Down Bow, Up Bow, Slurs, or Separate? Choosing Good Violin Bowings

How do you know when to use a down bow or an up bow? What’s the difference between down bows and up bows? How do you add in bowings when none are written? How do you change bowings when they are written? Are there any rules for choosing good violin bowings?

These are all very common questions about violin bowing that don't get enough attention. Let’s dive into the world of violin bowings!

Down Bows or Up Bows: How to Choose the Correct Bowing Direction

First let’s talk about up bows and down bows. Down bows are when the bow moves from the frog towards the tip. Up bows are when they bow moves from the tip towards the frog. Down bows and up bows are notated by two different symbols.

In general (and this is very general), use down bows for strong beats or down beats and up bows for off beats or weak beats. If you have a single pickup note, it’s usually an up bow. Some passages might feel awkward starting on a down bow, or they might feel awkward starting on an up bow, sometimes it doesn't really matter.

To understand if you should use a down bow or an up bow, try experimenting with both and see what makes sense. You can also try starting in different parts of the bow. This can greatly affect how comfortable and natural the bowing feels.

Down Bows vs. Up Bows: General Rules for Violin Bowings

Most “rules” in music can be broken! But here are some general rules for choosing between down bows and up bows on the violin.

Use down bows for:

• Strong beats or down beats

• Forte or loud sections

• Accents

• When you need to travel to the upper half of the bow

• Decrescendos

• Long, slow bows (especially when they have a decrescendo at the end)

• The last note of a phrase or song (especially when the last note ends with a decrescendo)

Use up bows for

• Weak beats or pick up notes

• Piano or softer sections

• When you need to travel to the frog

• When approaching a note that needs to be played “off” the string

• Crescendos

• The last note of a song when you want to end with a flourish, a crescendo, or come off the string.

Slurs and Separate Notes

A slur is when we connect multiple notes into one bow. This bowing is notated by a curved line connecting all of the notes in the slur.

Separate notes, or notes that are not connected by slurs are notated different ways. Most often, notes that are separate don’t have any indication other than the absence of a slur. Sometimes separate notes have individual down bows and up bows over each note. Other times you will notice dots or dashes over the notes to indicate articulation and to show that each note is distinct or separate and not slurred together. Playing each note on a different bow is sometimes often referred to as a detaché bow stroke.

How to Choose Good Violin Bowings

Choosing good violin bowings depends on several factors. I would break down my bowing strategy into five groups: ability/ease of playing, sound, tempo, style, and necessity. Let’s talk about each violin bowing strategy!

Ability: How the Level of Your Playing Affects What Bowings You Choose

Sometimes I’ll see a printed bowing and think, “there's no way I can play that bowing!” Or at least, I’m not ready to do it yet!

So I change the bowing to make it easier for my playing ability. For instance, if I’m learning a piece and the printed bowing wants me to slur eight notes in one bow, I might split that up until the tempo is faster and I’m ready to tackle all of those notes in one bow. If I’m dealing with big string crossings, I usually avoid a slur because it’s harder to make it sound good. It’s fine to change bowings to make it easier on yourself. Although you also want to challenge yourself to be able to play more difficult bowing combinations sometimes as well!

Slurring two notes will be easier than slurring four notes at slower tempos.

Easier

Harder

Sounds: Choosing Violin Bowings Based on the Sound You Want to Portray

This is where slurred bows or separate bows come in to play. If I want a smoother sound, I’ll slur the notes together. How much do I slur? Do I slur two notes, three notes, four notes? It depends on the tempo and how much bow I want to use, and what I can comfortably fit into one bow. Separate bowings have their place too and often add to a variety in sound. If EVERYTHING is slurred together in various combinations of slurs, playing detaché or using separate bows can make something stand out (in a good way or a bad way!) It depends on the sound you’re aiming for.

Tempo: Speed Affects What Violin Bowings You Should Use

This is a big one that I don’t think we think about enough. Tempo plays a big factor when determine what bowing you should choose.

The slower something is, the harder the slurs and long bows will be to play on the violin. It’s much easier to slur eight sixteenth notes in a fast tempo than eight quarter notes in a slow tempo. This is also one reason why the bowings might change from your initial “learning” tempo, to your actual performance-ready tempo.

Style and Musicality: Choosing Violin Bowings for Different Musical Styles

When it comes to musicality, more advanced bow strokes come in to play like hooked bowings, louré bowings, “off” the string strokes like spiccato and staccato, or even bow lifts. As you get a feel for different styles of playing (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Fiddle) you’ll get an idea for what bow strokes would work best in certain areas. When it comes to musicality, if you have an important, long, accented note you would probably want to start it on a down bow at the frog. If you want to start something very softly, you would start at the tip on an up bow.

Necessity: Choosing Violin Bowings Often Depends on What Needs to Happen

A lot of decisions fall into this category. You might change a bowing somewhere just to make a bowing further down the line work out. Sometimes certain bow strokes or bowings are used for musicality, but sometimes they’re more for bow planning. For instance, if there was a certain note you really wanted to start at the frog, you might slur the previous notes into one long up bow to get you where you need to be. Use the bow as a tool to help you!

When You Can’t Change the Bowings

As a violin teacher, I always encourage my students to make their own decisions when it comes to choosing bowings. If there is a bowing you don’t like, as long as you are consciously changing it and have a good reason, that’s fine with me!

However, there are certain times when changing a bowing to fit your own needs is a no-no. And that’s orchestra time! Everyone needs to bow in the same direction in orchestra. So if you’re part of an orchestra, coming up with your own violin bowings probably isn’t the best idea unless you are the concertmaster or principal second! However, if you do have suggestions for bowings, ask your section leader or conductor.

The Takeaway When it Comes to Choosing Violin Bowings

So as you can see, when it comes to deciding on violin bowings the main thing to remember is…it depends. Choosing good violin bowings depends on your ability, the tempo, style characteristics, and your own personal decisions of musicality and phrasing. Most of all, deciding what bowing to choose comes down to trial and error. And this is where experimenting comes in handy. And you know what I think about experimenting!

Happy Practicing!

P.S. The bow is your most useful tool for creating musicality, expression, and phrasing. Do you want to learn more about how to control the bow, relax while playing, and develop a better sound? The Secret to Better Bow Control is just one of the courses you get access to when you become a Meadowlarker and sign up for my online studio! Learn more here.

