Book Reviews: Wild About Strings

Wild About Strings by Ruth Wild is a teaching resource filled with exercises to help students become independent thinkers. The book is split into three progressive sections. The first section has activities involving two notes, the second section five notes, and a full scale for the third section. Each section has six different activities: echo playing, improvising, working out by ear, learning a tune without notation, arranging and interpreting, and notation and aural. The teaching method emphasises the importance of aural activities on the instrument, rather than singing and clapping, to encourage students to learn to ‘listen and evaluate their playing’. There is an accompanying website with backing tracks at www.musicwild.co.uk.

The activities all involve both the teacher and the student. For example, in the ‘What can we do with two notes?’ section of the first activity, Echo Playing, the teacher must play a two-bar phrase in 4/4 using only the D and A strings, and then the student echoes the phrase. There is a backing track for this exercise, which is easily accessible on the website. Each activity also has ‘top tips’ which give extra suggestions to the teacher, including ideas for further activities. The rest of the activities follow the same clear format. The pitch cards used in activity six – Notation and Aural – are also available on the website to print. The book's activities are particularly useful for those who haven't yet had much exposure to music, providing students with a chance to gain a basic aural foundation. Some activities could also be useful for advanced students who lack confidence in a certain area, such as with improvisation.

I was immediately drawn to the ethos of the book stated in the introduction: to enable pupils to develop independence. As a viola player and teacher, I appreciate how the book has a few of the exercises and pitch cards transcribed into alto clef. What I miss are videos showing examples of how to teach the different activities. While instructions on how to present the activities are clearly worded, a video of a teacher and student demonstrating a few of the activities at the different levels would have been useful. I also wonder if the backing tracks could have had real instruments recorded instead of a MIDI file. Overall, I would recommend this book to teachers of students at any level who want their students to become more aurally aware.

Wild About Strings costs £9.95. 

ISBN: 9798750495702

www.musicwild.co.uk