Actually I'm after 2 lots of suggestions!

I play viola at roughly grade 1 standard.

My daughter plays violin and is taking her prep test soon. I'm looking for some duets we could play together for fun - can anyone point me in the right direction? We've already done stuff from Fiddle Time Joggers.

I also have a friend who is grade 3 ish on the violin - I'm trying to persuade her to play duets with me - if I actually had some music it would help. Any ideas on this one?

I am desperate to play with other people but all the local orchestras only want you if you are grade 8+ so I will have to get my fix else where!

Many thanks

Well now, if I say Bartok you may run away screaming. But, there are 2 volumes of violin duos (44 in all) which were written as a teaching aid. They get pretty frightening as you might expect but start out fairly easy. They are based on folk tunes and are pretty good fun.

See http://www.simplyforstrings.com.au/samplep...452A%5B1%5D.jpg for a sample page.

I had a transcription donkeys years ago for viola and played a few with a mate on double bass!

You could try Fiddle/Viola Time Runners and Sprinters?? I don't have them myself (just Joggers and Scales) but they seem to be of the same ilk and so might work well??

They get progressively more difficult, so wouldn't be suitable for grade 1.

The beginning 20? pieces in Runners are OK for Grade 1

Otherwise

Lollipop Man is good...published by Musicland I think

Also another book whose name I forget but published by Kevin Mayhew, have a look at their website.

There is a book of Duet parts to go with pieces in Suzuki books 1-3 which will include a lot that are managable for this range.

Thanks for these. My daughter is just finishing Fiddle Time Joggers so when she moves onto Runners I'll have a look at the viola book and see how many duets there are we could play.

I'll have a look at the other books mentioned - thanks for the suggestions.

I thought about the music medal ensemble books but they are only for violin and there are not that many duets. I could rewrite some of the violin parts in to the alto clef but it would depend on how much was on the E string as I don't play in anything other than 1st position at the moment. - guess i need to find a copy to look at. They do at least have different levels in one book.

I can find violin duets at the right level - it's finding something for violin and viola which is proving difficult.

Yes, finding violin and viola is not easy. To be honest you may as well get used to rewriting from violin parts!

My other suggestion is to look in the Teacher's piano accompaniment books for the Essential String Method series because in there you DO get some pieces written with viola parts. I remember we did a lovely violin and viola arrangement of 'All Through The Night' from there.