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Dear all I am a beginner and learning to play violin on my own because there is no teacher in my town. after an extensive research, I came to know about suzuki books. I have completed book 1 after religiously devoting myself, for it first I learned music theory and after 3 months the content in the book started to make some sense.i was wondering would it be good to start book 2 and go on, or else I need to do something else. It would be very kind of you all to suggest me a roadmap like do this first and do this next so that I wont miss any thing. I really love this instrument and ready to do whatever it take to master it. Waiting in anticipation.
regards to all
Dev
Hi, Dev! Can't say anything about those books, i'm not familiar with them.
But Welcome to the forum! =)
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Welcome to the forum Dev.
Lot's of people in your shoes here that can give you tips on learning to play on your own. We'll do everything we can to help. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Hi, Dev and welcome to the Fiddlerman forum.
I am the type of person who tries to put things in perspective. Since you are going to be a self taught violinist, you need to do what is comfortable for you.
Think of climbing stairs, you take one step at a time. If you can make the first step successfully without teetering, by all means move on to the next step, but only if you are happy / satisfied with your progression.
As far as Suzuki books go, I'm not familiar with them either although I've heard good praise about the system, as Mad_Wed said, they have been around for decade's. In my opinion for a publishing to be around that long and as many student's who use it it must work.
Move on, ONLY when you think you are ready.
Ken.
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welcome to the fourm!!!
I'm very new to the violin so i don't know how much help i'll be. I've never used or seen the suzuki method books, but i've heard great things about them. I am currently working my way through the essential elements 2000 and i find it to be pretty good. In my opinion i think if you feel ready to move on to book 2 of suzuki go for it but also don't be afraid to look at other books either. i think each book focuses on a differnt part of learning or at least a bit of a differnt style. I just bought the o'connor method book as well, and while i feel its a bit outside my ability to really dig into it yet, it hits on things the essential elements doesn't. I always love tryiing new books though.There are tons of books out there. I've heard great things about the melbay books to that are sold on the fiddlerman shop. In the end do what feels right to you 
Lead me, Follow me, or get out of my way!
~General George S. Patton
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Hi Dev,
Welcome to the forum. Here is a website that teaches suzuki method. http://www.violinlab.com . Beth teaches suzuki method, it a monthly subscription website, so far from the beginner video that I checkout, it very throughout. You can definitely give it a try. Over here at fiddlerman, it not too bad either. You can see clearly the different styles, but bother teachers are great in explaining the concepts and method.
If money is an issue, you pose yourself playing the violin on a video and sent it over to them, if your lucky someone might sponsor you for the monthly subscription. Their forum is very active, sad to say you need to be a member in order to participate. Lucky fiddlerman here is free 
In so far as I know off, after months of research, the suzuki method says is the best way to learn violin for both young and adult, not sure how much truth it is told, but never found a website saying that method sucks either.
So give it a go, and never gives up.
Stay Awesome Gotham
Honorary advisor
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It's funny, my grandson and I were have a lesson the other day. I had about 5 method books on my music stand. He announced his amazement to the number of books I have, only referring to the 5 he saw. I immediately turned him around and showed him the 10-inch stack I have on my bookshelf. He, then, was truly amazed along with myself.
Duane
"Violin is one of the joys of my life."
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I cannot thank enough who devoted their precious time to answer my query.now i will start suzuki book 2 and one day i will post video here so that i could get some valuable feedback from you all.
Regards to all
Dev
Honorary advisor
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Hi Dev! Welcome to the forum. Picklefish(Robert) can throw some light on Suzuki method. Be patient in your learning. Practice regularly. Check the tuning before starting to play/exercise. Have a nice bow-hold. Post your videos in critique's corner of the forum. Enjoy your playing. Keep us posted of your development.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it ..(William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night)
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Hi Dev,
I'm a little late but I wanted to add the book that helped me a lot. I bought the Belwin Course for Strings Violin Book I and it got me through. I started with a Suzuki book, but it didn't have enough instruction to me, lots of music that I felt like I had to stumble through on my own. I had A Tune a Day and Essential Elements for Strings - same deal. But the Belwin book helped me out because it seemed to organize everything in steps. On the introduction page it tells you that each skill builds on the previous one and it is all outlined under technical progression ( I think that's what it's called, I don't have the book in front of me at the moment). Anyway, because of this I felt like I was on track. There is a book two and three and others in the series. I can post the list of topics in the second if you like so you can see if sets a 'roadmap'. I know it helped me a lot. Keep practicing and don't give up
"One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."
