If the guitarists get a thread for this, so should we!

If we tell each other what pieces we're playing, then everyone can share tips and ideas Yay

I'm learning...
Bloch's Nigun (No 2 from Baal Shem) - performance 1 week
Mozart Concerto No 3 (G major) - performance in early July
Vivaldi Concerto for 4 violins (B minor) - ditto

For fun...
Grapelli transcription of Sweet Georgina Brown - performance in 1 week
Monti's Czardas - well, re-learning! - performance in 5 days

And also working through...
Kreutzer etudes
Flesch scale book

Meh I'm violist but I'll still post.

I'm learning:
Shubert-Arpeggione
Bloch-Processional (not the one on the grade 7 syllabus, a different one)
Bartok-Roumanian (sp?) Folk Dances

I am learning the violin out of strictly strings book!!

Any other recommendation of tutor books? and pieces i can start to think about learning? v.v. easy pieces!

Ooopphhh!! Flesch scale book. My short little finger certainly won't let me do some of those one octave scales on the G or D string, well, not as Flesch (or even Rostal) has them fingered anyway. Can only use first, second and third in the higher positions.....and I got told off for that. "Ida Haendel had smaller hands than you and she could do it", a teacher retorted to me. "Maybe, but how can you physically compare without her being here?", I thought, "more importatnly, does she have such a short little finger in relation to the others????"

I'm a viola player but I'll post anyway:

Some of the Bach Cello Suites
The ABRSM 'Five Irish Folk Tunes'

I am learning some of the pieces out of a Tango for violin book... it's very exciting! And have started to learn my grade 4 pieces for violin too (Trinity).

At the moment I'm not really learning anything properly. After exams though I'm going to learn lots though

I'm going to learn...
Dvorak - Four Romantic Pieces
Kriesler - P&A
Mozart - Violin Concerto No.5
Vivaldi - Autumn

For fun...
Brahms - Scherzo In C minor
Kriesler - Liesebslied
Kriesler - Adaptation of 'Hindu Song' by Rismky Korsakov

Relook at......
Bartok - Rhapsody No.1 (1st Movement)
Mozart - Concerto No. 3

And also going to work through...
Kayser Stuides
Kreutzer Etudes
Flesch Scale Book
Flesch Art Of Violin
Mazas Studies
Menuhin/Primrose Violin & Viola

I'm going to be a busy bee

You certainly are! Good luck with your learning!

Well, I can't see how being compared to Ida Haendel is a bad thing...
Yes, scale books are a bit annoying for me too, same reasons. I prefer to just use my normal fingerings whenever possible, even though they are very unorthodox. I can do any 1 octave scale on G/D string with my own special fingering (1 2 1 2 1 2 3 3 or 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 or 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3) and I don't get how learning any other way will really help? Any point me bothering to learn them? My little finger is lazy and small, it's a bad combination. And it hates vibrato

Oh by the way Amanda, what does a professional violinist practice? Do you still learn new stuff, or spend most time going over old repertoire?

Max, that Menuhin book is very good! Busy bee indeed...

Those are the fingerings I do as well Yes, quite agree, learning them any other way is daft. Small hand, short little finger, grrrrrr, sometimes it really annoys me, but, I can do some wicked extensions with my third finger when I need to Rather unorthodox, but it saves another shift in a fast orchestral passage.

Mostly chewing over old stuff (for the purposes of teaching) that you've done, but well and truly forgotten Doesn't take too long to come back, but can sound a bit ropey to begin with. To be honest, unless you are doing regular solo chamber performances or recitals, learning new pieces of that type aren't important, it's best to keep things like audition pieces and (the more popular) orchestral excerpts, in fairly good working order, since they are the bread and butter of daily working life for the orchestral player. Most ochestras allow you to take music away to practice, if you want to. Even eminent leaders are known to take the dots home with them, so never be ashamed to ask after a rehearsal if you want to take the music with you.

For reference, most professional orchestras expect players to know the Brahms symphonies fairly well.

ED: Should have also said that scales and studies are still important, even for pros. Helps keep technique in order, if nothing else.

ED: Of course, finding the time to practice once you are working is the biggest problem of all. Certainly not enough time for 3,4,5 or 6 hours a day. You'll be so whacked out after repeated rehearsals, performances and/or plus any travelling that you won't really feel like getting the violin out on the days you aren't working. Instead 90 million other jobs will need doing instead, all the stuff you couldn't do while you were playing somewhere in Outer Mongolia or wherever.