Master the Basics: Easy Violin Scales and Arpeggios for Beginners

Hello, fellow violin enthusiasts! I'm Lora from Meadowlark Violin, and today I'm excited to share with you the secrets of mastering three super easy scales and arpeggios tailored for beginners. Scales are the backbone of every violinist's practice routine, serving as the essential building blocks for honing your technique. Whether you've just started playing or have a few weeks or months of playing under your belt, these scales and arpeggios will set you on the right track.

I’ll be teaching you all of these scales by ear, no sheet music required! Learning scales and songs by ear is great for intonation, even if you already read music.

The Magic of Finger Patterns

What makes these scales super easy, you ask? Well, they all share the same finger pattern. That means learning one pattern opens the door to playing three different scales. Understanding finger patterns can simplify the learning process, and repetitive finger patterns don’t just stop with easy scales. As you progress on the violin, you’ll notice advanced scales spanning several octaves can share the exact same finger pattern as another scale in a completely different key. (Learn more about universal scales and violin finger patterns here.)

Dive into D Major

Let's kick off our exploration with the D major scale. With two sharps (F# and C#), we delve into the world of half step pairs. Half steps occur where two fingers are touching on the violin.(Learn more about half step pairs and how scales work here.) F# and G, and C# and D, form our two half step pairs for D major. As we start on the open D string, I'll guide you through the notes, creating a musical journey akin to the first two notes of "Happy Birthday."

On the D string, play the open D string followed by the first finger, second, and third finger. All of the notes will be a whole step apart except for the second and third fingers. These notes are F# and G and that’s one of our half step pairs, so those fingers will be touching. Repeat that exact pattern on the A string for a complete D major scale.

Transition to A Major

Next on our musical adventure is the A major scale. With three sharps (F#, C#, and G#), we adjust our half step pairs. Our new half step pairs are between G# and A, and C# and D. The finger pattern remains consistent, allowing a smooth transition from D major. Simply play the exact same finger pattern, but on the A and E strings. Tada! An A major scale.

Venture into G Major

Our final destination is the G major scale. Utilizing the same finger pattern, we seamlessly navigate between the G and D strings. The magic lies in the continuity of patterns – one pattern, three scales. The consistent approach makes G major as accessible as the previous ones, empowering you to expand your repertoire. Can you determine what the half step pairs are for G major based on the finger patterns? The half step pairs are B and C and F# and G.

Arpeggios Unveiled

Now that we've mastered the scales, it's time to delve into arpeggios – a sequence of individual notes forming a chord. Let’s start with the D major arpeggio, which consists of the notes D F# and A. On the D string, play the open D followed by the second finger. Then move over to the A string. Play the open A followed by the third finger. That’s a basic arpeggio pattern! The same pattern is applied to A major and G major arpeggios, simply start on the A string for an A arpeggio and start on the G string for a G arpeggio.

Conclusion: Embrace the Patterns

In conclusion, mastering the basics of violin scales and arpeggios is akin to unlocking a musical treasure chest. By discerning and embracing these patterns, you pave the way for easier and more enjoyable learning experiences. Remember, the violin might seem intricate, but patterns are your allies.

Trills, Turns, Mordents, Slides, and Grace Notes (Common Violin Ornaments Explained)

If you’ve ever seen a sideways “S” in music or maybe some squigglies above a note, you’ve run into some violin ornaments or embellishments. Not to worry! These crazy looking symbols aren’t that hard to understand. I’ve identified the 5 most common violin ornaments you will see in classical violin music and fiddle music. Get ready to finally understand trills, turns, mordents, slides and grace notes in violin music!

Want to Download and Print This Ornaments for Violin Chart?

Just click here to print out this free chart!

How to Play a Trill on the Violin

Trills in violin music are notated with a “tr” over the note. To play a trill on the violin, simply hold down the main note that is printed and rapidly tap the next higher note. So if you have a trill over an F#, 2nd finger on the D string, you would rapidly tap the 3rd finger G while holding the F# down. This will make the trill sound like a bird trilling or a flutter. You can start slow and gradually speed up tapping the next higher note.

What is a Sideways S in Violin Music? A Turn!

You will often see some funny-looking sideways S’s in violin music. That’s a turn. How do you play a turn on the violin? It’s not as difficult as it seems.

If the turn is over an F, you would start on the note above the printed note, then play the actual printed noted, then go one step below the printed note, then back up to the printed note. Once you practice turns on the violin a few times, you will get the feel for what they sound like.

But sometimes the S is reversed, or sometimes the sideways S has a slash through it. That’s an inverted turn.

It goes the opposite direction of the normal turn. Start one note below the printed note, go up to the printed note, keep going one more note above the printed note, then back down to the printed note.

Remember, whether it’s a regular turn or an inverted turn, you always end on the printed note. What changes is what note you start on.

How Do I Play a Mordent in Violin Music?

First of all, what is a mordent!? Well it looks like a squiggle above a note. Like this.

See how it kinda of looks like an “m.” Use that to help you remember “mordent".” You can think of a mordent in violin music like a min-trill. To play a mordent on the violin, all you do is quickly play the next higher note once and then return to the original printed note.

You also have inverted mordents. That’s the squiggle with a line through it like this.

To play an inverted mordent, you’ll just start on the printed note, go down one note and then back up to the printed note. Simple as that!

How to Play a Slide in Fiddle Music?

Slides are very common in fiddle music. A slide is notated by an angled line leading up to a note. Like this.

To play a slide on the violin, just place the finger about a half step below where you would normally place the finger then slide up into the printed note. Think of it like you accidentally played an out of tune note and you’re quickly sliding into the correct note and that’s a slide!

How to Play Grace Notes on the Violin

The last type of violin ornament we’ll talk about is a grace note. Graces notes can be single or multiple. Grace notes are the little notes before or after a normal, printed note. They can be played on the beat or before the beat.

Different Types of Grace Notes: Acciacatura and Appoggiatura

If the grace note has a slash through it, it’s technically called an acciacatura. Acciacatura means “crushed.” The acciaccatura or slashed grace note is played before the beat.

If the grace note doesn’t have a slash, it’s an appoggiatura. Appoggiaturas are played on the beat and essentially steal time from the main printed note. Appoggiaturas often have a sense of leaning on the grace note and resolving to the main printed note.

Those are the 5 most common ornaments and embellishments you’ll see in violin and fiddle music!

Do you want more music theory for the violin?

Check out my course on music theory for the violin. It’s over 6 and a half hours of helpful information on music theory! Everything you ever needed to know!

Happy Practicing!

Easy Violin Harmonics Explained!

