Please suggest good books to assist training with shifts at grade 3 upwards. Pupils just about average ability, so easy to understand text, possibly with diagrams would be very useful.

Thanks.

Le petit paganini is excellent, but I don't know if an English translation exists (assuming this is for fiddle) alternatively for cello la méthode du jeune violoncelliste is superb and is available in English. Nice approaches in both books, simple exercises then pieces that put the exercises in practise.

Cello time Sprinters has shifting pieces...not sure about the fiddle book.

Yes, Fiddle Time Sprinters has shifting pieces. In fact, there are some nice pieces which are completely in third position (Mexican Madness is fun), then some which shift while playing an open string and Midnight Song is a nice introduction to first finger shifts and sounds OK with glissandos! There are some exercises given next to the pieces but not a lot of explanation and no pictures.

There are also two books by Neil McKay that I use with pupils - A Tuneful Introduction to Third Position is completely in third position, begining with simple four note exercises and tunes which are all on one string, then progressing to scales and exercises across two strings and so on. Then there is Position Changing for the Violin - begins with first finger shifts, then 2nd, 3rd and on to mixed shifts. Both books are quite old-fashioned looking now but I like most of the tunes and the structured approach works well. But no pictures though.

Neil McKay's Position Changing for Violin is excellent - I don't know anything better on the market. It takes you through every permutation of position change from 1-3 and back again, so that once you've successfully worked through all the pieces you can easily cope with any position change to 3 and back. The skills you've learned (using 'ghost' notes) will then help you learn to shift to higher positions.

It's surprising in a way that there aren't more books like it on the market, although I guess there's always Mr Sevcik! But then if you think McKay is old-fashioned take a deep breath before leaping into Sevcik - and please only in moderation as too much Sevcik could possibly put you off the violin for life...

Quite! Sevcik nearly put me off for life. My fiddle teacher used to set me a bar a week to work on. A BAR????? what kind of insane torture is this..... Sevcik is excellent, very effective and only for the mentally ill or those who like to slam their fingers in doors for fun.

A BAR????????!!

I'm over it though.

Allan

A BAR? Did I mention it was ONE BAR? Not certain if I pointed that out. PER WEEK. ahem.

A BAR a week of Sevcik? You've got to be kidding!!!

Ooops I've just ordered the recommended books I know it's not my thread but thanks for the good advice

Alas no. One bar. First as crotchets, then quavers, then semis etc. Separate bows, by two, by three, by four etc. cross beat bowing, each note gets a roll, each note gets a cut, play it as a jig, play it as a reel, play everything with tips, play everything with double cuts, play everything as bowed trebles, play it in triplets...

He may have been a tad obsessed...

I'm sure I read somewhere that Sevcik did end up mentally ill himself but I can't find where I read it!

I do use the bowing variations and the double stopping studies, though but not the shifting ones so much.

Thank you all for your advice.

I shall get ordering asap.

Pupils already use the Fiddle Time series and love it. Many forge ahead at home with their CD for backup and I have been told about several impromptu concerts for their families, the backing tracks give them confidence. Grannies love the idea I believe!

But serious shifting exercises and tunes here we come!

Re Neil McKay's 'Position Changing for Violin' I can't recommend it highly enough if you can persuade your students to have the patience to see it through from the beginning to the end. The only drawback is the size of the print and the fact that some of the pieces could be quite challenging to a spasmodic practiser. Having said that, a student of mine has just completed the book and moved onto some much harder Grade 5-level repertoire; from having painstakingly worked through the whole Neil McKay book, she's finding herself able to tackle all the position changes in her new pieces with ease. She herself puts this down to Neil Mckay herself and also says she really enjoyed the studies.

This is hilarious (in a traumatic way). Did your teacher then say 'One more time with feeling!'

LOL! No, but he did once look at me after saying 'now play it in a west-clare style, as if it were a slip jig, rolling the first and seventh notes of each bar, with tips or cuts to separate notes of the same pitch, and try to make it sing' - and after I attempted to do all of this at once, he looked at me and asked 'What went wrong?'...

How he didn't end up with a fiddle-shaped hole in his trousers is quite beyond me!

All the pupils I've used the book with have succeeded with their shifting and in a fairly short space of time too.