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INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1
VIOLIN HISTORY ...................................................................................................................... 1
BOW HISTORY ........................................................................................................................... 1
VIOLIN STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................ 2
VIOLIN SIZES.............................................................................................................................. 4
BOW STRUCTURE ..................................................................................................................... 4
HOLDING THE VIOLIN ............................................................................................................ 5
HOLDING THE BOW ................................................................................................................. 6
BOWING ....................................................................................................................................... 6
THE STAFF .................................................................................................................................. 7
TREBLE CLEF (G CLEF) .......................................................................................................... 8
OPEN STRINGS AND STRING NAMES ................................................................................. 8
NOTES ........................................................................................................................................... 9
WHOLE NOTES ....................................................................................................................... 9
HALF NOTES ......................................................................................................................... 10
QUARTER NOTES ................................................................................................................ 10
EIGHTH NOTES .................................................................................................................... 11
SIXTEENTH NOTES ............................................................................................................. 11
THIRTY-SECOND NOTES .................................................................................................. 12
SIXTY-FOURTH NOTES...................................................................................................... 12
DOTTED NOTES ................................................................................................................... 13
POSITIONS ................................................................................................................................. 14
TIME SIGNATURE ................................................................................................................... 16
THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS........................................................................................................ 17
SCALES ....................................................................................................................................... 18
C MAJOR ................................................................................................................................ 20
G MAJOR ................................................................................................................................ 23
D MAJOR ................................................................................................................................ 23
A MAJOR ................................................................................................................................ 24
Copyright 2010 SpeedyViolinLessons.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS continued
SECTION PAGE
E MAJOR................................................................................................................................. 25
B MAJOR................................................................................................................................. 26
F# MAJOR ............................................................................................................................... 27
C# MAJOR .............................................................................................................................. 28
F MAJOR ................................................................................................................................. 29
B FLAT MAJOR ..................................................................................................................... 31
E FLAT MAJOR ..................................................................................................................... 32
A FLAT MAJOR..................................................................................................................... 33
D FLAT MAJOR..................................................................................................................... 33
G FLAT MAJOR .................................................................................................................... 34
C FLAT MAJOR..................................................................................................................... 34
RESTS .......................................................................................................................................... 35
TECHNIQUES ............................................................................................................................ 37
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 37
TABLE OF SOUNDS
SECTION PAGE
EXERCISE 1 ................................................................................................................................. 7
EXERCISE 2 ................................................................................................................................. 9
EXERCISE 3 ............................................................................................................................... 10
EXERCISE 4 ............................................................................................................................... 21
EXERCISE 5 ............................................................................................................................... 22
EXERCISE 6 ............................................................................................................................... 22
EXERCISE 7 ............................................................................................................................... 26
EXERCISE 8 ............................................................................................................................... 26
EXERCISE 9 ............................................................................................................................... 28
EXERCISE 10 ............................................................................................................................. 30
EXERCISE 11 ............................................................................................................................. 32
EXERCISE 12 ............................................................................................................................. 35
EXERCISE 13 ............................................................................................................................. 35
TABLE OF FIGURES
SECTION PAGE
VIOLIN HISTORY
Many instruments of old are similar to the modern violin. Such instruments are the Greek
kithara dating as far back as the 7th century BC. One is said to date back to the mid-8th century
AD but there are different views on how old it is. It is the Chinese Ehru and is bowed like the
modern violin but only has two strings. The violin as we know it today is believed to have
emerged in the 16th century in Italy and borrowed from some other instruments of the past such
as the Arab rebec, the fiddle, and the lira de braccio. Some of the most famous violin makers
were the Guarneri, Amati, and Stradivari families in the 17th and 18th centuries in Cremona, Italy.
The Guarneris did not work solely in Cremona.
BOW HISTORY
The bow is believed to have originated in central Asia among those who used horses such as the
Hun and Mongols, who used horse hair for military bows. When the modern bow was brought
to France in the early 19th century, the man who is credited with evolving it to its current glory is
Francois Tourte. He was a trained watchmaker and decided that Brazilian wood would be the
best wood for the purposes of the bow. Today there are professional bow makers but luthiers can
also make bows.