I wasn't complaining about the comparison, it was just the way the teacher said it. He believed the only fingering permitted was that of Flesch.

I'm learning grade 4 abrsm pieces, even though i'm not taking the exam.

What is the fingering meant to be for a one octave scale on the same string? I've been wondering about it. I've tried loads of different ways on my violin and think the easiest is 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 4

Bo, where did you get the Grapelli transcription? I was listening to a Grapelli recording today and wishing I could play like that! Didn't realise there were transcriptions! How exciting...

I'm (allegedly) learning these:
Sarasate Zigeunerweisen
Mozart Concerto 5
L. Berkeley Introduction and Allegro (great piece!)
Bartok Rhapsody no. 1, second part
Beethoven Concerto
Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, 1st mvt
and might be learning the Debussy Sonata at some point (hopefully)
and maybe some other modern-ish solo violin pieces

I'm being given all the pieces now so I can learn them now and over next year when I am away at teacher training college - though not sure if I'll have any time to practise then...

Fiddle time joggers, I think it's by Kathy and David Blackwell but I've lent it to someone so I can't check! It comes with a CD and I think there are a couple of tunes you only need to play open strings with but they sound fab because there's the accompaniment on CD.

I have a whole book of them, by Matt Glaser and Stephane Grapelli. You can find it online, or Chappels do it (just ask for "Grapelli transcriptions" - it's the only book of them that exists.


I am SO jealous...I LOVE it. How hard? What are the technical difficulties? That's the first piece I ever REALLY wanted to learn, I assume I will have to wait a few years yet.


Yeah, that's my special party trick I can do suprising things with it, especially clean position changes.


Ahhhh no way!!! Am I going to be bored stiff by studies my whole life?

Is this the book?

Yes indeedy

Oooh sounds good!

I want to get my hands on an arrangement of the Gadfly Romance for viola, and also the Schumann Romances, though don't have enough cash for either at the moment.

Thanks. I have ordered it!

Hay everyone!

Sounds like everyone on here is learning some awesome pieces! At the moment I'm doing:

Bloch - Nigun
Tchaikovsky - Serenade Melancolique
Mussorgsky - Hopak
Mozart - Rondo in G
Mozart - Concerto in D maj no.4
Mozart - Concerto in A maj no.5 (again!)
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto

And I'm working on Carl Flesch scales, Sevcik Op.8/9 and Kreutzer studies.

It's awesome that some of you are doing the Bartok Rhapsody 1!! It's such a great piece And you're SO lucky to be doing Lalo and Beethoven concerto! Hehe

TchaikChick, how are you fingering the run in Nigun which is just before the poco meno lento (P2 usually), coming down from the high C? I can't find a good ay of doing it.
And Mendelssohn? Have fun!

You could try:

3 3 2 2 1 1(0) 4 3 2 3 2 1 0 4 2 1 0 4 2 1 4 3 2 1

Does that make any sense?

me too! I love it

I'm also doing
Shostakovich Concerto 1
Bach Partita in B minor
Bruch String Octet

Relearning de Falla (Kreisler) - Spanish Serenade from la Vida Breve, for a concert
Kreutzer like everyone else, but my teacher has this mad idea where he randomly says a number from 1 - 42 and i have to play the study from memory.

He also thinks we should start some Paganini caprices (capprici?) after we finish the falla, which is quite soon *faints*

Um I think I'm doing: 4(on highC) 3 3 2 1 1(0) 4 3 2 1 2 1 0 4 2 1 0 3 2 1 0 3 2 1... very similar to benjaminja...
the harmonic with 1st finger is a little weird, I am having slight trouble, but it's getting easier!



Hehe yeah the Mendelssohn's the best ay! I love it

Wow Paganini caprices...gud times which ones are you doing??

Someone asked for this on ClassicFM this morning, I thought it was beautiful! I'd love to play that one day!

I think I will do something like 3 3 2 1 1(0) 4 2 1....and then the rest just in 1st....

I love it to pieces. Can't wait till I can play the whole thing, only done the first page so far, 2 and a 1/2 left!

That sounds gud!

Oh and I forgot to say that I'm learning Brahms Sonata Op.78 as well as all my other pieces!!
Is anyone else learning this at the mo?