Simandl and You

Love the idea, but I sadly lost my book... Next time maybe!

 

I've been going back to the Simandl book annually for over 50 years. I didn't know page 10 was particularly famous! I use various "variations" for bowing volume etc; haven't don it pizz though.

 

This is the version found alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What so special about pg.10??? It is just 3 ditties in Half Position in my version.
Thanks.

 

I think they're fun to play and great for beginners building tuning skills. Much better than the chromatic half and first position exercises which are difficult to fix your ear on.

 

Understood.
I believe I've squeezed about as much "fun" out of Herr Simandl's Book as is humanly possible - many decades ago.
Enjoy!
(jk)
Thanks.

 

My son ripped a few pages out of mine recently, and colored a few. His love/hate relationship has already begun at the tender age of 3.

 

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

 

Yeah, no doubt!

 

The “famous“ page in the Simandl book is page 69 with the bowing variations. That’s a great page for getting your arco skills together.

I recently took my copy to Staples to have it re-bound with a spiral binding. I wish I had thought of that years ago.


- Steve

 

You can download a copy of it here.

- Steve

 

I think my version is about the same vintage as Don's albeit a bit worse for wear. Circa 1969. $3.50!

 

Out of interest, my version is the English and Japanese text...Why the Japanese, I wonder...anyone know if there was a specific market there at the time??

 

they did a good job with that spiral binding. I might have to do that, since my book is held together with a piece of gaffer's tape.

I also like the page 69 etude. Played it so many times as an undergrad that I don't need to read the music. Aside from the bowing variations, I've also been transposing it by ear just as an exercise. So far I've taken it up to D flat and down to G.

 

That is way too funny!!

 

I'd have never thought of this but it's so simple, You've just changed my life. You sir, are all things to all men.

 

I'm sure that was a marketing decision. The German would be way more useful, since any classical player needs to know a little German eventually.

 

Here’s my original copy, totally apart, on the right that I picked up something like 1972. The one on the left is newer, I gave it the spiral treatment.

I would consider trading the original one with @Contranash for that ‘Old Gross Cake of Pops’ he has running in the classifieds. I might sweeten the deal with a yuan bill from my 1995 tour in Beijing, I dunno.

 

Just as side note...The more I see YouTube videos of people demonstrating "new" techniques, the stronger my appreciation for the book. There is very little out there that I see where a technique is not a modification of an exercise that is already covered by Simandl or that is a significant departure. Maybe this is why this text has been so widely used as a teaching tool, since its first launch, a toss up between NeilG and Casey's books! ;-)