VIOLIN STRUCTURE
The top of a violin, which is also called the top plate, is typically made of spruce wood. The ribs
and back of the violin are made of maple. The upper and lower bouts are the parts of the violin
that are arched and the smaller arches that are arched in, toward the F-holes or “F” shaped holes
in the top of the violin, are the C bouts or waist. Without the waist, there would not be enough
room for the bow to hit all the strings efficiently. The tailpiece is the long piece with fine tuners
on them it runs to the base of the violin. To the left of the tailpiece is the chinrest. The bridge is
a piece of maple wood that holds up the strings and keeps the tension on the strings and
contributes greatly to transmitting the vibration from the strings to the body of the violin. The
neck of the violin runs from the body of the violin to the scroll where the tuning pegs are located.
The fingerboard, usually made of ebony, runs on top of the fingerboard and the spruce top. The
strings run down the fingerboard from the pegs in the pegbox to the fine tuners.
Inside the violin is the sound post, which is a small dowel. It is placed between the top plate and
the back plate and is located under the treble end of the bridge. The violin would cave in on the
treble side of the bridge, where the E string is sitting, if the sound post was not in place. A sound
post is typically made of spruce and is between 5.5 and 6.0 mm in diameter for a full–size violin.
On the bass side of the bridge, where the G string sits, is what is called the bass bar, which is a
long and thin strip of wood on the top of the inside top of the violin, lying almost parallel to the
strings. The bass bar helps in transferring energy to more area of the top plate.
VIOLIN SIZES
Violins can come in a range of sizes all the way up to full size to accommodate for those with
shorter arm lengths such as children. They can come in sizes as small as 1/16 or even as small as
1/32. Full size would be a 4/4 violin.
BOW STRUCTURE
The finest violin bows and the bows for the instruments of the other instruments in the string
family are usually made from Pernambuco wood which is found in Brazil. The hair is horse hair
or can be nylon or synthetic and is stretched from one end of the bow to the other. Bow makers
or luthiers will usually use approximately 150 hairs for a bow. For the frog and finger grip,
materials are often inlaid such as tortoise shell, ivory, ebony, pearl shell and others. Some of
these materials are rare today so alternative materials will have to be used. Less expensive bows
can be made of materials of a synthetic variety such as fiberglass or other types of wood. Some
of the synthetic bows can come in a rainbow of colors for the player who wants to add a little
spice to their playing experience.
The stick of the violin has to be properly tapered. The horse hair is connected to each end of the
bow through mechanics inside the ends of the bow. It is important to slightly tighten the bow
with the screw when beginning to play and to make sure to loosen the hair every time the violin
Rosin, made from maple tree sap, must be rubbed onto the bow hair in order to get sound from
an instrument. The rosin allows the hairs to grasp the string and produce a robust sound.
BOWING
Staccato is an example of a bowing technique. It is indicated by a dot over a note and is played
short and quickly. The notes in the example below are called double-stops and the two notes
linked together are played simultaneously.
A slur is when a series of notes are to be played in one bowing, or one up bow or down bow. It
is indicated by the arcing line from one note to the end of a series of notes.
An up bow is when you start playing with the tip of the bow and push the bow up. It is indicated
by a “V” shape above the note. A down bow looks like a square with the bottom line erased out
of the square. See the diagram below.
A fermata above a note or rest means to sustain the value of that note or rest a little longer than
its value.
Figure 8. Fermata.
There are many more symbols and techniques that will be encountered over the course of a
violinist’s career.
THE STAFF
The staff is the group of lines upon which music is written. For the violin, we are going to focus
on the part of the staff that the violin player will use. A piano player will use what is called a
grand staff, which involves more staff lines since they will be playing music in both the treble
and bass clefs. The staff is made of five lines and four spaces.
Exercise 1
Number the lines of the staff from the bottom up numbers 1 through 5. Number the spaces from
bottom up numbers one through four.
