Lauri Hämäläinen is a teacher of violin, viola, and orchestral music at the Northwest Music Institute of Helsinki, Finland. He is playing viola in various orchestras and chamber music ensembles, duos and string quartets.
The first versions of the violin books and viola books started in 2016. The repertoire in the violin books had to be as motivating for the students as possible. Exercises in violin technique, short pieces, easy chamber music and concertinos got their place in the same music book. In 2018 ergonomic exercises was included in the Swedish versions of the books (1A and 1B).
All of the music in Violin Friends can be practiced with the help of the Violin Friends mp3 backing tracks , simplified piano parts and play-along videos on Youtube. Violin Friends is a family of music books. The purpose is to share musical moments with friends. Students will get new friends with whom to play chamber music and musical friends (characters) from the music books.
The family of Violin Friends music books gives string teachers an easy way to teach their students in a colorful, chamber music orientated way. The music books combine classical repertoire and technical exercises in a pedagogical way.
The idea behind the violin books and the viola books is to give students the chance to practice and perform music together with their friends right from the start of their instrumental studies. in order to achieve this there are a lot of duos and trios in both the Violin Friends violin books and the Viola Friends viola books.
Eight Trios for Violin (also available for viola trio, cello trio and string trio) by L. Hämäläinen are short pedagogical miniatures with clear musical ideas that can be used to teach new technical skills. To study and perform music together with fiends helps the teachers to build up the motivation of their students too.
The music book Viola Friends 2 presents viola students also the "first concertinos" that have originally been written for violin and piano. At the end of Viola Friends 2 you will find concertos and concertinos by O. Rieding, F. Küchler and F. Seitz arranged for viola and piano.
The author Lauri Hämäläinen is an active member in the Finnish String Teachers Association (SJO), The Finnish Viola Society (SAS) and The European string Teachers Union (ESTA).