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It would be of immense help sir "ncwclark" if you could post the list of topics.
Regards
Dev
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Hi Dev,
I'm sorry it took so long and the 'n' stands for Nicole, I'm a girl
Here are the table of contents for the books I mentioned:
BELWIN COURSE FOR STRINGS: STRING BUILDER VIOLIN BOOK I
Technical Progression:
Picture of the Violin and the Bow (parts of violin section)
the two middle strings - quarter notes
the two outer strings
the open stings with half notes
whole notes
more melodies with open strings
a new tone - the first finger on the D string
more melodies with the first finger on the D string
a new tone - the first finger on the A string
a higher tone - the second finger on the D string
a higher tone on the A string - the second finger
more melodies with the first and second fingers
the third finger on the D string
the third finger on the A string
beautiful melodies with the first, second and third fingers
playing two notes in the same bow stroke
a new low tone - the first finger on the G string
the second and third fingers on the G string
the second finger - when it is not sharped
playing three notes in the same bow stroke
a new high tone - the first finger on the E string
the second and third fingers on the E string
the first finger on the E- when it is not sharped
playing beautiful melodies with dynamics
strengthening the fourth finger - left hand pizzicato
we are now ready to use the fourth finger
melodies using all the fingers
building a major scale
eighth notes
eighth notes combined with quarter notes
lively melodies with eighth notes
violinmasterclass.com list Suzuki book 1 & 2 as a level one under 'graded repertoire' and on the shar.com music site it lists the string builder book 1 and suzuki book 1 as having a difficulty level of one so to me it seems that they should be about equivalent. Book two and three of string builder both have a difficulty of two so I figure that by the time I make it through book 3, I should be out of beginner level according to the violinmasterclass.com chart. It's not etched in stone but I like to see how it all compares.
The way I use the books are like this: there is an accompanying etude book for each one (though the one for the first book is near impossible to find as it is out of print) so I study one page a week from the method book and let that be my 'lesson' for the week. Then during the remainder of the week I work on the correlating pages of exercises in the etude book. If I feel like I have a good grasp then I move to the next page. Another good book to have is Essential Dictionary of Music Notation. It's small enough to fit in your violin case and you can look up terms and symbols that are not familiar. If there is a concept I don't get, I'll look it up on youtube and watch two to three videos about it and practice whatever is in the consensus. And of course there is always the great people here at Fiddlerman. This is where I get my support when I get discouraged. I don't post often, but I am always reading and learning and watching the videos.
Whew! That was a lot. I'll post the table of contents to book two in a separate post
"One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."
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Hi Dev,
Here is book two.
BELWIN COURSE FOR STRINGS: STRING BUILDER VIOLIN BOOK II
Technical Progression:
the C major scale - the detache bowing above the middle of the bow
more melodies in C major
we build a major scale on the note G
more melodies in G major - the detache below the middle of the bow
we lower a tone - a major scale starting on F
more melodies in F major - the whole bow detache
preparing for a new rhythm - the dotted quarter note
melodies with the dotted quarter and eighth note in one bow
more melodies with dotted quarters and eighths
melodies combining the detache below and above the middle of the bow
we build a major scale on the note D
more melodies in D major
how to go from one string to another very soothely
more melodies that we have heard
the left hand - melodies to develop strong fingers
we build a major scale on the note B flat
more melodies in the keys we have studied
a new tone - we sharp the third finger
more melodies with the third finger raised
we accent certain notes to make our music spirited
the martele bowing
more melodies using the martele bowing
playing on two strings at the same time - learning to tune the violin
two martele notes in one bow
the grand martele - the whole bow
a new rhythm - six-eight time
more melodies in six-eight time
beautiful melodies in the keys we have studied
the third position - finding the first and second finger
finding the third finger in the third position
finding the fourth finger in the third position
hope this helps. If you want the contents for book three let me know.
Nicole
"One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."
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