Learning a violin can be a pretty daunting experience. Especially if you don’t know how and where to begin. Every great violinist was once a beginner; even they made mistakes when they newly started out, however it was the practice and the consistency with the violin that made them great.

Books are great teachers, and wonderful friends. They can silently teach you many things, at your desired pace. However, in today’s modern age there are many wonderful books out there in the market, and that becomes difficult for a beginner to pick a book as there are a plethora of booksout there.

Therefore, in this read, we would talk about 5 great books that can teach you the violin. We would discuss violin books for beginners, experienced players, exercise books, and violin books on music theory. We have everything covered that you need to kickstart playing the violin. 

The ABCs of Violin for the Absolute Beginner – Janice Tucker

This book can be your greatest friend if you have recently picked up the violin. As the title suggests, it literally teaches you the ABC of violin!

The reason why this book is on the top of the list is because it simply organised in a very well way. It has the perfect learning curve for beginners; not too difficult, nor too easy. Which makes it fun to learn violin.

This book is great if you want to learn how to read and play the music notations. It has some great exercise songs in it as well. And teaches you where and how to place your fingers while playing a song. Plus, it comes with a DVD which can be extremely helpful while learning new songs as you would know how to exactly play them.

This book covers almost everything; from theory to practical. If you want to learn the violin, then I advise you to buy this book. This will be a great asset for your learning.

Essential Elements for Strings – Micheal Allen

This is another great book for beginner violinist – although I recommend this book as your second book, or if you already have some knowledge of violin.

If you are a parent looking to buy a book for his kid, or have some friends who are also into music, then you should defiantly get this book. As this book is a little bit ‘classroom’ orientated. Don’t get me wrong, a solo player can enjoy this book as well, but then you would also need to take their online lessons (it comes with the book) to properly utilise it. This book as some great exercises which kids or even adults can enjoy themselves playing, which aids to learn the violin

The thing I really love about this book is that you get an online access of their site with it. Over-there, there are background music to play with the songs (exercises) which makes the learning experience significantly better.

Suzuki Violin School – Dr.Shinichi Suzuki

This book was written by a Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki in the mid-20th century.

This book is aimed for children, but even beginner adults can use this book to learn the violin. The exercises in this book starts off relatively easy exercises, and gets complex as the book progress.

This book is not about music theory, or learning how to read music, but instead focuses on songs and exercises – with tips on how to play them. This book doesn’t have the convectional methods to learn violin, but fun ones.  

Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching – Ivan Galamian

Now this book is aimed towards experienced violinists. This book is excellent for intermediate to advance violin players as this book is directed towards the philosophy of playing the violin.

Although this book is technically meant for teachers, but experienced students can utilise this book as well. As this book deals with things like how to play the violin, what are the bad habits while playing it, dos and dont’s etc.

I would recommend this book if you know a little about violin and what to properly brush up your skills to take them to the next level.

The Big Book of Disney Songs: Violin – Hal Leonard

If you are Disney fan then it is no brainer to pick this book up. This book has more than 70 songs in it, which even the beginners can you. The author is an extremely credibly person as well, as he has created many music related materials.

This can be a perfect gift for a kid who recently picked up the violin. I even encourage adults to give it aa try since Disney has some great songs!

Final Note

Books are an extremely effective way to learn anything, and this goes for violins as well. You can learn violin pretty easily even if you study one book. Do not be daunted by them. You do not exactly need to read or master every book on the table.

As Bacon once beautifully said,

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested?”

And that is the same case with violin books.

If you are interested in violins for kids, then you can check our article on the top violin for kids. 

If you are interested in electric violins, then check out article on the best electric violins of 2020.