Harmonics on the violin often seem over-complicated and confusing, but harmonics on the violin are actually some of the easiest notes to play on the violin! Not only are they easy to play, they’re easy to recognize in music. After you go through this easy guide to violin harmonics I think you will find these special notes on the violin not only easy, but fun to play!

Here’s some common questions about violin harmonics that we’ll cover in this easy guide to harmonics. (Skip ahead if you like).

What are violin harmonics?

How to play violin harmonics?

What are the different types of harmonics?

What’s the difference between natural and artificial harmonics on the violin?

How are harmonics notated?

What are the most common harmonics on the violin?

How are artificial harmonics notated?

What’s the most confusing way to notate harmonics that I’ll probably never see in violin music? (I’m glad you asked. I’ve got an answer for you)

What Are Violin Harmonics?

The definition of a harmonic is: a wave whose frequency is multiple of the frequency of the same reference wave.

Got it? Okay, good. Moving on.

Just kidding. You don’t need to know anything about waves, overtones, nodes, frequencies, etc to understand violin harmonics.

What is my definition of a harmonic? A note that is played by lightly touching the finger to a particular place on the violin string, which produces a whistling sound.

When you are playing a harmonic, you are touching the string so lightly that you are actually allowing both parts of the string to vibrate (the parts of the string to the left and right of your finger). Think about it. When you put a finger down on the violin fingerboard normally, you’re allowing the string in between the finger and the bridge to vibrate, but the part of the string in between your finger and the nut of the violin doesn’t vibrate.

Allowing both sides of the string to vibrate is one of the things that gives a harmonic its characteristic whistling sound.

How to Play Harmonics on the Violin

Look at your string from the nut (the grooved part at the bottom of the peg box where the strings are touching) to the bridge. Do you see that distance between the nut and the bridge? On a full size violin that’s about 13 inches. You can either measure or just eyeball it, but lightly touch your finger to the string at the mid-point of the string. I do this with my fourth finger but you can do it with any finger. Move your finger around until the harmonic speaks.

Tada! You’ve found the most common harmonic on the violin. The harmonic will occur on the same place on every single string.

What you are playing is a natural harmonic on the violin. It occurs when you divide the string in half. That ration of 2:1 is the simplest ratio you can get, so the harmonic produced there is going to be really easy to play.

There are other natural harmonics on the violin. For instance, if you divide your string length into thirds, you’ll find there’s a natural harmonic right where your 3rd finger would go in first position. (Ever wonder why that finger is a “ring tone” on your violin that really rings when it’s in tune? Now you know).

There’s also a natural harmonic where the fourth finger goes in first position. Just try lightly touching the string and scoot your finger all the way up the fingerboard. You’ll hear lots of natural harmonics. The ones that sound clearly are more simpler ratios. The harmonics that don’t speak so easily are more complicated ratios like 7:1.

What Are the Different Types of Harmonics on the Violin

There’s only two types of harmonics on the violin: natural harmonics (what you just played) and artificial harmonics.

What's the Difference Between Natural and Artificial Harmonics?

Natural harmonics occur when you lightly place your finger on the string. On a full size violin the length of the string from the nut to the bridge is about 13 inches. So you’ll find natural harmonics at certain places, like 6.5 inches up from the nut (the exact middle of the string) Or 4.3 inches up from the nut (the string divided into thirds).

Well those same ratios exist even when playing on a different length of string.

Let’s say we put our first finger down firmly on the first finger in first position. Guess what?! You’ve changed the string length! You’re no longer dealing with a 13 inch string. You’re dealing with something more like a 12 inch string. That means those harmonics that occur when you divide the string in 2 or divide by 3 are going to occur at different places.

So if you keep your first finger down and lightly touch the 4th finger with your pinky, you’re essentially dividing that string into thirds. That’s an artificial harmonic!

An artificial harmonic occurs on the violin when you create an artificial “nut” by placing the first finger firmly down on the string and then placing another finger lightly on the same string to divide the string into thirds and play a harmonic.

How Are Harmonics Notated on the Violin?

There are four ways to notate natural harmonics on the violin. The first two are the most common, but you’ll occasionally see the second two.

The most common natural harmonics are usually notated with a 4 and a 0 or circle. You’ll find this notation for that common natural harmonic that occurs right in the middle of the string.

For the other natural harmonics, it’s common to see the note head in an open diamond shape. Sometimes you will also get a number like 3 and a 0 to indicate that note is a harmonic.

Sometimes you will see an open string below a diamond shaped note. The lower string is telling you what string to play this harmonic on. In the example below, you would lightly place your 3rd finger on the “G” note on the D string.

What Are the Most Common Harmonics on the Violin?

These are the most common natural harmonics on the violin. You can play them with third finger in first position, 4th finger in 1st position, or 4th finger in 4th position.

How Are Artificial Harmonics Notated?

Artificial harmonics often look like a double stop (two notes at once). But the bottom note will look like a normal note and the note on top will be diamond shaped. This is telling you to firmly place the bottom note wherever you would normally place it if it were just by itself. Now lightly place your pinky on whatever note the diamond shaped note is indicating (always on the same string).

Sometimes artificial harmonics look like this.

That’s really all you need to know to be able to identify harmonics in music. Sometimes you’ll see the word harm. to indicate the notes are harmonics. Sometimes you’ll see the word flag. which is short for flageolet, another word for harmonics. But that is somewhat rare.

What's the Most Confusing Way to Write Harmonics?

Wait, you mean you’re not confused? You’re disappointed because you thought harmonics would be sooo much more complicated? Alright, alright. Let me try and confuse you with this form of harmonic notation that you’ll rarely see in most violin music.

So what in the world is this trying to tell us? Are these artificial harmonics or natural harmonics? They’re natural harmonics trying to masquerade as some unnatural aberration.

Sorry natural harmonics, you’re just not that confusing.

Okay, stay with me here. The bottom note tells you what open string to play the harmonic on. The diamond shaped note tells you where to lightly place your finger. And the note in parentheses tells you what pitch is actually sounding.

The diamond note is the only important note in my opinion. The other two notes are completely unnecessary. The bottom note is not needed because where else would you play those diamond shaped notes? How about that first one? Do you want to try and play that G on the E string? Hmmm….probably not a good idea. Why don’t you just play it where you would always play that note! On the D string!

What about the second example? Where else are you going to play that low B? Well there’s only one string you can play that harmonic on, the G string, so your options are kind of limited.

