read the music. (Here’s a hint: don’t buy cheap correcting tape.)What this review reminds me is that I need to get back to practicing. It’s not an expensive book and I’d also suggest finding the recordings if you don’t remember what the music sounds like. Suzuki method, listen and play after all.
3 people found this helpful
Kelly –
Great beginner method book
I purchased this for my 6yo son as it’s what his violin teacher uses for his younger students. This method book has a lot of text and tips throughout, which I think clutters up pages, but to be fair, those tips are rather helpful if you take the time to read them, which I don’t think most children will do. I play clarinet, not violin, so I read through the tips and exercises to help me understand how to best help my son practice and improve. The Suzuki method is different from how I learned to play an instrument, so it’s been an interesting process for me. Many of the songs from this book can be found on Youtube (played by students) should you need to hear a particular song.
13 people found this helpful
Mamalaoshi –
A (slightly boring) classic
Once you get past the bazillion variations of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, there are some fun songs for a beginning violinist. My 8 yo started this book in her 2nd year of lessons, after using Strings, Fun and Easy, Books 1 & 3, and found it just the right level of difficulty. A lot of the songs start blending together when I listen to my daughter or the included audio cd because they are very similar in style (and I am someone who loves classical music).
2 people found this helpful
David Mccrory –
So I thumbed through both of them now and I just like the layout of these book a lot more then …
I got these and Suzuki Violin School: Violin Part, Vol. 1 at the same time. There cheap. So I thumbed through both of them now and I just like the layout of these book a lot more then the other. If your looking to start learn the violin there is a ton of free youtube stuff and free websites but for me nothing beats a hard copy of a book that I can look at.For me I just started learning about the violin about 6 months ago, I currently 31 years old. I’ve had no formal training or nothing. So I hit up google first, that’s where I find a wonderful youtube violin and piano teacher channel. From there I find the fiddlerman.com webside and so other stuff. Long story short I got my violin and pickup Violin for dummys book. Im still reading it and building on what I learned from the web. But these book does have more to teach with practices and song that are easy to play.So a good word of advise is if you really want to learn to play its never to late. Good luck on your adventure.
3 people found this helpful
Erika –
Eh – Not My Cup of Tea…
Eh – I know this is the gold standard – but… I am not a huge fan (sorry, I know!!!!) – It’s hard to follow, and doesn’t have clear instructions throughout the book. For example, they never tell you the names of the open strings! I had to look it up online (E, A, D, G – in case you’re wondering!) My daughter is a very visual learner (age 10) – and she is just starting out with violin lessons. Her teacher recommended this book – and so I got it – but it leaves a bit to be desired by both my daughter and me. I ended up buying her some other books (including a book of easy violin Disney songs) – and she was so much happier. This book may be more suited to very young learners who cannot read – as the book is more for the adult teacher who already knows how to play than the student (at least that’s how it seems to me).
4 people found this helpful
IamNotaRobot –
Be Aware – No CD is included
After reading the reviews, I thought this would come with a cd (even though it never mentions a cd in the product description.) The other reviewers mentioning a cd must have accidentally reviewed the wrong product. So now I’ve got to buy the cd separately.Update 10/28/14 – I bought the cd on itunes for $10. This actually worked out better since we don’t have a cd player anyway. My daughter uses her iPod and bluetooth speaker when she practices. So overall, it cost the same if I had purchased a book/cd combo.
One person found this helpful
aneeqaneeq –
Good for violin practice
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This book is good for violin practice. You can use this book with the guidance of youtube violin practice vedio.
6 people found this helpful
NCScoundrel –
Trusted Method
I’m 49 and starting the violin very late in life. My teacher recommended this method. I have had no problems so far and my only gripe is that the songs are mainly unknown to me and not much fun, but I do see why you must learn each one before moving on. My other gripe is that moving on to the tune Perpetual Motion is quite a jump in progression. I’m hoping that Book 2 is more fun or at least has more songs I’m familiar with.
One person found this helpful
Tamara –
It helped learn my violin better
It was help full an enjoy using it.
Patricia Mc Dow –
Great book for beginners of all ages
I am a beginner violin player and this book came highly recommend by so many. Yes it is a good textbook for people of all ages starting out.
Martina –
It really teaches the abc’s of violin.
My daughter is happy learning her lessons.