Every line and space is actually the equivalent to one of the white keys on a piano. An easy way
to remember the line names from the bottom up, which are E, G, B, D, F is the saying “Every
Good Boy Deserves Favors.” From the bottom up, the four spaces are the notes F, A, C, E,
which are easy to remember by themselves because they spell “face.”
Exercise 2
What would be a perfect fifth from A? Answer: E
NOTES
WHOLE NOTES
A whole note, which looks like a big circle, represents four beats in a 4/4 time signature that are
played. A whole rest looks like a bar or rectangle hanging onto one of the staff lines and also
represents four beats of silence in a 4/4 time signature.
Exercise 3
In a 4/4 time signature, how many whole notes or whole rests can be in one measure? Answer:
1.
HALF NOTES
A half note is worth two beats in a 4/4 time signature. There can therefore be two half notes in a
measure in a 4/4 time signature. A half note looks like a quarter note except that the center is not
blackened.
QUARTER NOTES
A quarter note has one beat in a 4/4 time signature and is solid, unlike a half note. In a 4/4 time
signature, there can be four quarter notes in a measure.
EIGHTH NOTES
An eighth note looks almost exactly like a quarter note except that it has what is called a flag
hanging off of it. In a 4/4 time signature, an eighth note gets a half a beat. It is half the value of
a quarter note or an eighth of the value of a whole note. In a measure in a 4/4 time signature,
there can be eight eighth notes.
SIXTEENTH NOTES
Add an additional flag to an eighth note and you get a sixteenth note. In a 4/4 time signature, a
sixteenth note is 1/16 the value of a whole note and gets ¼ of a beat. To get an eighth note, add
together two sixteenth notes. If there are eight eighth notes in a measure in the 4/4 time
signature, there will be sixteen sixteenth notes in a 4/4 time signature.
THIRTY-SECOND NOTES
Add an additional flag to a sixteenth note and you get a thirty-second note. In a 4/4 time
signature, a thirty-second note is 1/32 the value of a whole note. Adding two of these notes
together is equal to a sixteenth note.
SIXTY-FOURTH NOTES
There is even a sixty-fourth note when an additional flag is added to a thirty-second note. This
note only lasts as long as 1/64 of a whole note. Two of these are the equivalent to a thirty-
second note.
Adding a dot to a note changes the value or number of beats of the note. When adding a dot to a
note, it adds half of the value of the note it is added to. If it is added to a half note, then the value
of the note is three. See the dotted notes figure. A half note is valued at two beats and half of
that value is one beat, or a quarter note. Adding a half note and quarter note or two and one
equals three so the value of a dotted half note equals three.
Looking at a half note with two dots, the half note with the first dot equals three calculated the
same way as above. With the additional dot, take half the value of what the dot indicates, which
is one beat, or a quarter note, so it is a half a beat, or an eighth note. Adding the three beats and a
half a beat equal 3.5 for a half note with two dots.
A half note with three dots would be the original half note, plus a quarter note (first dot), plus an
eighth note (second dot), plus a sixteenth note (third dot). This equals 3.625.
Second position is when the player shifts the left hand up so the first finger will be placed where
the second finger normally is placed in first position and the rest of the fingers will follow in
place.
Third position is where the player shifts the hand up so the first finger will be placed where the
third finger normally is placed in first position and the other fingers end up in third position and
playing notes higher on the fingerboard as well.
Fourth position is when the player shifts up to where the fourth finger would normally be in first
position.
Fifth position is where it starts to get a little harder as you do not have a guide finger from first
position to help you. If you are in fourth position, move your first finger up one step and let the
rest of the fingers follow through. If you want to move to sixth position, move up a step from
fifth position. To move to seventh position, move a step up from where you were in sixth
position.
There is also a half position where the player is a half step from the nut.
To be able to hear ogg files, go to http://www.xiph.org/dshow/ and scroll down to downloads. Choose the correct
Windows installer and save it to your computer and then run it.
The C with a slash through it that looks like a cent sign means cut time or the same as 2/2. This
means that there are two beats per measure and a half note gets one beat.