How about those top notes in parentheses? Those are the pitches you are actually producing when you play that natural harmonic. The good news about natural harmonics is that if your finger is in the right place, the harmonic is in tune! No need to get out your tuner to see if that natural harmonic on the D string with 3rd finger is actually indicating that high D.

Composers have already done all the hard work to figure out what pitch they want to sound at that particular place in music. So the parenthetical notes are way more information than you need and often left out of most violin music.

I hope you enjoyed this easy guide to violin harmonics! If you would like more music theory, check out my course on Music Theory that covers pretty much every topic imaginable!

Happy Practicing!

~Lora

Easy Guide to Italian Words in Classical Violin Music

Open up any classical violin music and you might feel like you’ve been transported to Italy. That’s because the classical music tradition has strong roots in Italy and the language became the standard for musical notation. Even if you’re playing German masters Mozart or Beethoven, chances are the majority of musical words will be in Italian!

Now you don’t have to take Italian lessons to be able to understand what the composer is trying to tell you. It may seem like there are a lot of Italian words in classical music, but in this guide to Italian words in classical music, I’ll show you how you can divide these common Italian musical phrases into adfsdasdf categories. These categories are:

1.Italian Musical Words for Dynamics

2. Italian Musical Words for Tempos

3. Italian Musical Words for Changes in Tempos

4. The Most Important (And Common) Italian Musical Words You Need To Know (these are the ones you need to memorize!)

5.Italian Music Words for Musical Expression

I teach you all of these definitions and explain how apply them to the violin in my course on Music Theory. This is a massive course on everything you need to know (or everything you’ve ever wanted to know) about music theory, including a lot of topics I had way to much fun making this course! If you want to learn more about it, click here.

Alright, here’s your easy guide to Italian Words in Classical Violin Music!

Italian Musical Words for Dynamics

Dynamics in classical violin music tell us how loud or softly to play music. But there’s a lot more variation than just loud and soft. Remember these common terms: forte, piano, and mezzo. You can combine these three words to get lots of variation.

What does forte mean in music?

Forte simply means “loud.” For the violin that means using a lot of bow and a lot of bow weight to get a good strong tone. It’s indicated in music just with the letter “f” like this.

What does piano mean in classical music?

Well, piano is an instrument, but in classical music it also means to play something softly. In fact, the early versions of our modern day pianos were called “pianofortes” or “fortepianos” because they could play a range of dynamics, as opposed to the harpsichord which is a little more dynamically challenged. Piano is denoted by, you guessed it, a “p.”

Now we have mezzo, which means medium or moderate. So if you have mezzo piano or “mp” it means moderately quiet, so not quite as quiet as piano.

Adding “ISS” to musical words

Adding the letters ISS in the middle of an Italian musical word simply makes it “very” of whatever it is. So fortissimo means very loud! You can get crazy adding lots of ISS as you’ll see.

1. Dynamic Markings In Music Chart

Enjoy this guide to dynamic markings with this easy to use chart.

2. Italian Musical Words for Tempos

Now let’s move on to the next category of words in classical music. These are some common words you will see to indicate tempo in music. These tempo markings in music correspond to certain ranges on the metronome. So the next time you see “Larghetto” in your classical violin music, use this chart to help you determine what tempo range the composer is talking about.

3. Italian Musical Words for Changes in Tempo

Musical tempos don’t always stay the same for an entire piece of classical music. Sometimes things change! You’ll often see these common Italian words to indicate speeding up or slowing down.

4. The Most Important (And Most Common) Italian Musical Words You Need to Know

You don’t have to memorize all the other Italian musical words, but these you do! These common Italian phrases will be repeated over and over again in various combinations in classical violin music. Once you have these basic Italian musical phrases memorized, you’ll be able to decipher a great majority of classical music jargon.

These words can often be combined with each other. For instance, meno mosso means “less motion” or less fast. Or you can see these words combined with tempo words. For instance you might see Andante Con Moto at the beginning of a piece. This means andante (at a walking pace) but with motion. So I translate that as: a little faster than typical Andante. Ma Non Troppo is another common combination. It means: but not too fast. You’ll often see Allegro ma non troppo to indicate the composer wants the piece fast, but not too fast.

You’ll see how these Italian words add flavor and a very specific feel to classical music composition. It allows the composers to be very specific about what they are telling you.

5. Italian Terms for Musical Expression

The last category in our easy guide to Italian musical words is perhaps the most enjoyable. Terms for musical expression! This is not a complete list, but these are some common terms you will see in violin classical music to denote a specific expression, mood, or atmosphere.

Hopefully this easy guide to Italian musical terms will help you play your violin music with more style and color!

What is Third Position on the Violin (And Why is it Hard!?)

What is third position on the violin? What do we gain by learning a new position? Why do we learn third position after first position? What are the notes in third position? And most importantly, why is learning third position so hard?

These may be some of your questions as you’re getting ready to learn third position on the violin. I remember learning third position turned my world upside down and I’ve heard similar stories from other professional violinists. For a longtime I watched my own private students struggle with learning third position. Then I finally realized the problem wasn’t with third position, but with the way we teach it!

Traditionally, we teachers plop a third position book up on the music stand and watch our students slog joylessly through reading music in third position. The reason third position is so hard is because students have never been taught to understand and speak the language of the violin.

Let me explain. I took a couple Spanish courses in college. I learned to parrot back a couple phrases. To this day, I sing a little ditty I learned titled, “Me gusta la leche, me gusta cafe.” Now I can say a couple things in Spanish. At one point I might have even convinced a few non-Spanish speakers that I could speak the language. But did I actually known and understand Spanish? NO! All I could do was repeat phrases I had learned. That’s not knowing a language in my opinion. But unfortunately, we violin teachers teach violin in the same way.

We teach you to memorize little things. “Play a high 2nd finger on this string, but not on that string. Just remember when you see this key signature you have to do it that way. Don’t ask why. There’s not enough time to explain.”

So when you get to third position, no wonder it’s so confusing! You’ve never learned the basic rules of the language and when you throw in an advanced concept, your world falls apart.

My method of teaching third position is completely different. I teach you the language of the violin through ear training and music theory so third position makes sense. If you want the real third position experience, check out my course on Mastering Third Position Basics (you’ll get the entire course as part of my Online Membership).

For now, let’s talk through these questions about third position.

What is Third Position on the Violin?

Simply put, if you put your first finger where your second finger normally goes in first position, you’re in Second Position. Now go back to first position. If you put your first finger where your third finger goes, now you’re in third position. The first finger in third position on the G string is on the C note, on the D string first finger is G, A string first finger is D, E string first finger is A.

