Pre-Hrimaly Scale Books
I recently started teaching lessons and I'm in need of opinions on scale books (of the pre-Hrimaly variety). My teacher had me use Essentials for Strings (Anderson), and I never connected with it as a student, so I don't want to use it with my own students. I use Suzuki books, and although I've heard the revised editions have all the scales you need, I still want a book focused on scales rather than as a sidenote in Suzuki.
I've researched what's out there, and I'm interested in a few books. The problem is, the music stores near me have a very limited violin music selection and don't carry the ones I'm interested in. I can buy them all online, of course, but I hate to buy music without getting the chance to look through it first. So I need to rely on opinion.
If you have experience with any of the following, I'd love any constructive thoughts on them.
1. Scales in First Position (Whistler)
2. Intermediate Scales and Bowings (Whistler)
3. Tune a Day Scales (Herfurth)
4. Two Octave Scales and Bowings (Brown)
Plus any others you love--I'm partial to ones with a variety of rhythms/bowings written out for each scale, and I also like fingering charts with scales.
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March 13, 2014 at 06:47 AM · They aren't a "side note" in the Suzuki books. They are paired with Tonalization and match with the keys of the repertoire.
As I don't teach the Suzuki Method though,I prefer to teach my students the tetrachord layouts of major and natural/harmonic/melodic minor. Especially if they are beginners and are only playing in 1 or 2 octaves, this skill in building scales entirely from whole and half steps really helps in establishing a strong competency with scale playing.
I just write out the eight scale degrees using roman numerals, then teach them the whole/half step patterns from there. If they memorize the sequences, they won't need a scale book to practice the basic scales.