Violin Forum/Message Board

Benedict White · Member Joined: 27 Jan 2011 Posts: 113

Doing the arpegios is useful too.

You look at a piece. It is in say, G Major, so you know that only F is sharp, and as you know the scale backwards and forwards, all you have to do is worry about the timing.

Lemuel · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:18 pm Post subject:

John Cadd · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 4:56 pm Post subject: understanding scales

Message for Lemuel .. I used to be on the Violinist.com forum and left a blog there called "A Visual Guide to Scales and Keys " . Everything else I wrote on that forum was deleted due to a ( permanent ) misunderstanding .
I can`t see any harm in transferring the blog to this forum . But you may be able to decide that . Many players found it helpful .
See if you can find it .

Lemuel · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:52 pm Post subject: Re: understanding scales

John Cadd · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 5:21 pm Post subject: understanding scales

Hello Lemuel
I have dropped out of playing due to various causes .Eyesight and getting used to spectacles is one. Then vertigo from Menieres . That used to come and go at random .Then we bought a big house that needed lots of renovation . Lath and plaster work on ceilings . Messy and tiring but satisfying . A bit of everything that opposed practising the violin . Plus getting old . My hands are small too so I made a silent violin out of Oak with a short scale and calculated the most awkward chord sizes in Bach sonatas . I made a lot of progress with that oak violin .
I made full sized violins originally for my own use and the big obstacle was varnishing . I was never satisfied with the colours . They remain as if frozen in time capsules . I will get that sorted out and put them in a nice music shop .I don`t like the idea of person to person dealing . Not being able to hold a conversation is the problem .I went to an open air concert as a spectator last month . The string group looked fine but the sound (to me ) was quite weird .Scratchy . high pitched and not pleasant . Open air conditions maybe made it worse . That was depressing . I used to play in orchestras but the door seemed shut for me that day .
You must know of "Violinist .com." Just print that and then "A Visual Guide to Keys and Scales ".
It fuses ---- music notes and --- a violin fingerboard.
Thankyou for your friendly enquiry .

John Cadd · Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 4:35 am Post subject: scales

Rather than edit the previous post I ought to tell you the main reason I stopped contact with Violin forums was that I went deaf.
The strange thing is I forgot to mention that (in the previous post). As it stands I am profoundly deaf in my left ear. The right ear struggles with a hearing aid but that is not enough to hear my wife who has a fairly quiet voice .I catch a few words now and again . My listening is via a hearing loop from the laptop . I must have adapted to this as I forgot to mention it.
One feature of going deaf is noticing musical phrasing much more than tone quality , Intonation or pitch perception is just as acute as ever. I always hate a piano tuned in Equal Temperament.
With one ear silent there is still plenty of sound or noise from the other one , but the definition or detail in words is lost, which makes phone calls impossible .
There you are . I filled in some important gaps .

Lemuel · Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:39 pm Post subject:

Wow! What a detailed update. Thank you.

I cannot imagine (nor likely understand) what you are really going through.
But I'm impressed that despite many limitations to deal with you're still holding strong.

In regards to Menieres, this maybe of interested to you:
http://www.doctoryourself.com/ears.html

Welcome back.

John Cadd · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:03 am Post subject: Scales

Lemuel , Thankyou for the reference . I bookmarked that . I noticed the list did not mention the Epley Manoeuvre . It`s very simple to get loose crystals back in place .Tiny crystals moving in the inner ear balance canals will give you vertigo . Last week I was always drifting left when I wanted to walk straight . It cured that in one 5 minute session . I always say if you have a disease pick one that`s not painful . The first time I experienced Menieres it felt as if I was on a fast roller coaster , clinging to the bed mattress as if I would fly off into the air . Then I thought , this is silly. I`m not going anywhere . Easy to say lying down though . On a staircase it would be different . Walking was impossible . It used to come and go .Sometimes a few years completely back to normal .
Early days I had the vertigo as I was riding a CBX 550 Honda bike . And I had to fill up the tank at a petrol station on a roundabout . That was confusing . Before I knew what I had .

Oleg Vostyakov · Member Joined: 13 Sep 2021 Posts: 25

I think you can find some practice decisions here- https://musescore.com/hub/museclass it is a good tool for learning and practice.

Lemuel · Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2021 2:10 pm Post subject:

John Cadd · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:44 am Post subject: scales

On Violinist .com I left a blog about A Visual Guide to Scales and Keys . Anyone can download it . It`s the only version that cuts out all the confusion .
Then avoid practising different keys for a while and stay with one key at a time for a few days . The left hand will develop a "feel" for each key when you do that . It`s a good idea to concentrate on keys that have few or no open strings

Lemuel

I found the link. Here it is:

https://www.violinist.com/blog/jonjoseph/20153/16658/

John Cadd · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 3:29 pm Post subject: Scales

That`s it . I worked it out to cure my own confusions . Many players found it helped .

Henrik Stromberg · Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:10 am Post subject:

Lemuel · Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:44 pm Post subject:

Thank you for your feedback Henrick