Violin Music-where to buy or download leads

[Freedbaby]

Wife is a violinist, was on a full ride to the University of Texas for Violin. Never made any kind of career out of it, in fact for the most part, unless I beg she doesn't want much to do with it but she is AMAZING. We have played at our temple together some which has been fun but thats all religious music.

She has agreed to play a bit with me but she is not going to put in any effort, I gotta do the leg work LOL.

SOOOO...I have been looking for music but everything I show her, she takes one look at always says, thats the melody, I need the leads and solos.

Anyone know where to get that kind of stuff?

[bert_]

Did you take a look at imslp.org yet?

[Maryc-k]

The classical world is very different from the folk and popular genres. Things are not written out explicitly. You learn the melodies, then develop harmonies and breaks somewhat on the fly.

In classical music they map it all out. It took me years to get out of that train of thought.

What kind of music are we talking about? Old time, Irish, pop tunes?

If she’s insisting on reading off of sheet music, you might need to write out the parts for her, depending on what tunes/songs you want to play.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Freedbaby

everything I show her, she takes one look at always says, thats the melody, I need the leads and solos.

Yep, that's a classically trained musician, right there. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Couple of options:

Use guitar solos (notated, not tab), insofar as they will work on violin.

Just play the melody as the solo, that should be perfectly fine.

[Earl49]

We spent last week at the National Flute Association annual convention, and one of the headliners put on a great workshop called "The Irish Flute for Classical Players". She went into great detail about the ornamentation that basically defines the style. She also mentioned that she knows literally hundreds or thousands of songs -- all by ear, and cannot read music. The workshop helper was a music professor at an east coast university, and it was interesting to hear her "translate" things into classical terminology.

When my classically trained wife started playing her flute along with my guitar and voice, we ran into the same issue. You can often find the melody to popular songs at least in lead sheet form, but it is rare to find transcribed version of solos and fills. She has learned over time to get away from the "dots on the page" and make music, even taking some solos. Most solos are variations on the basic melody, which should be well within her abilities, but maybe not her comfort zone. Improvising by ear is a whole new skill set that classical training simply does not develop. Otherwise you are stuck transcribing specific leads and fills into notation for her to sight read - a rather tedious process, especially when I attempt it.

Depending on what musical style you wish to play, you might find something you like in the Parking Lot Pickers series, such as: http://www.melbay.com/Products/21662...e-edition.aspx Also search through the Steve Kaufman guitar books for lots of fiddle tunes and jazz standards. Some of his flat picking instructional books have simple melodies to start and work up through several more complex versions.

[mdhttr]

+1 on the Parking Lot Picker series.

I had the same experience with my flute-playing daughter when we started learning Irish tunes. I play by ear and she would say "You're playing it wrong." I would point to my head and say "I'm playing what's in here, not what's on there [the sheet music]." Gradually she learned to adjust and improvise and fill in the spaces between the notes.

She recently returned from a trip with her college orchestra to Ireland. She was walking through Dublin during some free time and passed a pub where she could see a circle of flute players through the window. Stood there and gawked at them until they invited her in to play. Not one of them read any music and she didn't know many of the songs they were playing. So she just "surfed" along with them and they did the same when she played a couple of tunes.

I learned to play guitar by ear in the same way from an old bluegrasser from Missouri. After he closed his hardware store we'd sit in a circle and take turns with songs. When it came time for an instrumental break he'd call someone's name at random and we'd give it a try. He usually had finish it after we got stuck, but it was a great learning experience.

All that to say there is no substitute for just playing music and trying new things.

[Maryc-k]

There are so many versions of the same tunes. A few time through and things generally synchronize.

[spike66]

Kaufman's 4 Hour Workout Series has mandolin/fiddle tabs.

[Mandobart]

I'm also a classically trained violin player. Incredibly, I also was able to learn to play by ear. Wife or not, I'm not going to perform music with anyone who is "not interested in putting in any effort." Setup for stress and marital trouble. I'll bet you can find a violinist who is interested in learning a new skill of playing and improvising by ear.