Are you a major or a minor? A perfect or an augmented? Find out if opposites really do attract in this excellent exercise … a great way to improve your intonation!
Are you a major or a minor? A perfect or an augmented? Find out if opposites really do attract in this excellent exercise … a great way to improve your intonation!
Aah … that hit the spot! It’s really satisfying when things are in tune! Keep the first finger down and practise landing the other fingers in the right place!
We've saved the best until last... Shapeshifting is a beast of an intonation exercise! Tackle it gradually over several practice sessions... it'll take you gradually through different intervals on different strings... until you've built a super-comprehensive map of the fingerboard in your left hand muscle memory!
Shifting big distances like these on a single string really does require a leap of faith! But that faith will come from repeating the movement slowly lots of times.
Secure your 'hand frame' right up to the 7th position in this detailed interval training exercise! Once your hand position is in place, make sure the the 1st finger is placed accurately, then move carefully through the rest of the fingers, becoming ever more familiar with the 'feel' of the intervals as you go!
Finger Substitution - that is, switching from one finger to or from another, or from an open string, whilst staying on the same note - requires enormous accuracy! To arrive at exactly the same pitch as you departed from, you'll need to be absolutely on target...!
As you cross strings, take a quantum leap into another position! Depart from an open string, then arrive on a stopped note... which could be as high as 6th position!
See how exact you can keep your pitch as you bounce backwards and forwards between open strings and stopped notes... try to make them sound as similar as possible, even as you move up towards 4th position!
Play an interval on one string, and then play the same notes in a different place on the violin, by moving to a different string and a different position...
But be careful, Copycat... you need to aim for exactly the same pitch, wherever you climb!
Let's play an interval pattern, and then repeat it in a higher octave. Listen carefully to the difference in sound!
Ready for a close encounter? Experience every possible semitone in the 1st position as you practise playing semitones using the same finger for each note.
Find the best hand shapes for these double stops... all the way up to 4th position!
Anchor' your hand in the 3rd and 4th positions, then practise tuning the stopped notes in relation to the open strings.
Play an open string whilst stopping notes in 1st Position. Work out the name of each interval, then compare the stopped note to the open string to make sure it is in tune.
Feel the intervals in relation to the open strings, and get used to how your hand and fingers feel when you're playing in tune... do this until your hand position feels comfortably 'at home'!