One person found this helpful
mommax10 –
great book
Best overall technique I have used so far; however, the revised edition is not any different than the original for the most part. The biggest difference is that, literally, the first half of the book is filled up with pages of text in all the languages you can imagine, the other differences are that there are 2 more songs, there are less fingerings written in for you (which in book 1 I would consider a drawback), and the layout is a little different. Personally, given the choice between the two I would pick the original, especially if it was cheaper, but then again that is what I am used to teaching out of and what I grew up using.
One person found this helpful
Marcelo –
Libro de Violin
Buen libro para mi hija que estudia violin
Kerriann –
First half of the book was useless
After my girls finished
Essential Elements for Strings: Book 1 with EEi (Violin)
, their teacher recommended this book. But when we got it, the first 1/2 of the book was already far too easy for them. I also didn’t like the fact that it doesn’t actually teach additional skills, the way the EE books do. They each learned a song from this book for their recital, but “learned” much more from
Essential Elements for Strings – Violin, Book Two: A Comprehensive String Method
. There are a few nice pieces in here, but if I could go back, I’d save some money and buy this used or borrow it from someone.
Kelly –
Suzuki violin school book.
Best way to learn.
ES –
Great book!
Have used before and really liked.
Jinhui –
Expensive!!
Too expensive!!
Elizabeth Woodson –
Sing
My geat grandson love it
Bridgetp –
The Suzuki Book
Goo book. Glad I bought it.
Elizabeth Morrison –
Great book for beginners!
This is a great book for beginners.
KJH –
get the version with the CD you won’t regret it!
Well I think the name Suzuki speaks for itself. I am a private violin teacher and I love teaching from this book. I love that the method just builds on each song and you learn line upon line and precept upon precept. I do think that the Suzuki method does teach kids to memorize though rather learn to read notes, so I incorporate my own method in with it. You may want to check and see if your private lesson teacher does the same or what she does to help combat the memorization problem with Suzuki. I know when I first started playing years and years ago, this was my biggest problem when learning the Suzuki method. I had learned to memorize everything and not read my notes. I finally had a teacher that had to break me of that habit and learn to actually read music. So make sure that you are having your child or you yourself are learning to read the music, not just memorize it!The songs in this book are great and fun to play and start off pretty easy for beginners. You first learn songs on the A and E string, about half way through you learn the notes/songs on the D and G string. I always tell my kids oh this is my favorite song, this is my favorite song. I can’t ever decide which is my favorite in the book because they are all so much fun and each song you learn something new.I love that there is a CD to play along with I would highly suggest getting that version if are buying this book, It is definitely worth the extra money spent. I think it helps you to be able to hear the notes and make sure you playing the notes and rhythms correctly. It is a good practice CD. I often will have my students play along with the CD. This helps them hear to make sure they are playing their notes and rhythms right. Definitely a good thing to have for any beginner.Overall, I really love this book and the songs in the book. I like how they teach and like what they teach but I would recommend using another method for theory. If this review was helpful please like it, if not please comment below and let me know what I could do to make it better! Happy Practicing!!!
89 people found this helpful
Cayla T –
Great book
The book arrived in perfect condition!
Mia –
Great book
Recommended by the violin teacher，great book and The writing is clear.
Lora Eubanks –
I had always loved violin and had secretly wanted to play it my …
As a bit of background, I have never been a musician in the traditional sense. I did dance my entire life and did a bit of singing. Since retiring from being a professional dancer about 2 years ago, I have been searching for a new creative outlet for myself. I had always loved violin and had secretly wanted to play it my entire life but the thought of it always intimidated me. I ended up finding a high quality violin for relatively inexpensive from craigslist and began playing around with it, watching youtube tutorial, and so forth. Since I did enjoy doing that, I decided to invest in actual private lessons. I feel like the lessons are going to be a game changer for me but this book that I had purchased in an excellent supplement to that. It has really helped going through, following the lessons daily, and it has been very motivating to see how far I have been able to come in a short time. While I don’t feel like this book alone could replace an actual teacher who can see where the mistakes are happening and help fix them, the exercises in this book are wonderfully supplementary to that one on one help. Those two things combined have propelled me quicker in my violin journey than I ever felt possible. And it is also motivation to work my way through the book to see the progress I am making. While nothing can replace having an excellent teacher, if that is not feasible for you, I would high suggest this book!!!!
