does anyone feel that the suzuki pieces are rather difficult to play? those from vol 2 onwards are rather difficult. my school uses vol 2 for grade 2 aside from A Tune A Day book 2, & vol 3 for grade 3 and A Tune A Day book 3 for grade 3. however, when i compare the books, i find that the suzuki pieces are much more tougher than those in A Tune A Day.

i find that the last two pieces from suzuki vol 2 very challenging. i also found out that in suzuki vol 3, the piece by Dvorak - Humoresque was in 1997's grade 5 exam syllabus (abrsm).

any views from anyone?

I can't comment on difficulty, but I do remember thinking that for young children, the sudden increase in length was a bit much.

true.....there`s a big gap between book 1 and book 2.
and there is a very loong vivaldi concerto in book 5, if i`m not wrong.

Currently, I'm on volume five of the Suzuki violin books. Reflecting upon volume two, I think that they progressed rather well from volume one. The songs in the beginning are rather easy, but in the end, songs like the minuet can be challenging. It is supposed to get more difficult. After all, you can't get anywhere without challenge. Your teacher should help you though.

I'm not exactly sure how the Suzuki volumes coordinate with the ABRSM exam grades. Back when I was midway through volume three, my teacher recommended I take something around grade 3/4, but I have never actually viewed an ABRSM violin syllabus.

I don't think that the Suzuki books correspond really to AB exams. Currently Brahms waltz in Suzuki book 2 is on the Grade 3 AB syllabus. My daughter has always learned by the Suzuki method, although her teacher is now including studies etc, as well as sight reading. There has never been a problem with the pieces. Each one has to be mastered to a very good standard and memorised before moving to the next one. My daughter is now in book 4 and really loves the pieces.

hence i find that suzuki pieces are "tougher". look at Gavotte in vol one, it's very difficult to play. my sch uses it for grade 1 students.

I think that the teaching method in the Suzuki books is somewhat different...I find it to mostly focus on playing through listening, rather than reading music. It only begins to stress reading music around Book 3/4, which might be beneficial for younger beginners...other students, however, should definitely learn to read music after mastering the very basics.

i found a piece "bouree" in a trinity grade 4-6 book which is the last piece found in suzuki book 3.

Suzuki and Tune a Day books do not correspond to ABRSM grades at all! Maybe they have pieces of varying difficulty and maybe that's why these books are often supplemented by other music / materials.

For example, there's no way a 3rd grader can play the pieces in Suzuki's Book 3 or TAD's Book 3. Hmmm, now that you mention it, I wonder? Does anyone know what ABRSM level/grade is TAD's Book 3?

Don't know about violin, but for cello, there are 2 grade 5 pieces in suzuki book 3 and 1 grade 6 piece in book 4. Would have thought suzuki book numbers should be roughly equivalent in difficulty across instruments, so at around book 3-4 level ABRSM grade level is about 2 higher I guess.

guess what? i found a piece in "The Young Violinist Repertoire Bk 4" (handel's Bourree) - this is in Suzuki Book 2.

The Young Violinist Repertoire Bk 4 is said to be between ABRSM Grade 3 to 5, that's what written on its front page.

The other "Bourree" I mentioned earlier is by Bach. It's in trinity grade 4-6 book & suzuki book 3.

But that would mean that I'm a grade 5(on the way to 6) standard on the violin...

I got a suzuki violin book 4, and can sightread the best parts of all the pieces in the book. If I had better technique of playing 2 strings together, I could play the hard bits too.( it's a bit limited at the moment)

I never use Suzuki 2 until students are around Grade 3 standard. But recently, on looking at the alternatives for one of the Grade 3 lists, I discovered that it is in fact in Suzuki 1!

I like the idea of having to memorise each song before moving on. That's a great skill for youngsters to learn although I doubt I could do it (at my old age!).

My recent grade 8 violin exam List A piece can be found on Suzuki Book 6 (5th song)