Concepts - usually left to the teacher, seldom reinforced in the book:
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Terminology; high & low, up & down (pitch) are terms often not fully understood by pupils; each page of the Yellow Book has the graphic on the left for teacher & pupil reference and as a regular reminder that notes go up from A to G alphabetically |
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Music Theory; the graphic is also a handy tool for explaining accidentals (eg the note between A & B is higher than A, so A#, but also lower than B, so can be called Bb), intervals, scales (pattern of intervals) and chord & arpeggio construction |
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Reading; the skill of associating what’s on the page with what to do with your fingers; the Yellow Book has several pages of reading exercises which move by step to link the idea of one note visually higher = add a finger = a higher sound |
Your First Year Violin Course
The course was begun in 1978 when Pam Wainwright was asked to teach a class-size group of Year 2 infants. She created her own materials on large charts. Once the children were able to take instruments home to practise they needed copies of the material, so she produced photocopies of all the pieces. Over the year, this material amounted to a booklet which she then had reproduced to use with subsequent groups of pupils.
When the first print run ran out, she and her husband, David, revised the course and added material. By this time the book was in general use for beginners of all ages. Its success as first stage material helped many pupils to go on through to Grade 8 ABRSM and beyond. Over the years Pam has taken around 150 pupils successfully through Grade 8 examination, many of them with Merit or Distinction.
Mark lll of the Yellow Book (it started off with a yellow cover in 1979) has been revised again. It, and Pam’s successes, confirm our belief in the value of notation at an early stage!
When the first print run ran out, she and her husband, David, revised the course and added material. By this time the book was in general use for beginners of all ages. Its success as first stage material helped many pupils to go on through to Grade 8 ABRSM and beyond. Over the years Pam has taken around 150 pupils successfully through Grade 8 examination, many of them with Merit or Distinction.
Mark lll of the Yellow Book (it started off with a yellow cover in 1979) has been revised again. It, and Pam’s successes, confirm our belief in the value of notation at an early stage!