13 people found this helpful
Philip Timofeyev –
A Great Starting Point
I recently decided to teach myself the violin and went ahead with the Suzuki method. The simple review is, yes, this book develops beginner techniques well and you can be playing pieces within two-weeks. I was excited to not only be able to play the familiar piece, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the beginning, but a multitude of simple variations that make you feel proud about what you’ve learned and how you’ve progressed.But like any skill being developed, the user needs to uphold and facilitate correct practice procedure and be patient with the development. I’ve been using solely this book for about a little over a month now and am approaching the more difficult final pieces. It’s very easy to get ahead of yourself and think just because you can play through a piece, that you’ve learned it (a mistake I found myself making).After adjusting my mentality about when a piece is truly learned and how to practice it well (slow slow slow!), I can honestly and confidently say I’m very happy with this book and plan to finish it and continue the series.The only con I have is wishing it went into more detail about certain bowing/fingering techniques and what it expects us to get out of an exercise. The less detailed approach this book carries makes me think it’s designed more for students with a teacher present to expand upon the quick concepts, so be prepared to ask a violinist or YouTube for more details on specific techniques.
8 people found this helpful
Jessica –
good product
No CD included. Other then that exactly as described
One person found this helpful
rachel g. –
Love this book easy to learn
Re-learning g the violin with a book that taught me how to play in the first place! Best book to learn the violin with
One person found this helpful
M A Mc –
Instructor recommended.
My eight year old has just started with this book. She already has done one violin book with her instructor, and the instructor recommended we move on to this one next even though it is still a beginner book. The instructor is one of the best in virginia and is very knowledgeable with teaching young children. I recommend you consult the instructor before buying, but would recommend this one as a good starter.
4 people found this helpful
s.o.sullivan –
Photo doesn’t match the product received.
If you are ordering this know you will receive the International version and not the Revised addition as shown.
Kelly Trujillo –
Great for technique
Great beginner book. Lots of detail about technique but jumps to more complex songs. Essential Violin book goes slower and has more easy songs to reinforce lessons.
myintd –
Recommended reference for beginners
Recommended reference for beginners; was half price compared to neighborhood book store.
One person found this helpful
Alex –
As advertised
There’s not too much to say about this! Came on time, came in good condition, and it is indeed Suzuki Violin Book 1, with the CD. The CD also has piano accompaniment tracks of each piece, which I wasn’t expecting and is a great boon to my practice.
Kathy F Mason –
fast
awesome
E. Dutt –
Spiral edition and cd without case – just what I need
This edition has a plastic spiral spine that lets the book be folded to show one page or lie flat without clips, clothes pins etc. That alone makes this a great edition. A CD that only comes in a paper envelope (instead of a case that takes up space and resources) is also a nice feature.This is our first Suzuki book and we are enrolled in a Suzuki group. The idea is that the cd should be listened to as much as possible (even passively) so it is always either in the cd-player or next to it. We don’t really ever put it away.I don’t have experience with the previous editions of the book, but this one is good I think.
37 people found this helpful
Shannon Coolbaugh –
Good book for starters
Bought for son. He said that it worked great.
JosephH –
Great music book my 10 year old is using
Great music book was highly recommended by my 10 year old’s music teacher.
T&Z –
Twice I had ordered the “Revised Edition” and received the “International Edition”
The photo shows the Revised Edition but twice I have received the International Version. I do not know if the music is the same in each but the photo needs to be updated if they are sending out a different book than what is shown. I am giving it 3 stars because our music teacher said she will just work with that one.
One person found this helpful
pfarns16 –
Unconventional but very effective
You may have heard of the Suzuki method. I had not.Basically, the idea is that EVERY child can learn to be a musician and that music can be (and should be) learned the same way that language is learned.This book won’t make your kid a prodigy….your student will still need to practice and study. But the methods are effective and easy to follow.I recommend this book.
4 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer –
good if you know violin
My teacher recommended this to me its good
One person found this helpful
Laudanum –
For teachers, not the self taught
This is great for those planning on taking lessons but I wouldn’t suggest this at all for those hoping to self teach. It puts a lot of the teaching off on the teacher, giving no explanation. For example – tuning. It says your teacher will do this for you. Which is fine if that’s the route you want to take. But don’t get this if you want to learn yourself like I do. It explains nothing.