Every time you change to a higher position, you gain one new note that you didn’t have in the lower position. You also lose a note on the lower end as well.

When Should I Learn Third Position?

You should wait to learn third position until you are pretty comfortable in first position. Once you can play all of the notes in first position with pretty good intonation and muscle memory, you’re probably ready to start learning third position. However, I think it’s very important to experiment during your practicing. Experimenting means not knowing what the outcome will be, so you can’t beat yourself up if the outcome wasn’t what you expected. It’s very important to experiment with the violin during your playing. You’ll discover so much about your violin by just “playing around.” So if you want to experiment playing in third position even if you are fairly new to the violin, I say go for it.

How Do I Get Ready for Third Position?

Well, I’ve got 7 tips for making sure your set-up and violin hold is ready for third position. You can watch the video here.

What are the Notes in Third Position on the Violin?

Here are the notes in third position for each string. You’ll notice you gain a high C and D on the E string. These are notes you didn’t have in first position. But you also lost the low A and the low B on the G string.

Why Do We Learn Third Position Before Second Position?

Certain key signatures fit well with certain position. In first position, you probably learned D, A, or G major first. Trickier keys in first position are B Flat, F Major, E Major, etc. These are tricky because they involve “low 1s” or “high 3s,” notes that don’t fit in that normal finger pattern.

Every position has keys that fit will in that position. Third position tends to favor the same key signatures in first position, and therefore, favors keys that are very popular on the violin. Second position however, favors B flat, F major, etc. So when you’re learning your first higher position on the violin, it’s best to learn one that favors keys you are already very comfortable with.

Another reason we teach third position before second position is because third position can feel more comfortable and stabilizing since your palm will be touching the actual body of the violin (with most hand shapes). In second position, your hand just feels like it’s floating out there in outer space. There’s not a lot of physical cues to help you know where you are.

How Do I Play In Third Position?

To get up to third position on the violin, you need to start in first position. It’s very important to prep third position. Play 0-1-2-3 in first position on any string. Make sure your third finger is very in tune (hint: ring tones!)

Now replace your third finger with your first finger. Or move your hand so your first finger is playing the exact same note you were playing in first position. Ta-da! You’re in third position. Yep, it’s that easy. However, it does take a LOT of practicing and muscle memory and ear training to get that transition really smooth and seamless. Don’t worry, I cover these topics in depth in my Third Position Course.

Scales in Third Position

Before you learn scales in third position, it’s very important to learn the universal scale pattern for the violin. Once you learn this pattern, playing scales in third position will be so much easier. Watch the video below to learn about the universal scale pattern. I think you’ll be surprised how easy it can be to play in higher positions when you aren’t worrying about READING music.

If you are ready for more easy scales in third position, learn more here.

Ready to Master Third Position Basics?

Learning third position shouldn’t be a struggle. Let me show you how easy it can be! Click below to learn more.

Scales and Arpeggios for the Violin--Free Sheet Music

For a great violin warm-up, practice scales and arpeggios everyday. Below are the main scales and arpeggios for the violin in first position. I recommend staying in one key for a few days to master the finger pattern. Scales are a great way to incorporate more advanced concepts like complicated bowings, accents, dynamics, and rhythms.

Understanding the building blocks of scales can make playing scales so much easier. If you also want to know why some notes are sharp and some aren’t, read about key signatures and minor scales.

For a typical warm-up, I choose a key and play the scale several times, starting with half notes or whole notes and gradually speeding up the duration of each note (see Daily Warm-Ups for Scales below). Then pick one exercise from Bowing, Rhythms, and Dynamics for Scales below. Use this advanced bowing or rhythm for the entire scale.

If you want more violin scales in your life, check out my FREE scale book, Creative Scales for the Experimental Violinist. It’s great for beginners or intermediate players. It includes the most common major and minor scales as well as pentatonic scales and dozens of scale variations to make scales enjoyable! Plus, I’ve included my handy Key Signature Quick Reference Guide so that never again will you wonder, “is this high 2 or low 2?” Sign up for my newsletter to get a copy of the free scale book.

The typical finger patter that beginners start out on can be found in the D major and G major one octave scales. In both of these scales, the 2nd finger is “high” or right next to 3rd finger. If you are just starting out, start with the D major and G major one octave scales.

C major has “low” 2nd fingers. Which means the 2nd finger is touching the 1st finger (a.k.a half steps).

A major has sharp 3rd fingers on the G and D strings. And E major has sharp 3rd fingers all the way.

Download the free sheet music for Scales and Arpeggios for Violin First Position Sharps.

Flat scales generally involve a lot of low 1st fingers. For F major, all 1st fingers will be low. With B flat, there will be low 2s, low 1s, and low 4s. Watch out you can’t always use your open string in flat scales since the open string might be flat in the key signature.

Download the free sheet music for Scales and Arpeggios for Violin First Position Flats.

There are three different types of minor scales: natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Melodic is more typically played but it’s great practice to play all three types of minor scales. In melodic minor scales, you always raise the 6th and 7th notes (scale degrees) on the way up the scale, and then lower them on the way down.

Download the Free Sheet Music for Melodic Minor Scales and Arpeggios for Violin First Position.

To be able to play scales faster, use this warm-up guide.

Download the Free Sheet Music for Daily Warm-Ups For Violin Scales.

Once you are ready for more of a challenge, add in these bowings to your scales. For this warm-up, I included a little turn at the beginning. Notice how the notes go up to the third scale degree, then go back down to the first note before starting the scale as normal. This is a typical scale pattern that many intermediate and advanced players use.

Download the Free Sheet Music for Bowings, Rhythms, and Dynamics for Violin Scales.

Scales in Harmony

Playing scales as a duet can do wonders for your intonation. I’ve recorded the major scales that a violinists uses with a teacher duet part in harmony. Play the normal scale along with these recordings and try to adjust your pitch to be in harmony with my notes. It’s lots of fun!

To follow along, you can download these free scales sheets for scales in harmony. You will play the notes on these pages. Play along with me using the videos below. Have fun!

Download the sheet music for Scales in Harmony: C major + Sharps

Download the sheet music for Scales in Harmony: Flats

What scales would you like to practice more? Higher positions? More minor scales? Leave a comment below!

Helpful Resources

• Best Fiddle Books

• Best Beginner violin books

• Scale books

• Hymn books

• Top 10 Violins For Beginner and Intermediate Players

Happy Practicing!

