The Nasty Scales Part 1

Actually I planned to post an article about the bow hold. But in the past weeks there have been several questions about practicing scales. So, here we go.

A couple of years ago one of my teachers told me something like this:

Everybody who wants to have at least a little success on the violin is supposed to practice scales daily.
Playing Scales is probably the most essential part of serious violin playing.

Well, that’s a statement. It might sound a bit hard but there is a lot of truth in it. At least a little success can be taken in many different ways, but there is no doubt that our entire technique benefits greatly from scales. Therefore those exercises should be an important part of our daily work.
Of course, the violinist playing scales should possess a certain maturity and self discipline because they are a bit dry, some would say boring, compared to, let’s say Sibelius Concerto.

The Hungarian violin teacher Carl Flesch wrote an amazing book, called Scale System. It should be a part of anyones bookshelf.
Flesch organized his system in musical keys resulting in a huge book. Unfortunately he didn’t include a manual how to practice the scales. So many violinists are literally on their own.
I’ll try to provide some sort of operating manual how to practice Flesch. It’s not the only possibility to play his scales. But it’s one of the many options we have and certainly one of the better ones.

We start on the A-string because the grip is very comfortable. The lowest tone with the first finger is the B flat. So we end up in B flat major.
In the Scale System we look up this key and stick to one string at the beginning. We see all sorts of scales, triads and diminished chords on all four strings.

We should avoid playing all of them in one go. On the contrary – we focus on one scale, on one triad and so on. We play this part in different speeds until we are happy with that. Then we go on to the next triad.

That would look like this:

But please remember – all of that takes place on the A string solely. Our metronome should show something ranging from 56 to 66.

Repeat this and carry on:

Of course, the fingering is the same as above. We double our speed, but the bowing speed remains the same, resulting in more notes on one bow.

Repeat this and redouble:

That’s getting difficult. Perhaps here is the end for the next weeks. If you keep on practicing you’ll be able to double again after some weeks:

Focus on precision. Don’t sacrifice precision and intonation just because you want to play it that fast. If you don’t succeed at the beginning wait for two weeks and try again.

If we have done the scales we go on to the triads:

Same as above, same metronome speed, remain on the A string. Repeat this and go on to the next tempo:

Fingering is the same as above. Then comes:

If you were successful try this one:

That’s a hard one again. That should have been sextuplets, actually. But my freeware notation software didn’t have this option.

After this do the same with the following triads B flat major, g minor, e flat major and e flat minor.

Speaking with Monty Python – And now for something completely different:
The diminished seventh and the major seventh chord:

Remain on the A string as usual, repeat it and carry on:

Boring? Try this:

Are you still there? Here we go:

This is really hard. Especially if you chose a tempo of 66 on your metronome. Be patient, your fingers need some weeks to adjust.

If you have done that carry on with the major seventh chord.

Don’t forget – it’s a matter of practice. In the beginning it will be very difficult or even impossible to play all four speeds. That doesn’t matter at all! Play three speeds. Or two. Or just one.
The most important thing is: play it daily and precisely and you will succeed!

Next week we’ll go on in our Flesch Operating Manual.
So stay tuned!

Related posts

• The Nasty Scales Part 4
• The Nasty Scales Part 3
• The Nasty Scales Part 2
• The Nasty Scales Part 5
• Shifting Techniques Part 9