2 people found this helpful
Bonnie McCreight –
Best Book!
This is just what I needed to play with better tonalization.
J. Monzingo –
CD Not Included. Print Quality Issues. Otherwise, Just What I Wanted.
After reading the product description and reviews I was somewhat confused as to whether this book comes with the accompanying CD – it does not. Some reviewers mentioned receiving the CD in the book. For the price I actually didn’t think the CD was going to come with it but I ordered just the book to wait and see if the CD was in it when it arrived and it is not. The book is exactly what I wanted and it arrived quickly. The only reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is that there are some issues with the print quality. There are a few pages of which too much black ink was applied and it has smudged. On one page there is so much black ink smudge that the sheet music can not be read.
3 people found this helpful
E. L. –
Quality control issue
Nothing wrong with the content of the book but the product quality control. Several of my pages were stuck together at the top, roughly perforated but not separated. I cut through them with a letter opener but still have very rough looking edges at the top of my book. Other than that the book is fine.
Karena Lee –
Suzuki violin vol. 1
Great for my 9 year old who just started playing violin.
Eliza K –
Kids Violin Book
Perfect for learning and first time instructions on basics.
Rachael Hoover –
It works
It is very informative. I used to play 40 years ago. So I had to start fresh. And I’m relearning quickly
GC –
Good Book to Practice
Our kids have been using this series books for years. Their music teacher recommended these books to them. They like them. These books hold their attention. Also, they are inexpensive and good quality. I highly recommend them.
Justin –
Suzuki does a great job in giving good literature to read at every …
As a teacher, I do not exactly follow the Suzuki method. With that said, Suzuki does a great job in giving good literature to read at every level. I find every page to be well notated and informed for a developing student. While I highly do not recommend anyone to teach themselves violin (I believe that the overall design of the violin is not intuitive in itself and forces the body to learn postures that are atypical), if you are diligent and have a strong work ethic this book, as well as the future volumes of Suzuki can definitely be a good program to stick with.
One person found this helpful
Irene A –
Great start to learning violin
I have used other violin books to learn and this one has allowed me to get better at playing than other books that I will not mention. The level of difficulty is appropriate but may seem challenging initially, but with enough practice, it gets better.
Harry J. Johnson, II –
Kid Enjoys
Son says book is easy to use
Man of Light –
CD and Sheet Music Not the Same (I’m certain)
I’m loving the tracks and I’m loving the sheet music, but I don’t always love them together.I’m self-teaching without a formal instructor, so maybe I don’t know all the details of the Suzuki method , but having memorized songs by ear and then later trying to play them according to the sheet music proved a bit problematic, as I naturally wanted to hear something else when I played and my body was determined to hear only that… (a little traumatic…I still don’t sleep at night).I just wish they were the same so that I could both memorize the audio and then learn the exact notes for it -and not a variation. Not all sheet music and music are inconsistent however. I’ll later provide an update on which specific songs are different from the sheet music.
One person found this helpful
Robert Solomonson –
Graded series from beginner to advanced
Progression through book leaves out some very basic musical terms; or does not address them adequately.
Brialla –
Great if you have a basic understanding of music theory!
This book is great if you have teacher or if your self teaching AND you have a working understanding of the basics. This book will not teach you the names of the notes or the rhythms that each note possess.However, if you’re self teaching and know your stuff, then this is a great book as it explains why and how to do techniques on the violin.
One person found this helpful
Daxx –
Overly complex too quickly
Apparently you have to buy this for an instructor who know’s what it means. While I am much older 50 .. I have a sharp mind and an IQ near 145 … so it’s not me, I know advanced algebra and calculus… so again it’s not me… I truly hate when people write like this, then they act as though “you’re stupid is the problem” if you can’t follow it. The learning curve is simply way too steep to use this for self instruction. As far as I’m concerned if I’m going to an instructor I’m not buying them a book to teach me from .. I’ll just learn what they have to offer. This author needs to choose 50 random students, and see how far any can get without asking questions, make notes of ALL questions until all students understand the entire book. Then re write the book with those questions being a guide …. so while perhaps this author is worldly known for instruction .. my guess is that’s it’s the verbal instruction and not any of these books as a stand alone… just saying … my two cents.
79 people found this helpful
Anya –
The book for beginning violin
We love this book. Everything is there for a reason and builds so well. And there is so much lively music too. It is great.