Easy Songs for Shifting in the First Five Positions: a Violin Technique Book for Group Classes and Private Instruction

American Music Teacher, June-July, 2004 by Carol Tarr

Easy Songs for Shifting in the First Five Positions: A Violin Technique Book for Group Classes and Private Instruction, by Kathryn Bird Kinnard. Summy-Birchard, Inc./Warner Bros. Publications (15800 N. W. 48th Ave., Miami, FL 33014), 2003. 44 pp. $6.95. Easy.

This volume is very useful to give students fun pieces to play, while developing further the technique and skills of shifting. The pieces have fun titles, which most elementary-age students would find appealing: "Playful Kittens," "Going Up in a Swing," "Popsicles" and "Ladybugs." I think this book is very useful for providing additional fun work for learning to shift. I don't think it was intended to be a complete book of shifting. I would not describe Easy Songs for Shifting as a "how-to" book, but as an "in-addition to" book.

The book contains twenty-five fun tunes written by Kathryn Bird Kinnard. All have a duet part, as well as a piano accompaniment part. The book includes some preparations for various shifts.

At the beginning there is a preparatory study for third position shifting, which offers a very useful description of pre-shifting exercises. The first piece, "Going Up in a Swing," uses shifting in a slur immediately. (This is difficult for string players.) The next piece, "Playful Kittens," uses a replacement shift (again, a tricky concept for beginning string players). "Grace's Song" introduces same finger shifts, which also can be challenging to the person learning to shift. The author assumes students know the various finger patterns needed for the various keys.

There are many fewer preparations for second and fourth position than for third and fifth. The students would need to know the intervals and finger patterns before attempting to play successfully in this volume. I can see it being lots of fun to use after serious work has been done with the student, and it would work well in a group lesson environment. Reviewed by Carol Tarr, Lakewood, Colorado.