Look at the figure below. Since there are no sharps or flats the key signature is C major. What
looks like a big “C” means that the key signature is 4/4 time, or common time. There are four
beats per measure (the top “4”) and the quarter note gets one beat (the bottom “4”). Instead of
having to write in the 4/4 time signature, a “C” symbol can be written in instead to convey the
same information. Moderato refers to tempo or speed in Italian and means to play moderately or
to play 108 to 120 beats per minute (BPM). The measure is indicated by the bar line after the
second half note. The “mf” at the bottom is a dynamic meaning mezzo-forte and to play
moderately loudly.
In a ¾ time signature, there are three beats per measure (top note), and the quarter note gets one
beat (bottom note). See an example below.
SCALES
There are also different patterns differentiating major and minor scales. A major scale is as
follows with W meaning whole step and H meaning half step:
Major scale: W W H W W W H
The major scale has an interval pattern between each note of whole step, whole step, half step
whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.
Minor scale: W H W W H W W
A minor scale has a different interval pattern. It goes whole step, half step, whole step, whole
step, half step, whole step, whole step.
Copyright 2010 SpeedyViolinLessons.com
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Sharps and flats appear in the key signature in the order they appear moving clockwise or
counterclockwise from the top of the Circle of Fifths. For sharps, it is F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#,
and B#. In a sharp key signature, for major keys, look at the last sharp in the signature and the
key is a semitone or half step above it. So if the last sharp is an F, then it will be a G major key
unless it is the relative minor of E minor. A minor scale usually has accidentals. For flats it is B
flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat, C flat and F flat. By looking at the last flat on the right in the
key signature, you know the name of the key. When looking at a song, the last note of a song is
usually the same as the tonic, or first note of the scale so you can also use this tip to identify if
the song is working from a major or minor scale. Songs in a minor key also have a more somber
sound.
An accidental is when a note needs to be a sharp, flat, or natural but is not previously indicated
by the key signature so has to be signified in the measure. When a note has a sharp, natural, or
flat note next to it, for example, a C# in a measure, all C’s in that measure will be C sharps and
do not have to be further noted with the # indication. Once the barline is passed in the music, the
accidental is no longer in effect unless there is a tie between the two notes with an accidental in
place on the first and the second note is the same note.
A sharp typically raises a note a half step while a flat lowers the note a half step.
When talking of an eight-note scale, the notes each have a name. The first note or 1st degree is
called the tonic. The second note, or 2nd degree is called the supertonic and is one whole tone or
one whole step above the tonic. The third note, or 3rd degree is the median and is halfway
between the supertonic and the next note, the 4th degree, also called the subdominant. In the 5th
degree is the dominant, which when matched with the tonic can be used to define the key. The
sixth note is the 6th degree and is the submediant. In the 7th degree is the leading tone, leading up
to the tonic, which in addition to being in the first position, is also in the 8 th degree, or octave
position.
Have Windows Media Player installed to hear the following MP3 files.
C MAJOR
The below MP3 file is an example of a C scale on an electric violin. Follow along on the music
below for the first eight notes and continue back down.
eviol_c_vbr.mp3
C_major ogg.ogg
Exercise 4
In this exercise, place the first finger on the D string an inch to 1 and ¼ inch up from the nut, or
where the peg box and fingerboard meet. Hold down the note on the string with the tip of your
finger so your fingernail is straight up and down, not flat. This is a whole step from the open E.
Exercise 5
Play the song below.
Exercise 6
Play the song below and identify what makes it A minor and not C major.
The G major scale has one sharp, an F sharp. Its relative minor is E minor.
Listen below to a G major scale on the violin. The scale begins and ends on G.
Violin_démanché,_on_G_major_scale,_on_G_string.ogg
eviol_g_vbr.mp3
D MAJOR
The D major scale has two sharps, F sharp and C sharp. The scale begins and ends on D. B
minor is its relative minor.
A MAJOR
The A major scale has three sharps, F sharp, C sharp, and G sharp. The scale begins and ends on
the A note. Its relative minor is F# minor.
