Top 10 Fiddle Books for Beginner to Intermediate Violinists (A Violin Teacher's Recommendations)
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If you’re looking for the best fiddle books for beginner violinists and intermediate players, I’ve complied a list of my absolute favorite fiddle books (and I have a lot of them!). From Scandinavian fiddle tunes, to gypsy fiddle books, to Irish fiddle tunes, this list of fiddle books has you covered.
While many of these fiddle books are great for advanced beginners or intermediate players, some of them are perfect for brand new beginner violinists. So if you are just beginning to play violin, you don’t have to wait until you have some skills before you can start fiddling!
Here’s my top 10 fiddle books for beginner, intermediate, and advanced violinists!
Level: Very New Beginner—Intermediate Player
This fiddle book is great whether you are just starting or have been playing a while. In fact, you could use it as your first method book to teach you how to get started. The first section starts off with the basics of violin: tuning, where to put your fingers, bowing, and some simple fingering exercises. After some prep work, Section 2 kicks off with your first tune. A simple song using only open strings and first finger on D and A strings. There are several one-finger polkas and jigs which progress to two-finger songs and then finally three-finger songs.
What I love most about this book is that the easy one-finger songs you learn actually sound cool! With most method books, your first few songs sound like a simple children’s tune. But these jigs sound like jigs! You could stay on each song for several days or weeks, getting it faster and faster, learning to relax and get the classic fiddle sound.
As the book progress, it adds more advanced elements like slurs, ornaments, and grace notes with each song. By the middle of the book, the songs start reaching an advanced beginner or intermediate level. Learn to Play Irish Fiddle could be your go-to fiddle book to last a while!
I love this fiddle book for beginner and intermediate players so much I have an entire course dedicated to it inside of Meadowlark Violin Studio!
2. Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason
Level: Advanced Beginner-Intermedaite Player
This is a wonderful collection of some of the most famous Jay Ungar/Molly Mason tunes, including classics like Lover’s Waltz, Ashokan Farewell, Blue River Waltz, Grand Master Waltz, Prairie Spring, and many, many more.
The level of playing is doable for some advanced beginners, but you’ll find these lovely, relatively simple tunes are ones that grow with you as a violinist. The more you learn about tone production and ornaments, the more you’ll love these songs!
3. Fiddlers Philharmonic By Andrew H. Dabczynski and Bob Philip
Level: Beginner—Intermediate Player
This is another fiddle book you could start using pretty soon after you learn the basics. It is a collection of songs, not a method book, so you will need another book (or a teacher) to show you the fingerings and notes.
The songs always have a solo version of the tune and then a trio so you could play it with friends. Sometimes the trio version is more difficult for more of a challenge. There’s a wide variety of styles, from American fiddling to Irish Jigs. You can also buy the series for every stringed instrument so your cello and viola friends can play with you.
4. Ashokan Farewell
Level: Advanced Beginner—Intermediate Player
This has to be my favorite fiddle tune of all times, and for good reason! I play it often, experimenting with various ornaments and double stops. This sheet music arrangement has lots of written-in ornaments like slides and grace notes, which can make this version tricky. However, if you leave out the grace notes and just play the tune, this could be easily accessible for a beginner. Developing a pure, sweet tone over long notes and adding vibrato make this song enjoyable for any level!
*Note, if you purchase Catskill Mountain Waltzes and Airs, you will receive an easier version of Ashokan Farewell. This version includes all of the ornaments and embellishment options.
5. Scandinavian Fiddle Tunes by Vicki Swan/Schott World Music Series
Level: Intermediate Player
This is a lovely collection of 73 Scandinavian tunes. This book is one of the Schott World Music Series that has fiddle collections from all over the world, from Klezmer Fiddle Tunes to Welsh Airs to Argentinian Tangos and everything else in between.
6. Devil Went Down to Georgia
Level: Advanced Beginner—Intermediate Player
What list of fiddle books would be complete without this iconic fiddle song. I guarantee you, if you are in the Southern part of the United States and you tell someone you play the violin, they will ask you, “Can you play Devil Went Down to Georgia?” Now, you can say yes! The beginning fiddle licks are manageable for advanced beginners. Some double stops and slides make this tune exciting for intermediate players.
If you want something a little different, this French fiddling book is a great option. Every song has two versions, an easy version of the song and a more challenging version.
While the notes aren’t difficult, it starts off with some rhythms that might be tricky for very early beginners. There are some 16th notes, 8th notes, quarter notes, and 8th rests along with some time signature changes. But once you get the rhythms down, the songs are easy and fun to play.
If you have already been playing violin for a while, this book would be my suggestion for you. It’s a big book with lots of songs and information on Irish fiddling. The first song is The Irish Washerwoman to give you an idea of the starting level. Cooper slowly introduces the various ornaments in fiddling by adding one more advanced element for almost every song. You’ll learn various bowing patterns, grace notes, mordents, short rolls, and more.
9. The Gipsy Violin
Level: Intermediate-Advanced Player
I’ve had a few gypsy fiddle books in the past, but this collection tops them all. You will need some skills to enjoy this collection as the songs aren’t easy, but intermediate players and advanced players will enjoy some lovely gypsy songs.
If you want some fun and challenging duets to play with a friends, this is a great book for you. The songs aren’t ordered by difficulty, so you might have to flip through to find the easier ones. The rhythms can be tricky, but if you’re working through Learn to Play Irish Fiddle or the Complete Irish Fiddle Player, it shouldn’t be a problem.
The only thing that is more fun than playing fiddle, is playing fiddle with someone else!
Happy Fiddling!
~Lora