Half Steps, Whole Steps, and Why They Are Important for the Violin

Most beginner violinists have a big fear: knowing where to put their fingers. While there are no frets, keys, or markers of any kind on a fingerboard, that doesn’t mean we aren’t using a framework to help us. That framework is built out of…you guessed it, half steps and whole steps.

What is a half step and whole step? First, let’s start with intervals which are measured distances between one note and another note. These distances are measured using half steps and whole steps. A half step is the smallest distance between one note and the next. On the violin, a half step is when your fingers are basically touching each other. A whole step is two half steps.

Half and whole steps are a lot easier to see on the piano. A piano keyboard is made up of white and black keys.

Do you see how there is a repetition of 2 black keys then 3 black keys? This pattern continues all the way up and down the keyboard. A half step is the distance from a white key to the black key that touches it. If you move to the right, the closest black key is a sharp. If you move to the left, the closest black key is a flat. Take the note D. If you move up a half step, you’ve reached D#. If you move down (left) a half step from D, you have D flat. On the violin, moving up towards your bridge makes a note sharp and moving back towards your scroll makes it flat. On the piano, if you go from one black key to its nearest white key, you are also traveling a half step. D# to E is a half step.

If you study the keyboard you’ll notice there are two instances where white keys are touching each other with no black key in between them. These two instances occur between B and C and between E and F. That’s because B and C and E and F are half steps apart from each other respectively. If you go up a half step from B you get C (not B#). Other than these two instances, if you travel from one note to the next note in the musical alphabet you are traveling a whole step. For instance, G to A is a whole step (you can also see how you’ve traveled two half steps: G to G# and G# to A).

It’s very important to remember those two sets of half steps between white keys. It’s going to make a lot of sense once we start talking about scales. For now remember B and C and E and F. I use the mnemonic “Buy Chocolate” and “Eat Fudge” to help my students remember.

So how does this help your violin playing? Two ways. Half steps and whole steps make up your invisible framework on your fingerboard and they also help with intonation. This is where ear training can really come in handy. All intervals can be associated with certain songs to help you identify them. A half step sounds like the beginning of the theme song from Jaws.

Choose any note on the violin and play “Jaws” using one note and a half step above that note. Your fingers should really be touching. Almost all beginners have trouble with their half steps being too far apart. Try playing “Jaws” again but this time scoot your half step finger up a little from the first. It doesn’t quite sound right, does it?

Now let’s talk about how half steps and whole steps make up your invisible frame work. Your half steps and whole steps will change depending on what key you are in. Let’s say you’re playing in the Key of C. There are no sharps or flats in the Key of C so your only half steps will be between B and C and between E and F (remember Buy Chocolate and Eat Fugde?) Here’s what the Key of C looks like on a violin in first position.

You can see the half steps, they’re the notes that are touching each other. You see how there are fewer half steps than whole steps. In fact there is usually only one pair of half steps for each string. Whatever key you are playing in, don’t worry about the whole steps, concentrate on remembering where the half steps are. This is how you build up your framework.

If I’m playing in the Key of C, all I have to remember is where the half steps are for each string. My framework looks something like this.

G string= B and C (2 and 3)
D string= E and F (1 and 2)
A string= B and C (1 and 2)
E string= No half steps (but your F is lower than your other first fingers since it is natural (not sharp or flat)

So when I am playing in the Key of C, I simply remember where my fingers touch on each string. Starting from the G string, I say to myself, 2-3, 1-2, 1-2, low 1. This way you don’t have to think, “Is that second finger high or low?”

As your fingers develop more and more muscle memory, you don’t necessarily have to think about these numbers, your fingers will naturally find where they need to be. But until then, practice thinking in terms of half steps.

Now you try. Let’s say we’re in the Key of G which has one sharp, F# (we’ll talk about why there’s an F# there in the next lesson). Your violin fingerboard is going to look almost the exact same except all of your F’s are going to move up one half step. What is your framework going to look like now? What are the numbers you are going to remember for each string?

Here’s the answer for your half steps in the Key of G:

G string= 2 and 3 (B and C)
D string= 2 and 3 (F# and G)
A string= 1 and 2  (B and C)
E string= 1 and 2 (F# and G)

Try playing through a G scale starting at your open G string and going to your high G on the E string. Play it as fast as you can. You’re not thinking about notes, sharps, “high” 2s or “low” 2s. All you are thinking is 2 and 3, 2 and 3, 1 and 2, 1 and 2. Make those half steps fingers on each string super tight.

Can you play through the scale faster than you could if you were just thinking note to note? Keep working on it, just thinking about the half steps. The more you do it, the quicker it gets!

Try thinking of half steps in all of your scales. If you aren’t practicing scales, you should be! Check out my free scale sheets or order some of my favorite scale books. Scales really are the secret to better playing.

Embrace your half steps! They are the tiny building blocks for your left hand technique. Later we'll discuss  using half steps to help you play notes that span big leaps across the fingerboard, but first let’s talk a little about key signatures and scales.

Happy practicing!

To learn more about music theory and how it applies to the violin, check out my course Music Theory for Violinists: Everything You Need to Know. It’s part of my Online Studio Membership. Learn more here.

Perfect Intervals on the Violin

You might hear the term “interval” a lot in music. Knowing intervals can really help your violin playing since certain intervals always have the same fingerings. If you know how these intervals sound and what finger patterns go with them, you can cut out a lot of heartache and make learning the violin much, much easier. Are you convinced? Okay, let’s dig into music intervals for the violin.

Intervals are the differences between pitches. I like to think of them as the way we measure distances between pitches.

 Let’s look at our C major scale again. 

Don’t worry too much about all those fancy names for notes in a scale. Think about the numbers. What if you skipped the second scale degree (or second note) and went straight from C to E? That would be the interval of a third. To determine the size of the interval, count the note you are starting on then count all the notes in between your two notes including the note you want to stop on. C to E is a third (C=1 D=2 E=3). What is the interval from C to B? A seventh. (CDEFGAB= 7 notes= interval of seventh).

We’ve already talked about half steps and whole steps. C to D is a whole step but it’s also known as a major second—a second equals two notes apart. (C=1 D=2). Major seconds sound happy. But what if you had C# to D? That’s also a second but it’s obviously a smaller interval than C to D. C# to D is a half step. Half steps are the smallest intervals but they are also known as minor seconds. Minor intervals tend to sound sad or angry.

This is the basic way to count intervals but it gets a little more complicated than that. What is the interval between the low C and the high C of our major scale? There are 8 steps. We call that an octave. Octaves are the same notes but the second octave occurs at a higher frequency therefore it sounds at a higher pitch. 

