Sight Reading Violin Music

About the Book

“I can play, but I can’t read music!” The answer to this frustrated cry is right here. “Sight Reading Violin Music” lets you use your ear to get started. Then, you will use symbols along with your ear in the speed builders. Finally, you will use only the symbols to ‘figure out’ the short pieces in each key. You will cover the major keys through four accidentals (sharps and flats). You will know the difference between major and minor. “It all looks like chicken scratch to me!” No problem. Use the finger charts and diagrams first. Or try the single-line staff; get someone to help write out some other songs you know in single-line notation. “My Twinkle beginners get the parts of the song mixed up; then, they forget where they are in the song.” This little snafu is universal. Use the icon cards in the appendix. The “B” section of Twinkle is shaded. This gives the young student a much needed picture of the ABA form.

About the Author

Keith Cook has taught violin for over 40 years. He has experience in Suzuki pedagogy as well as in a variety of traditional teaching styles. Cook’s experience as a teacher extends beyond music; he has taught elementary grades in public school, fifth grade Social Studies, and tutored college courses. In addition to teaching, Cook has experience as a concert performer, having spent over 35 years in symphony orchestras and opera companies. Most of this time was spent with the Louisville Orchestra, an ensemble which has specialized in playing and recording some of the world’s most hard-to-read contemporary music. Cook’s own reading skills came from self-instruction. As a child, he learned all of his repertoire by listening and imitating what he heard. As a student at the Eastman School of Music--studying with William Kroll and Millard Taylor--Cook documented his own process for learning to read formally. He later wrote Learning Ledger Lines, a compilation of exercises for sight reading in the high register. The first version of Sight Reading Violin Music was written in 1976 when Cook was asked to prepare a number of Suzuki students for youth orchestra.