Peter Davey, Abracadabra Violin

'Abracadabra - Violin Book 1' by Peter Davey is just one book in a series of violin books to enhance your musical knowledge and understanding. I have just started playing the violin and by far this book is one of the best 'teaching' books around to help you on your quest from being a beginner violinist to an intermediate violinist! The book is very adventurous and not only is a music book, but also an audio book too. The book comes with a CD that accompanies each song in the book and in my opinion is a bonus as it illustrates how the song is supposed to sound in retrospect to timing and also tuning (you don't want your violin to sound out of tune now, do you?!!?). The book is jam-packed with little hints, tips and suggestions in order for you to do your best when playing the songs. I particularly like this book as little boxes of theory are conveyed in fun and exciting ways - this book will help anyone who needs to 'fine-tune' their violin theory too!

The book begins with an introduction and the 'basic steps'. For the first 10 pages the violinist is presented with the different notes on the violin and also the different signs and symbols used with violin music. The songs on these first 10 pages are very basic to boost your confidence, however, by the end of the book the songs get very tricky which means that you can work at your own pace!

Even though the front cover of this book is in colour, the inside of the book is in black and white (and also grey!). The book has many different illustrations so that people that like to visualize can see how things work in pictures. Furthermore the book has many different humorous pictures that coincide with the songs which I feel gives the whole book a more relaxed but serious attitude.

This book is one of the best for its price. I have used this book for about two months now and I do feel that it has helped me to become more confident and also more musical! I have used the CD every time that I have used the book and I have found this helpful. The CD has the songs played by a pianist as well as a violinist; with most of the songs are played twice or thrice through. Each time the song is played the tempo usually speeds up, in order for you to practice the songs at different dynamics.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about playing the violin. In addition to this I would advise people that are novices as well as intermediate violin players to use this book as it does contain some very complex tunes (near the end of the book) which can help even the most experienced violinists! All in all, this book is a bargain and I have not regretted buying it one bit!