Can any violinist recommend a good violin book that would bridge the gap between grade 3 and 4?

I have decided, god knows why, to take my violin grade 4 having not played for 5 years! glutton for punishment lol

Actually theres an ulterior motive for this, I teach piano and thought it would be a good idea to sit a grade exam since its been many years since I took the kind of exams I enter my piano students for, could be interesting to see how i get on (and i will shoot myself if i fail the aural lmao)

I know exactly what you mean, its so easy to rest on ones laurels after grade 8, it is a very good way of keeping us challenged and stimulated at the same time by taking grades on maybe another instrument or maybe just an opportunity to brush up on theory. Not a violinist myself although i have recently started to prepare for the grade 1 double bass, i would'nt have thought grade 3 to 4 was such a big leap, have you looked at any of the grade 4 syllabus material yet?

There's so much repertoire out there, why don't you just go to your local music shop and browse through all the sheet music? You should be able to tell what's within your range by looking at the key signatures and the type of notes - you may need to avoid pieces with long passages of allegro semiquavers, or pieces in keys like Ab minor, but you should be able to tell what's within your range by looking at it.

These days there's massive of stuff out there with backing CD's in a whole host of different styles from classical to Klezmer to African to jazz, a lot of it within the right technical range for you. Without knowing your individual taste it's hard to know what to recommend.

i've not looked at the syllabus yet, have ordered it and waiting for it to pop through my door!

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You should be able to tell what's within your range by looking at the key signatures and the type of notes - you may need to avoid pieces with long passages of allegro semiquavers, or pieces in keys like Ab minor

thats the thing violinia, im not really looking for stuff within my range, but stuff to stretch me up to grade 4 level...... long passages of allegro semiquavers and Ab minor i might have to master to do grade 4 (do I?)
and this is where i'm not sure. As for style, I'm pretty much open to anything, classical, jazz, folk etc.

I was hoping for a book that covers most styles, some kind of anthology book within the grade3/4 range. I know I can get hold of something similar for piano, but havent seen anything for violin

Stupid thing is, i'm not a great fan of doing grades just for grade exam's sake, and I would advise all of my students against cramming for an exam which is exactly what i'm trying to do lol!

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i've not looked at the syllabus yet, have ordered it and waiting for it to pop through my door!

If you get bored of waiting the grade 4 violin syllabus is here.

If you go here and type in violin and pick grade 4 you will get a list of books published by the ABRSM that are around grade 4 level: I can't recommend (or not recommend) any of them since I don't play the violin!

If you don't want to just go steaming into the Grade 4 pieces, look to see what keys the Grade 4 pieces are in and what scales are required, and look for pieces to play in those keys.

Learn to play in 3rd position if you don't already, and find out how to play vibrato! Try pieces in different styles to stretch your versatility and look for someone who's slightly better than you to play duets with. All this will increase your ability, range and skill, which will be a lot more useful to you in the long run than limiting yourself to learning just 3 new pieces. Which is what you'll limit yourself to if you just go straight ahead and start working on Grade 4.

thanks anotherpianist, didnt know about that search engine, went there last night ands gota couple of ideas:)

and ty for the advice about keys etc violinia, i can remember vaguely learning 3rd position once upon a time, for years i stuck to first when i was playing a lot of folk music so will have to re-work it all now

i got my violin out last night to see just how much I had forgotten and ewwwwww not a nice sound lol this is going to take quite some time before i get to the point where i can bear listening to myself practise again!

QUOTE (lynne @ Apr 2 2004, 08:16 AM)

I have decided, god knows why, to take my violin grade 4 having not played for 5 years! glutton for punishment lol , I teach piano and thought it would be a good idea to sit a grade exam since its been many years since I took the kind of exams I enter my piano students for, could be interesting to see how i get on (and i will shoot myself if i fail the aural lmao)

I laughed at this lynne as I could relate very much to it. I too, teach pianoa and enter students in exams, but haven't done one since Uni! And we're talking about 15 years here!

I just bought myself a violin and have been thinking very seriously of investing in a teacher. Something I aslo haven't done for a very long time. Your idea to sit for an exam in another instrument is starting to inspire me (yeah ... the 'starting to' doesn't sound that convincing, does it?) At least starting at grade 1 I shouldn't have any problems the aural part

well i've picked up the violin, started on grade 4 pieces and scales and i sound like a cat in agony ewwww. it's not nice. how on earth do you violin teachers handle listening to out of tune violins all day? At least when I make a mistake on the piano it's in tune!!!!!!!

I know how you feel! It's so horrible. I stand there practicing my violin for ages and when I've finished I don't feel like I've got anywhere- it still sounds like a strangled cat! I do feel so sorry for my next door neighbours and my teacher- I don't think I could cope with listening to out of tune violins all day!