July 21, 2012 at 8:36 PM
After a two-week vacation to London and Paris, I'm on a major diet.No, I'm not dieting because of all the brie and baguettes. I'm on a practice diet, heavy on scales.
Ah scales, they are wonderful and they are magical. I turn to them when I need to warm up, when I need to get in shape, when I need to work something out.
When my students ask me, "Why do I need to play scales"? I tend to give strange and nonsensical answers, like, "It's so you can still play when you are 80," or "So you'll never be injured," or "So you'll play in tune, in every position," or "So we can use them to work out certain bowing challenges."
All of those things are true, but no student who is new to scales understands or believes it. In order to believe in scales, I firmly believe that you need to do them every day for a good long period of time. After several years, you'll understand that it's the scales that made your hand so strong, that set your fingers aright in every single position, that gave you a consistent bow arm, that improved your counting, that made all playing easier for you.
A potential student called me recently; it was an adult student. He said he just wasn't progressing with his current teacher and wanted me to be his teacher.
"Are you willing to do scales?" I said.
"Weeeeeell," he said, in an avoiding kind of way, "I really prefer to work things out using pieces…"
Well, sure, I love pieces, too. But forget it, find someone else. Really, truly. You want to play well, but you don't want to do what it takes to play well. I can't help you if you are unwilling to help yourself.
So today I'd like to ask again about your scale habits; and you can answer honestly, as this is anonymous. I won't come to your door with the scale police! And maybe you disagree with me; if so, you are welcome to say why. ;)
It covers the bulk of what I play regularly as a violist.
I think the difference for me was when I stopped 'playing' the violin and started 'listening' (something I'm still developing). Once you do that there is an immense pleasure in tracing the scale sequence and hearing the purity of each note and its relation to its neighbours.
BTW the tendency for me was to try to play them as fast as possible - but its actually more difficult to play them as slowly as possible - that takes real ballance and control...
---Ann Marie
a) will tell you if you play in tune - if not scales are the way to fix it. You have to play the notes slowly and check that each one is in tune. The ideal way is by checking with open strings (but between you and me using an electronic tuner can work too - but don't tell anyone I said so cause they will make me eat my new Baker's rosin - the key is to use it with the intent of weaning yourself - so you look less and less often ;).
If you have not played scales the odds are you will have no idea how to do an arpegio. What one of those is basically is a simple set of notes that are related - the simplest is the triad of a chord (D, F#,A). They sound great together and you can easily memorize their interrelation. If you can find the D anywhere on your violin you should be able to play those three notes - what that does (IMO) is to introduce you to the keyboard beyond the mechanical aspects of positions - you start to 'know' where the notes are and when you play a piece those notes fall easily under the fingers.
in your case you are getting exactly what you asked for from your teacher - a gentle introduction to an instrument to allow you to play a tune. It wil probably never become second nature as it is for not only virtuosos but also the average orchestra violinist. For that you need to do, wait for it, scales.....
Just keep them simple at first and learn how to listen to your instrument making sounds.
Ooops too long...
This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Violinist.com is made possible by...
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Violinist.com Business Directory
Violinist.com Guide to Online Learning
ARIA International Summer Academy
Johnson String Instrument and Carriage House Violins
Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine