The Lord of the Rings Instrumental Solos for Strings: Violin (with Piano Acc.), Book & Online Audio/Software (Pop Instrumental Solo Series)

I am an adult picking up the violin again after playing briefly in school over twenty years ago. I play many (many) instruments so I have a familiarity with music in general. Of all the books of music I own, this one is the most fun to play.Overall, the product is a great value. The sheet music has violin and piano parts; however, another book bound inside of this book contains just the violin parts so you don't have to squint at the smaller staff and don't have to turn pages as often.The CD is excellent. Track 1 is simply a bowed A String so you can make sure you're in tune with the CD (which was already correct according to my tuner). The even-numbered tracks contain the orchestrated song WITH the violin part you have the music for so you can listen to the complete parts. The odd-numbered tracks contain the same song but with the violin part taken out so you can play along with your very own full orchestra. I found the printed music to be absolutely accurate with the recordings.I found this book to be good even for a beginner. The keys that these songs are in are not very difficult (C, D, G) with a few exceptions and perhaps some tricky accidentals. Some of the measure counting for some (rare) long rests and changes in time signature would be difficult to comprehend for an absolute beginner of any instrument, but if you even comprehend what I'm saying then it shouldn't be an issue at all.One minor complaint is that after copying these tracks to my mp3 player, I had to manually enter the song names as this album was not found for data being the very niche product that it is.Playing with accompaniment is fantastic practice. There is no stopping to get things right, you just have to go with it; just like you would in a live performance.I would LOVE to own more of these types of books. It's a great value for what you get and I only wish I had more songs to play along with. Highly recommended.

I love the recordings you get access to with this book. They are very helpful for someone like me who is not the best a sight-reading. You can play along with the accompaniment tracks too. The font is a good size and is not too small. I really hate it when music books have tiny little notes you can barely read! but not this one. There is an extra and removable book for the violin that comes with it as well. I like this since sometimes when I am just trying to practice the pieces it is distracting to have the piano music below. My only complaint is that the photos in the book are black and white. It would have been nice to have them in color since they're pretty cool. Overall, very happy with this purchase.

The LOTR soundtrack is my favorite soundtrack of all time. I was thrilled to find this book when I recently started playing the violin again. I played for some years as a child, but then took a very long break until earlier this year. Some of these pieces are easier than others. They might be a bit too difficult for a true beginner, but I think players of different levels could find enjoyment in these.The book contains a violin + piano part, and a removable section with just the violin part. There is also a CD that contains two versions of each track: one with a violin playing the violin part and one with just the accompaniment for you to play along. The CD might not play on all players. Also, my Windows Media Player automatically retrieved the track listings when I put the CD in my computer, but these aren't remotely accurate. They are all LOTR track names but they don't match up right, and some of them are in French.

I bought this for my wife, who plays violin. We all love Howard Shore's music for LotR.The package is put together very nicely. The book goes completely through, from table of contents through every song, with the piano score and the violin part above it. Then it starts over; almost like two separate books, with just the violin score. The CD is set up pretty much the same way. For every song in the book there is a track with the violin on there so you can hear how it sounds, and then a second track without the violin so you can do violin-karaoke!As far is how it is, my wife opened it up and played straight through it, song after song, on her violin on her first look, without hearing the CD at all, and it sounded just like it. (I didn't know she could read that well.)And for $15!? Heck, you'd pay 11-12 for any one of the soundtrack CDs alone.

Just started learning to play and I have been wanting some sheet music to songs that I actually like and listen to. I figured what would be better than LOTR? Pft almost nothing!I opened the book and inserted the disk to my computer to rip the songs straight on to my pc and all of the songs on the disk had different names from the book. So I had to go through them all and fix the song names. I was also looking off of the back of the book instead of inside the glossary so that made it a bit more confusing to complete this task because the back isn't in the same order as the index.other than that little mix up I think it's been a great buy!

I've been playing the violin for ~5 months, and this book was perfect for me. I wanted to get a book of music I was familiar with, but hadn't ever played, so Lotr was the obvious choice. The CD that comes along is fantastic! One track with the full orchestra to demo the violin line, then one with the rest of the orchestra for you to play along with!

Love this. Has every song I ever wanted to play from the movies. The music is very easy to read, yet is in the intermediate range. Not too tough for a beginner yet not too easy for someone who knows how to read notes. The cd has two tracks for every song; a demo track, with the instrument added, and a playalong track where you can play along like in an orchestra. It's amazing; I especially have been searching for Evenstar sheet music, but haven't found any as nearly as good as this book's sheet music. The other songs are also tons of fun to play. Well worth it.

I've just finished my Grade 1 violin as an adult learner. I found this book a nice bridge between grades 1 and 3.The songs are in interesting time signatures and have a nice array of different key signatures.Music seems correct, I've not used the cd yet but other reviews have mentioned that the region is incorrect. It's on YouTube anyway

I was really excited when the book arrived, but it's for flute, not violin. I'm not really sure if there's a difference in the sheet music, but it would be nice to have the violin tracks to listen to.

I am pleased with the book itself, BUT the CD is for region 1, and given the fact that I live in and purchased it in the UK, it would have been nice if this had been made clear by the seller. Basically the CD comes up as empty when I try to play it. Have tried both computer and CD-player. Have also tried to alter the region code on my computer but without success.

Purchased because of the CD but no CD included.

Love Love Love! This is a brilliant book if you are a beginner and want to play something nice. The CD is great - has a performance track and a backing track for every piece. The pieces are nice and easy to learn, and encourage bowing technique to make them sound nice.