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February 23, 2004 at 4:15 PM

Another note to Buri regarding scale practice:

You were referring to Jamie Laredo's reference to being forced to learn patterns. Actually patterns is exactly what I am memorizing when I play scales.

I figure out the patterns and write them down geometrically, that is to say I write a visual chart of the fingerboard and draw frets where the notes go and put circles where the notes of the scales are in all the positions. Very similar to these diagrams:

http://option-wizard.com/vsc/violin_scale_charts.shtml

Then I play one position at a time and go up one until Im all the way up the neck. Then I do the same thing with another scale.

When I play a piece of music, I play the scale first so even before I start to read, I already know the scale shape as it appears on the fingerboard, it just a question of what combonation of notes will be played at that point. Im still not very good but playing scales really helps with learning to play in tune and that is the most important thing.