Bored with scales? Join me for a whole month’s worth of 31 different ways to approach scales. New posts go up every day in January 2023. Start from Day 1 here.
What happens when you play scales with only half of your available fingers? Really helpful things, it turns out!
Today: two-finger scales! Similar to yesterday, these scales put the focus on shifting. But now the shifts involve two fingers. For example, 2nd finger before the shift to 1st finger after the shift. All of the same shift techniques from yesterday apply, but there’s also a whole new world of types of shift to explore:
old finger shifts
new finger shifts
combination shifts
substitution shifts
Each shift type is illustrated in the notation below. Practice all of them (like I did), or just choose one type to focus on.
A Side Benefit
Scales like this can also give a boost to your double-stop scales (or help prepare for them). It’s like practicing one line of the double stops at a time.
The sad news
I’m sorry to say that I don’t know of any meaningful way to do two-finger arpeggios. If that really bums you out, you could do arpeggios on one finger – similar to yesterday – but crossing strings and doing 3 octaves. It’s not exactly in keeping with today’s theme, but I’m not going to leave you having to repeat anything. We’re on a mission to break out of the scale rut!
If you’ve tried today’s scales, I’d love to know what your experience was like! Just post a comment below.
The one-octave scales should be played on one string (no string crossings). In the “extras” (page 2), play the 3-octave version with string crossings.
tomorrow:
I’m a violinist and private teacher in the Chicago area, and in a previous musical life I was in a professional string quartet. Teaching violin and chamber music are dear to my heart. Send me a note or leave a comment on a post — I’d love to hear from you.
If you’ve tried today’s scales, I’d love to know what your experience was like! Just post a comment below.