FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Violin Piano

Question:
could someone give me suggestions for rhythmically simple, slow tempo, violin and piano duo music? i have been playing violin for 3 or 4 months and am quite limited in terms of speed. i can play the slow movement to vivaldi's winter concerto,and some pieces of bach's cello suites. the pianist has considerable ability, and is weakest in rhythm. any suggestions are appreciated

Answer:
After three years of cello playing, these flat keys are just about becoming managable for me...and I thought that with my many years of piano playing (and based on my teacher's comments) that I was progressing somewhat faster than average. After three years of violin, my daughter is no where near as far along. So here are two suggestions that we enjoyed and might be appropriate for other beginners: 1. The Suzuki books: A carefully selected progression of pieces that, IMO, can be a valuable and enjoyable suppliment even to a non-Suzuki music program. The violin/cello/piano part each cost about $6 per book, and we've been going through one book every year or two...and they go up to book six or something like that. There's also a recording, which I find useful to play along with (my daughter can't play the piano well enough to accompany me), or for us to listen to so that we hear what the piece is really supposed to sound like (useful for settling arguments!). 2. The Mel Bay series: Common melodies arranged for violin and piano. We worked through Easy Solos for Beginning Violin in my daughter's second and third years...and when we play for fun, many of her choices are still from this book. Christmas Solos for Beginning Violin is about the same level and comes out each winter. We are just beginning on Easy Solos for Violin. Each book includes piano accompaniment, and costs about $6. In both cases, the piano accompaniment is quite easy and includes the melody. We also experiment with rounds/canons and partner songs (distinct songs, like All day, all night ... and Swing low, sweet chariot ... that go well together. Ideas for the latter come from an old Girl Scout song book, a tape of children's songs, etc. Then I have to dig up a piano arrangment that I like for each piece, and more often than not transpose and edit it so that the melody is easy for the violin to play. For rounds/cannons, a good source is Constance and William Starr's Rounds and Canons (published by Summy-Birchard.) These are easy pieces in easy keys. Some are true rounds. Other are in effect three or four part arrangements (much like hymns) with each player cycling though the different parts. For the most part, even in the latter case, the parts (much like hymns, again) are themselves melodious. The parts are written one after another as a long one-at-a-time-note melody; This saves the beginning string player from having to pick out their part in a chord, but posses some challenge for an inexpert pianist who wants to play all (or all but one) parts simultaneously as accompaniment.