Habits of a Successful Young String Musician is a field-tested and musical collection of 220 sequenced exercises for the beginning string student. The companion website (www.habitsstrings.com) features supplemental resources including accompaniment tracks, start-up clinic videos, and full performance videos for each exercise in the book. These cutting-edge online components are on MusicFirst (PracticeFirst) and MakeMusic Cloud (SmartMusic).

What makes Habits of a Successful Young String Musician unique?

Tone is at the heart of this method.

• Students begin using the bow earlier than other resources.
• The familiar melodies enable students to use their ears to develop good pitch and tone.
• Online videos allow students to see and hear professional string players modeling good tone and technique for each exercise.

Tonal literacy is a key focus of this book.

• All four open strings are introduced early.
• New notes are introduced with clear fingerboard diagrams and pictures next to the staff.
• New keys are taught by highlighting notes affected by the new key signature.

Rhythmic literacy exercises will have your students counting and reading independently.

• Long notes and rests are introduced early so students learn to count and subdivide.
• Melodies in 3/4 appear early and often.
• Nine pages of sight-reading exercises develop stronger tonal and rhythmic literacy skills.

Online content includes:

• High-quality photos of excellent hand positions to help students develop great technique.
• A diverse repertoire of classical and folk melodies from around the world.
• Warm-up pages with scales, arpeggios, tuning canons, bowing variations, and other great tools for introducing, teaching, and reinforcing skills.