8 New Viola Books Reshaping Music in 2025

Unlike many viola collections that aim for complexity, B. C. Dockery's "20 Greatest Hymns for Solo Viola" focuses on accessibility without sacrificing musicality. These arrangements cover beloved hymns like "Amazing Grace" and "Holy, Holy, Holy," crafted for early intermediate players who want to build confidence and for advanced musicians interested in sight-reading. In just 25 pages, the book provides repertoire suitable for various occasions—recitals, lessons, or worship services. You’ll find that the straightforward notation and familiar melodies make it easier to engage with the viola’s expressive qualities, making it a practical addition especially if you want meaningful solo pieces with spiritual depth.

What happens when a skilled arranger focuses on classic hymns for viola? B. C. Dockery’s book gathers twenty timeless hymns, arranged for viola solo with piano accompaniment, targeting early intermediate to more advanced players. You’ll find pieces like "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art" adapted to suit recital settings, lessons, or worship services, complete with scores and individual parts to facilitate performance. This collection gives you accessible material to build sight-reading skills and expressive playing, especially if you want repertoire that fits both educational and formal contexts. If you seek hymns arranged thoughtfully for viola, this book guides your practice and performance without overwhelming complexity.

This tailored book explores the latest advancements and performance techniques in viola playing for 2025, designed specifically to match your experience and interests. It closely examines emerging trends and discoveries in viola pedagogy and musicianship, helping you navigate cutting-edge developments with clarity and depth. By focusing on your unique goals and background, this personalized guide reveals innovative approaches to technique, repertoire, and expressive possibilities, ensuring your practice and performance remain fresh and forward-thinking. Whether you seek to master contemporary methods or explore new stylistic frontiers, this book offers a customized learning journey that keeps you at the forefront of viola artistry.

Drawing from a deep understanding of string arrangements, B. C. Dockery crafted this collection to bridge the gap between beginner and advanced viola players. You’ll find twenty well-known hymns thoughtfully arranged for two violas, making them accessible for early intermediate students while still engaging enough for seasoned players to sight-read. The book offers practical repertoire suitable for various settings like recitals, lessons, and worship services, including classics such as "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art." If you’re looking to enrich your duet playing with familiar, melodic pieces that emphasize harmony and timing, this collection provides a straightforward yet rewarding path.

What started as a quest to create an engaging early music curriculum led Crystal Boyack to develop "Wee Viola: World Music Preparatory to Twinkle," a fresh approach tailored for young children learning viola. This book takes you through a carefully sequenced journey of global folk melodies, each linked to foundational viola techniques that prepare young players for more advanced repertoire. For example, it pairs the stone passing song of Ghana with essential bowing skills, allowing children to develop aural learning through listening to nearly 100 digital recordings. If you’re teaching or guiding beginners under eight, this curriculum offers a culturally rich, visually supported, and technically sound pathway to mastering "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in just one session.

After compiling this collection, B. C. Dockery offers a thoughtfully curated set of twenty classical themes arranged specifically for viola solo with piano accompaniment. You’ll gain access to beloved pieces from composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, tailored to suit early to late intermediate players, making it ideal for both learning and performance. Chapters include iconic works such as "Canon in D" and "Fur Elise," providing practical exposure to a range of styles and technical demands. If you’re aiming to expand your viola repertoire with accessible yet musically rich selections, this book serves that purpose well, though it’s less suited for advanced soloists seeking new compositions.

This tailored viola guide explores step-by-step skill development aligned with your unique goals and experience. It covers fundamental techniques, advanced bowing, intonation refinement, and expressive playing, all curated to fit your current level and aspirations. The book reveals emerging 2025 discoveries in viola pedagogy and performance, ensuring you stay updated with the latest insights while focusing on what matters most to you. By offering a personalized path, it matches your background and targets your specific musical ambitions, making learning efficient and engaging. Whether advancing ensemble skills or preparing solo repertoire, this tailored approach supports meaningful progress through relevant, focused content.

After analyzing a broad range of classical compositions, B. C. Dockery assembled twenty well-known themes arranged specifically for viola duets. The collection spans works by composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, offering pieces suitable from early to late intermediate skill levels. You gain access to both scores and individual parts, making it practical for lessons, recitals, or performances. It’s ideal if you’re looking to deepen your duet repertoire or explore classical themes arranged to balance challenge and accessibility without overwhelming complexity.

What makes this workbook stand out is its focus on building solid note reading skills specifically for beginners in violin, a foundation that transfers well to viola players too. The authors, Lido Publishing and Jane Dominguez, designed it to break down complex music theory into manageable exercises, including timed tests and fingerboard visualization that connect reading directly to playing. You’ll find over 100 exercises that gradually increase in difficulty, covering key signatures, rhythm, and bowing techniques to develop confidence and fluency. If you’re starting your journey or aiming to sharpen your basics, this workbook offers a structured path without overwhelming you.

During years of teaching beginner violinists, the authors developed this collection to tackle a common holiday challenge: finding accessible Christmas music for those new to the instrument. You learn to play 20 festive carols in first position, using both letter/tab notation and traditional music scores, which eases the learning curve by showing finger placement alongside pitch. The book’s progression from simple finger guidance toward standard notation helps you build sight-reading skills while enjoying familiar tunes like Jingle Bells and Silent Night. If you’re a novice or teaching kids who want to join in holiday music-making without wrestling with complex sheet music, this book fits that need neatly.