Violin-playing is supposed to be fun right? Well the catch is that the better you sound the more fun it is, and the number one way to improve nearly every aspect of your technique is through regular, intentional, and focused scale practice. Let’s look at the steps of the major scale, as that’s the first scale you’ll learn on the violin: So even though there are twelve steps in an octave, most scales will only use eight of those steps. For a C minor scale, go up one whole-step to a D, one half-step to an E♭, one whole-step to an F, and so on. The steps of a major scale are WWHFor example: for the C major scale, start on a C, go up one whole-step to a D, another whole-step to an E, etc. Although there are many different types of scales, in this article we will only mention the two most common, major and natural minor. Most scales are a specific combination of half-steps and whole-steps. (Note: in music we ALWAYS count the first note we play as step 1.) A whole-step is two half-steps put together. If you count the half-steps between middle C and the C one octave higher, there are 12. If you were to start at the bottom of a piano keyboard and go up playing every single key, you would be playing half-steps. There are just two kinds, half-steps and whole-steps. So if a scale is a set of notes arranged in a particular order, how do we know how close together to put the notes? All western music is built on steps. Although these passages can look intimidating, they are usually based on some sort of scale, so practice scales diligently in order to play these runs with ease. There is no jumping around or changing directions.Ĭomplete scales, as they are written in exercise books, typically begin and end on the same letter name, but if you look at any sheet music, you will often see little runs of anything from four to twenty-four notes. For example, if you want to start a scale on the note C, all the other notes must be played going up or down from C.

A musical scale is any set of notes arranged in ascending or descending order.

E flat major scale for violin