Trott: Melodious Double-Stops for the Violin (Complete)

I felt like I needed to start double stops when passing beyond beginner level, so I decided to try this book. I find it is definitely helping me with intonation, left hand frame, sight reading, and bowing. It is difficult in the beginning, go slow and careful on first pass, a bar or two at a time, but you'll get rolling after a while. The first 8 exercises of the book have one open string in every double stop, so this is helpful at the outset.One teacher/reviewer stated that these were not very melodious and suggested double stop scales, which I believe is worth pursuing. Sometimes I practice a scale in double stops, but if you need to NOT be stalled at double stops while reading to learn pieces, you should get into this book. Only caveats are that even in book 2 (in the second half of the complete version of the book), it doesn't appear that they ever make it out of first position, or ever have more than 3 #'s or b's in the key signature, so this is only your very first serious double stop book.

The items work well for me

As an adult beginner, this book is actually beautiful melodies to play as I learn instead of just random double stops to play. I also like that the first several melodies have one open string.

It's a good book that improves your violin finger agility and intonation through double stops. It's challenging, but super fun and satisfying when you learn to play the excerpts/etudes. A tip is to check if each double stop rings by playing them longer than it says on the music. Then, you can put it all together in the end and play it as it is. Overall, comes as good as promised, at least it did for me. :)

I love this book and I recommend it to all my violin students. It has easy double stops exercises with beautiful melodies and gradually increase difficulty. Great book for any violin studio. I believe it is good for a student that has been practicing regularly for about 2 years or more.

There is no magic key to double stops, at least not that I've found. I bought this based on recommendations of others, and my violin teacher was kind enough to let me try it. So far, having skipped a few of the most basic pieces, I'm finding it challenging to make my efforts sound like music, but the pieces are pretty, and not too beyond my reach, so I keep "plugging away," which is exactly how it sounds. Somehow I hoped, though, that the exercises themselves would point me to what I was doing wrong specifically, so that I could change it, but so far that hasn't happened. If anyone has found the key, can you let me know?

This book was recommended at a music camp and again by my private teacher. I was studying from another double-stop book and found this one much more enjoyable since they sound more like pieces than pure exercises. It is also a bit more gradual learning curve between each piece as compared to the other double-stop book I was using. That said, it still takes me a bit of studying with each piece and some makes me want to tear my hair out initially but hey, that's what practicing/learning is for - overcome challenges and eventually master it.

I bought this book after hearing some students play pieces from this series during a recital. Having Books 1 & 2 in one durable (laminated cover) music book is great and it was a very affordable price. The quality is plain, and I'm glad to have it. This one will not be falling apart. The notes and music are written large enough to be easily read and I would definitely recommend it.

I'm afraid I found this anything but melodious. As a violin player and teacher, I thought it might be useful for some of my students, but I found the pieces turgid and formless. Studying them could I suppose provide material for improving your double-stop accuracy, but you might die of boredom in the attempt. The pair of books don't appear progressive, as in starts easier and builds up. It strikes me as very old-fashioned. Better to stick to practising scales in double-stops, Sevcik, Kreutzer Etudes in double-stops and Aaron Minsky's Ten American Etudes: much more melodious...

This book has been such fun to work with! The double stop etudes start easy (well they look easy from where I am now). I've worked steadily through the material. The tunes sound great if you get them right and they are really helping my technique. I started off when I was around Grade 4-5 ABRSM and I'm sure that they will keep me going to a few years yet.

Well worth buying if you find double-stopping in scales a bit arduous, not to say soul-destroying, given the added difficulty of playing two notes simultaneously in tune rather than just one.This collection provides a more melodious approach.

Speedy delivery.

Happy with purchase