E MAJOR
The E major scale has four sharps: F, C, G and D. It begins and ends on E and its relative minor
is C# minor.
eviol_e_vbr.mp3
The B major scale has five sharps: F, C, G, D and A. It will begin and end on B and its relative
minor is G# minor.
Exercise 7
Using the fingering chart as a guide, try playing the line of music in the figure below in B major.
Exercise 8
Try playing the tune below. The two dots near the bar at the end of the piece mean to repeat and
go back to the beginning. Allegro means to play it fast.
The F# major scale has six sharps: F, C, G, D, A and E. It will begin and end on F# and its
relative minor is D# minor.
C# MAJOR
The C# major scale has seven sharps: F, C, G, D, A, E and B. The scale begins and ends on C#
and its relative minor is A# minor. Did you notice that as we went clockwise around the Circle
of Fifths a sharp was added to each subsequent scale?
Let’s go back to the top of the Circle of Fifths to the C major scale with no sharps or flats.
Instead of building all of our major scales with sharps and moving clockwise, we are now going
to go counterclockwise and build our major scales with flats.
F MAJOR
F major scale has one flat, B flat. Its relative minor is D minor. In an F major scale, the scale
begins and ends with an F. Notice that if the key signature already shows the B flat, it normally
will not indicate the flats throughout the piece unless it had previously indicated that a B was a
natural or a sharp.
Exercise 10
Play the tune below. Largo means to play very slowly and the small “P” means to play softly.
by M. Reger (1873–1916)
sonate-1.mid
B FLAT MAJOR
In the key of B flat major, there are two flats, B flat and E flat. Its relative minor key is G minor.
Exercise 11
Play the below tune. The “f” means to play louder and “p” quieter.
E FLAT MAJOR
The key of E flat major has three flats, B flat, E flat, and A flat. Its relative minor key is C
minor.
A FLAT MAJOR
The next major key has four flats: B, E, A, and D. Its relative minor is F minor.
D FLAT MAJOR
The next major key, D flat major, has five flats: B, E, A, D and G. The scale begins and ends on
D flat. Its relative minor is B flat minor.
G FLAT MAJOR
G flat major has six flats: B, E, A, D, G and C. The scale starts and ends on G flat. Its relative
minor is E flat.
C FLAT MAJOR
C flat major has seven flats: B, E, A, D, G, C and F. The scale starts and ends on C flat. Its
relative minor is A flat minor.
▼ ▼ ▼
Exercise 13
See how far you can get on the below piece. The key is C. The numbers below each note
indicates which finger to use. 0 is open string. 1 is pointer finger, 2 is middle finger, 3 is the
finger next to the pinky and 4 is the pinky. Also use the fingering chart.
RESTS
A whole rest is the same value as a whole note, whatever that value may be according to the time
signature. The whole rest is attached to the bottom of the staff line the second from the top line.
A multi-measure rest indicates that the player needs to rest for however many measures the
number indicates. In the figure below, the player needs to rest for 21 measures.
TECHNIQUES
There are various techniques for playing the violin. These are indicated by various terms. Arco
means that the music is played with the bow.
Pizzicato, on the other hand, would mean that the notes are played by plucking the string.
Pizzicato can be done by plucking with the left or the right hand, depending on the notation in
the music. In music, pizz. indicates that the notes are to be plucked. Left-hand pizzicato is
indicated by a “+” being placed above the note and is played with the pinky. If there is no plus
sign, pluck with the right hand by holding the bow around the frog and resting the right thumb
against the fingerboard. Pluck with the first finger.
Vibrato is when a player moves their finger on the string back and forth very quickly to produce
a vibrating note. This can take a lot of experience to master. Tremolo is when the bow moves
back and forth very fast.
A trill is when a note is played alternately with the note above it very quickly. Col legno is a
technique where the player taps the string with the wood of the bow. A slur is when several
notes are played in one bowing, indicated by an arced line linking the first note of the slur to the
last.
CONCLUSION
Playing the violin can be a very rewarding experience. Becoming a virtuoso does not come
overnight, however. Much practice must go into becoming an excellent player. The more
practice one does, the more enjoyment the instrument will bring.