We can play intervals one after the other or we can play them at the same time. On the violin, try playing your open D string while playing the third finger D on the A string. These two Ds are an octave apart. Do you hear how they have a very open sound? We call octaves perfect intervals. If you divided the string perfectly in half, you would get an octave—a perfect interval. It’s neither major nor minor. There are four perfect intervals in a scale: unisons, perfect fourths, perfect fifths, and octaves. What’s a unison? It’s the same pitch played at the same time. 

It’s a little hard to do this on violin but try playing a fourth finger A on your D string while playing your open A string. These two pitches are the same (or should be if they’re in tune!). Now try playing a perfect fourth on your violin. Play your open D string and now jump to 3rd finger G on your D string. Playing an open string and then playing 3rd finger in first positions always results in a perfect fourth.

 These notes are 4 steps apart (D E F G=4). Do you hear how it has a very open sound? It also sounds like the first two notes in the song, “Here Comes the Bride.”

Now try playing a perfect fifth. These are easy because we tune our violin in perfect fifths so all of your strings are perfect fifths apart. Try playing two open strings at the same time. Do you hear that open, clear, perfect quality? If you don’t quite yet, wait until we start talking about dissonances and that perfect quality will sound more obvious.

The great thing about intervals is that we can use them to help our intonation. We can associate the beginnings of certain songs with certain intervals to help us hear the interval. For instance, a perfect fifth is the beginning interval for the Star Wars theme song. Next time you are playing a note and the note following it is a fifth away, you don’t have to guess what the second note sounds like. If you can hum the Star Wars theme, you know what the second pitch will sound like. Knowing what something sounds like before you play it is one of the keys to playing in tune! I love this handy chart for picking out songs to associate with intervals. 

Practice playing these perfect intervals on your violin. Practice singing them. Try to identify them as you are listening to music. 

Next, we’ll discuss those imperfect intervals. 

Major Scales and Key Signatures for the Violin

It would be pretty boring we played all music in the same key. But we can rearrange where the half steps are in a scale and get 12 different major keys. (Do you know how many half steps there are in a scale? That’s right, 12!) A major key can be built off of every half step in a scale.

C   D♭  D   E♭  E   F   F#   G   A♭  A   B♭  B  

You might be wondering why I sharped some notes and made others flat. That’s because you will play something in B♭ a lot more than you will play something in the key of A#. Look at the piano, B♭ and A# are the same note. That means they are enharmonic equivalents: the same note written two different ways.

Major Scales

How do major scales work? Well it all depends on the arrangement of whole and half steps. Start with C major. Can you write half or whole in between each note? Remember “Buy Chocolate” and “Eat Fudge". Half steps are going to be between those two pairs of white keys that touch on the piano keyboard.

This is the order you get. Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half. I sum it up like this: WWHWWWH.

That’s the order of half and whole steps for all major scales which is why major scales sound the same. They have the same relationship between the notes. Try this exercise. Print out some blank sheet music. Notate an E (the first line on the treble staff). Without looking at a scale book and without thinking about your key signature for E, begin writing the scale just by the order of whole and half steps. Now compare your scale to an E major scale in your scale book. If you really  want to give yourself a workout, try doing this for the more complicated scales like A#.

So if you’ve ever wondered why the Key of G major has one sharp—F#, this is why. Start on a G, follow your half step whole step pattern for the major scale and you will end up with F#.

All scales have two sets of half steps. Think of the Key of C as your vanilla scale with your basic BC and EF half steps. Every time you add one sharp, you are changing these two sets of half steps. In the key of G, you haven’t changed anything with B or C so they are still half steps. But E and F are no longer half steps because you had to sharp that F. Now F# and G are half steps.

What’s up with all those sharps and flats? They look like they are completely random but they always occur in a certain order. If you have one sharp, it will always be F#. If you have two sharps they will always be F# and C#. The order goes like this:

F# C# G# D# A# E# B#

Use the mnemonic “Fat Cats Go Down Allies Eating Birds” to help you remember the order.

For flats, the order is the reverse of what it is for sharps.

B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ F♭

Remember “Bead Go Catch Fish” for flats.

You can number each note in your scale. We call these scale degrees. The numbers above the notes are the scale degrees.  Each note in a scale also has a name which are written below the note in the following picture.

Don't worry about remembering the name for each scale degree. The most important ones are tonic, dominant, and the leading tone. Scale degrees and scale names are the same for major and minor keys.

Why do we call the seventh scale degree a leading tone? Because it wants to lead to tonic again. Try playing a scale and stop on the leading tone. You’ll be itching to play the tonic to feel complete. (Legend has it Mozart’s father would play scales in the morning ending on the leading tone. Young Mozart would jump out of bed, run down stairs, and play the tonic. Brilliant idea to get a prodigy up in the morning.)

You know what key you are playing in based on the key signature at the beginning of the music. Here’s a list of all the major (and their relative minor scales). Don’t worry about the minor scales for now. Try to memorize each key signature up through 5 sharps and 5 flats. In the violin, you will spend most of your time playing in the key signatures with 0-5 sharps or flats so focus on those.

Next we'll talk about minor scales!

Happy Practicing!

Understanding Minor Scales for the Violin

For every major key signature, there is a minor scale that shares that same key signature. We call these minor scales relative minor scales, since they are related to the major key signature. Relative minor scales will have a different starting pitch than their relative major scales. For instance, C major and A minor are relative scales since they both share a key signature (zero sharps or flats).

Minor scales are a little more complex than major scales because minor comes in three flavors: natural, harmonic, and melodic. Before we get to that, let’s figure out the half steps and whole steps in a minor scale.

We’ll start with the A minor scale. Can you determine the order of half steps and whole steps between each note?

Your answer is: Whole Half Whole Whole Half Whole Whole. Sum it up by remembering WHWWHWW

This is a natural minor scale. It’s in it’s “natural” state. Nothing has been changed or altered. Try playing it. It sounds a little strange doesn’t it? Remember how the seventh scale degree or leading tone should lead to tonic? When you have a whole step between the leading tone and tonic (scale degrees 7 and 8) it doesn’t really sound like the leading tone is leading anywhere. What if we raised that seventh scale degree to a G# so that it’s a half step between 7 and 8.

Our scale would look like this.

This sounds a lot more “right” doesn’t it? That’s because the G# really leads to the A. When you raise the seventh scale degree in a minor key you get a harmonic minor scale. Most music written in minor keys has the seventh scale degree raised like in this scale.

