A violinist’s guide to daily “hygiene” exercises
We violinists have chosen one of the most ‘ungrateful’ instruments (or maybe, it has chosen us). If you neglect your violin for one day, it will neglect you for two days. Especially if you neglect your scales, oh my, oh my...
All instrumentalists have their own difficulties. For example, most pianists have to play on a different piano in every concert (unless you are Krystian Zimerman and transport your own piano). Cellists have to buy tickets for two seats every time they board an airplane (and are often subjected to “funny” jokes by other passengers, such as “are you carrying a corpse inside? Hahaha”). We violinists are sometimes mistaken for carrying a wedding keyboard in our case (I was even asked if I had a guitar in there).
Anyway… back to the subject at hand: how does a violinist stay in shape technically?
Since we begun learning violin, we have heard from our teachers thousands of times that we need to practice Schradiecks, scales, double-stops, octaves etc. - and they are right about that. Countless books have been written and published to improve ourselves technically, from Leopold Mozart to Carl Flesch, Dounis and whatnot. So there is no deficiency in this regard.
Carl Flesch's “The Scale System” is a great book that a violinist can study at every stage of his life. The variations on a single string are improving both intonation and agility, depending on the tempo.
Albert Markov's book “System of Violin Playing” includes bowing techniques; there are even some exercises towards the end of the book where you make pizzicato scales using three fingers of the right hand like a mandolin. It's fun.
Dounis’ book named “The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing” is well known and is particularly challenging in terms of bowing technique.
If you want to go back further, there is Leopold Mozart's “Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule”, written in 1756.
And there are many more, such as Galamian and so on. You can take any book you want and study any scale you want. All of these are useful.
But what constitutes the basis of a good technique is how meticulously they are practised, and the level of concentration.
Every violinist is different from each other in terms of what they are good at and what they lack. In addition, even if it can be a fun hobby in and of itself, technique should be developed in such a way that it is always at the service of music.
My practice routine
To give an example from myself: before every musical practice, I warm up with the first two exercises in Schradieck's book. I start these exercises for agility and warm-up my muscles on the A string, then on the D, G and E strings, making sure that I move my fingers as fast as possible, using just enough pressure to let the note speak and then quickly lift them back up. It is never a good thing for a violinist to have lazy, sluggish left hand fingers.
Then I proceed with a four octave scale. Firstly, by using single strokes for each note, I try to get as high a volume and as good a contact point as possible, so as to produce a full sound, but being careful not to “crack” it. There is a fine line between the two, and our goal should be to get as close as possible to that line as our instrument allows, but not to cross it. If we do, the sound turns into a squeak, or gets scratchy. As for the left hand, when shifting positions, I always make sure to prepare the leading finger that will do the shifting.
Before moving on to the arpeggios, I speed up the scales while still using single strokes for each note, and I take care to use fast bows, but without excessive pressure. Here, too, we need to be careful that we are always in the right place on the spectrum between speed and pressure. The aim here is to always maintain good contact with the string, not to apply too much pressure while trying to increase the volume, and to pay attention to the quality of the sound. However, if we do not apply enough pressure, the sound will turn into a “ghostly” one.
Then I continue the scale in 7 and 28-note slurs, respectively, and speed it up as much as possible. After moving on to arpeggios, I first continue using single bows for each note like in the scale, then with 12-note slurs, and I make sure that the intonation is always clean during shiftings. If it is not, I go over it until it is.
I hope these tips were helpful to my young violinist friends and that you enjoyed the article! You can leave your comments and potential criticisms in the comments section, and share it with people you think will benefit from it. I wish everyone happy practicing.
Mentioned sources and download links:
1. Flesch, C.: “Das Skalensystem”, Berlin: Ries & Erler, 1926.
https://imslp.org/wiki/Das_Skalensystem_(Flesch%2C_Carl)
2. Dounis, D.: “The Artist's Technique of Violin Playing”, New York: Carl Fischer, 1921. https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Artist's_Technique_of_Violin_Playing_(Dounis%2C_Demetrius_Constantine)
3. Markov, A.: “System of Violin Playing”, Muzyka, Russia.
https://www.albertmarkov.com/product/system-of-violin-playing/
4. Mozart, L: “Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule”, Augsburg: Johann Jacob Lotter, 1756. https://imslp.org/wiki/Versuch_einer_gründlichen_Violinschule_(Mozart,_Leopold)
5. Schradieck, H: “School of Violin Technics”, New York: G. Schirmer, 1899-1900.
https://imslp.org/wiki/School_of_Violin_Technics_(Schradieck%2C_Henry)
