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| A girl playing violin in The Hague (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
For violin intonation exercises, there are really thousands of possibilities for exercises and etudes you could practice that will improve your intonation. Practicing anything itself properly and with good intonation is bound to cause an improvement on some level even if the exercise or piece of music isn't specifically geared towards that goal. If you need to improve your violin intonation, here are some good exercises to get you started on the right track.
The first and most important violin intonation exercise is the scale. 90 percent of the music played on any instrument is based on scales. They are everywhere and are the most important and most basic building block of playing the violin. Do not under any circumstances underestimate this! Keep your scales cleanly polished with hours in the practice room and do not allow yourself to slump this off. It will cost you a lot of good violin intonation in the end.
Next, try a sing and play exercise. Take a scale or a simple piece you are practicing and practice it slowly while humming it alongside your instrument. This simple intonation exercise will force you to mentally and physically recognize the sound produced on each note. If you are playing too high, simply drop down on octave and keep humming. This will be very annoying at first, but will definitely help your mind to understand and interact with the violin intonation you are playing and thus improve your results dramatically.
Another great exercise is the arpeggio. If 90 percent of music is built on scales, a remaining 9 percent is built on arpeggios, which means that between these two, you have the vast majority of violin intonation covered. Arpeggios can be complex to master, so when you first start, play a single octave at a time and don't allow yourself to make any mistakes. This may mean slowing down and working carefully through each arpeggio, spelling out each note clearly and with good violin intonation, but if that's what it takes to play properly, then keep at it!
Regardless of what exercises you do, nothing is as important as getting yourself a fine teacher to learn from. A talented and experienced teacher can mean the difference between success and failure when it comes to playing the violin. Don't ever forget the importance of this. To make true dramatic improvements in your intonation, get yourself a good teacher.
Eric Conklin is a violinist and a blogger who specializes in helping new musicians find lessons that help them grow quickly and efficiently. Article Source: EzineArticles |
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