The only problem with the harmonic minor scale is that it creates an awkward leap between the sixth and seventh scales degrees. Now, F and G# are three half steps away from each other! Since we are raising scale degrees, let’s just go ahead and raise that sixth scale degree too. That makes the big leap a little less big.

Now we have this:

That’s our melodic minor scale. Well, it’s half of our melodic minor scale. Natural and harmonic minor scales are the same ascending and descending but with melodic minor scales, we change things up on the way down. In a melodic minor scale you raise the sixth and seventh scale degrees on the way up and you naturalize them on the way down.

You might think that rule was created to torture music students but it does make sense. Why did we raise the seventh scale degree to begin with? Because we wanted it to “lead” to tonic. If we are descending and going away from tonic, there’s no need to have it raised. We practice melodic minor scales because that’s what we’ll see in most music written in minor. If we are ascending towards the tonic, the sixth and seventh scale degrees will be raised. If we’re descending, they will be natural. Here’s your complete melodic minor scale.

Now that you know about scales we’ll move onto intervals how they can make a big difference in your violin playing!

Happy (scale) Practicing!

Where Do You Put Your Fingers on the Violin?

Any beginning violinist can tell you what makes violin is so hard—knowing where to put your fingers! While decals like First Frets can help, you can’t put a sticker where every single note exists on the violin. You can memorize where certain notes are on the violin, and your muscle memory might get pretty adept at finding those notes, but if you don’t understand two important concepts, then you will never truly understand where to put your fingers. 

These two concepts are essentially the two reasons learning violin is so hard. However, these two concepts are often left out of violin lessons all together. Why would teachers leave out the two things that could help everything make sense? Well these two concepts take a lot of self-study to master. They also require in-depth study. You can’t understand these concepts with just a few words of advice from your teacher every week. When you only have 30 minutes to talk about songs, tone production, rhythm, note reading, posture, and so on, there’s hardly time to focus on these concepts. 

But if you don’t learn these concepts, it’s the same as just learning certain phrases in another language as opposed to really understanding how the language works. You may be able to play songs and read challenging music, but without understanding these two things, you will never truly understand the language of the violin. These two concepts are not dry by any means, but they can be hard to grasp. But I’m going to help you with that! 

Are you ready to learn the real language of the violin? Are you ready to know what two secrets could help everything make sense? Here they are: ear training and music theory.

Before I explain why these two concepts are so important, let’s take a moment and talk about where to put your fingers in first position. The violin strings are (starting from the lowest string) G, D, A, and E. Your left hand fingers are numbered 1-4. Index finger being 1st finger, middle finger is 2nd finger, ring finger is 3rd, and pinky is 4th finger. (Remember that the musical alphabet goes from A-G. After G, your next note is A but a higher A than the first A you played).

Okay, notice how there are three letters separating each string? 

G (A B C)

D (E F G)

A (B C D)

E

Those notes in parentheses are going to be your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers respectively. What about 4th finger? Well it’s the same note as your open string below it.

When you are first learning, you will learn a finger pattern in which the 2nd and 3rd fingers are touching on every string (half steps apart) and all the other notes will be whole steps apart.

Just knowing what note you are playing won’t necessarily help you know where to put it on the fingerboard. Sometimes your fingers will be right next to each other, sometimes they will be a step apart. You have to understand how each note relates to the note before it in order to know where the finger goes. You have to be able to hear how the next note sounds. Which brings me back to those two big concepts. 

What are these concepts? 

Ear Training

Ear training is a term we use to describe the process of teaching our ears to to discern certain things in music. You might have heard of people with perfect pitch—people who have the ability to say what a note is just by hearing it. (You don’t have to have this ability. I definitely don’t! But you can get close). Or you may have heard of “playing songs by ear”—without looking at music. These are both ear training skills, but ear training is more complicated than just that. Ear training involves the ability to hear and understand the distances between notes, the quality of chords, whether a song moves by step or by skips, and most importantly for the violin, whether or not a note is in tune! 

Since there are no frets or keys on the violin fingerboard, you have to be able to hear a note in your head before you play it in order to know if it’s in tune once you put your finger down. This sounds complicated, but with practice it can become second nature. 

Before we talk about how to start tackling ear training, let’s discuss that second big concept: music theory.

Music Theory

Music theory is the the structure behind songs. It’s like the frame of a house. You don’t always see it or understand it, but without it, music would be a big mess. Theory involves understanding how all the notes work together.

For instance, when students first learn violin, they often learn “high 2” or high second finger. Teachers rarely take time to explain why the 2nd finger is high because it would take too long. “Just make sure you call it F sharp on the D string and not F. Don’t worry about why it’s sharp right now. Oh and yes, the 2nd finger on the A string and E string are also called sharps, but not the second finger on the G string. It’s just B natural, but you don’t have to say natural. Just call it B.”

Confused yet? Just wait until you start learning to lower that 2nd finger and play “low 2.” “Now that 2nd finger on the A string is no longer sharp, it’s C natural, but you’re still going to need to play “high 2” on the D string and G string those are still sharp, well except for the G string. That one’s still just B natural. Don’t worry about why it switches around, we’ll tell you later!”

If you don’t understand the framework behind music, you will just be trying to memorize worthless rules to put your fingers in the right place. But those “rules” will only apply when you are in first position. (The collection of notes that you learn first. Eventually you will learn higher positions and move up the fingerboard.) With a little music theory knowledge, you’ll know why some of those notes are sharp, which ones are sharp, when they’re not sharp, and how to play those notes all the way up the fingerboard and not just right there in first position.

If you look at a piano key board, you can see all the notes and their relationships to each other. Each violin string works the same as a keyboard, except you can only see the notes in your head! And there are 4 strings, each string starting with a different note, so really something like THIS is what you should be seeing in your head (this isn’t an exact representation of the notes on each string. It just gives you an idea of how each string is like a keyboard).

If it looks confusing, don’t let that deter you. With just a little bit of theory, you will be able to build this structure in your head when you play. 

So how do you start learning the language of the violin? Check out my easy ear training exercises to get started teaching your ear to be the boss! As you learn about ear training, you’ll see how it’s intertwined with music theory. Check out my music theory lessons to start learning how to see the structure behind music. 

Learning ear training and music theory might seem like big tasks, but gaining even a basic understanding of these concepts will not only make playing the violin easier, it will make it more enjoyable! You will not only be able to understand the language of music when other’s play, you will be able to speak the language and make your own music! How wonderful is that?

Happy (ear training, music theory) Practicing!