Learn Violin Online with Online Violin Teacher Meghan Faw Lesson 8/15: Scales

In this lesson, you will be learning 3 different scales. These scales are the combination of everything that we’ve covered so far: posture and positioning, straight bowing, fingers 1, 2, and 3, and string crossings.

First, let’s go over what a scale is. While there is a long and complicated theory definition, I like to think of things in their simplest terms, and at its core, a scale is a series of notes that starts and ends on the same pitch without skipping any notes in between.

Before we learn the scales, there’s one more exercise we need to practice first. In the scales, you will have to play an open string directly followed by a 3rd finger on the lower adjacent string. When doing so, you can either place all 3 fingers down together, or just the 3rd finger by itself. Let’s practice moving from open E to D, third finger on the A string first.

Now we’ll practice moving from open A to G, third finger on the D string.

Finally, we’ll practice moving from open D to C, third finger on the G string.

Now we’re ready to learn our scales! The first one is A Major, which has 3 sharps, F#, C# and G#. This means that when playing a piece in the key of A, each time you play the note F, C, or G, it will be sharp.

The next scale is D Major, which has 2 sharps, F# and C#. D Major uses the same finger pattern as A Major, just on different strings (D and A strings rather than A and E strings.

The final scale is G Major, which has 1 sharp, F#. This scale uses the same finger pattern just on different strings.

Be sure to download PDF versions of these exercises for extra practice.