That’s why it is so difficult to sight read any music by Prokofiev: the scales in his music are often times stepping out of all patterns you are used to and that you expect. I remember breaking my fingers and fall into desperation when trying to find fingerings to perfectly manage all of the countless scales and runs in his opera “The love for the three Oranges” at the beginning of my trial year at the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. That was hard work! 😂
Couldn't you just ask your co-workers?😂 (Even when not perfect, you could still change Things to fit for you) I'm not a violinist so sorry probably its stupid
Because the distance between the notes are much larger on the guitar, I did and taught this 1-2-3-4 as a chromatic scale through the entire fingerboard, just like this.. It's a good way to warm up, but doesn't teach you the positions the same way the violin does.. This is a brilliant way to get to know the fingerboard! I'll work on this with my violin starting tomorrow. Thank you so much for making a video about it!
I love the Galamian scale books for both single note scales and double stops. The Scales in One Position at the start of the book are almost identical to the Markov exercise you covered. There are also Arpeggios in One Position. I love the arpeggio series based on ten different chords. That said, I have for the past year or two been enjoying The Heifetz Scale Book by Endre Granat. It condenses everything very nicely so that you can cover lots of ground in each key. Thanks so much for your careful demonstrations and for all the new materials you present. There is so much great material for developing technique which has fallen by the wayside, and your are rescuing it from oblivion.
Hence me being a beginner at violin BUT semipro at guitar i can speak out of personal experience that practicing scales is the backbone to each and every virtouse technique. I played scales on the guitar for countless hours with the effect, that everything afterwards was just a walk in the park to play. Thank you very much Daniel, for giving me the "keys" to unlock this on the violin aswell. I will practice this for the next months/ years and am really curios how far this will bring me and how fast it will be in the end. Best.
Daniel delivers again! as a jazz violinist this is how i typically do scales. improvisation is better done with less shifting in the classical sense. maintaining a single strings sonority isn’t so important. also !! this can be done with arpeggios! take a G major arpeggio and play it through the positions. love all the variations and bowings and ways to practice you give here !🙏
I had to pay lots of money for online master class for my daughter! Just found ur video by coincidence it turn out to be way better that what we paid for!! Thank you for ur time and ur very well done video!!
Thank you so much for sharing this scale system, among other exercises, and HOW TO WORK IT. You have so many inspiring beautiful powerful performances on your channel. I appreciate how you take us into your practice lab and teaching studio and demonstrate what these performances are built on. It is generous and probably very courageous. I know no other performing musician or pedagogue who does something remotely similar.
Hi, I am a cellist. Just want to say how much I enjoy your channel. I like keeping an eye out for technical and practicing tips from other instruments. Your knowledge of "obscure" violin technical book is fantastic. so as your practicing tips and methods. Keep up the good work. I have another variation for you. Have you tried starting the Markov with another finger than the first finger. You say scales in pieces don't always start on the tonic. I would add they don't always start on the first finger...
Ye s but if you think about this exercise by the time you have got to the end e.g you will have played g major one octave (Ionian) scale (2nd octave) starting on 3rd finger (1st pos) 2nd finger (2nd pos) 1st finger (3rd position) 4th finger (fourth position). so its pretty well covered. Also scale patterns 1234 2341 3412 4123 on each position should well cover every inevitability situation I am a cellist too and a jazz guitarist. The Jazz scale practice tries to cover all inevitabilities and this exercise (or approach) is similar to what I do on guitar (in terms of covering all positions) with the addition of scale patterns broken 3rds 4ths 5th and 6ths etc plus all 7 4 note arpeggios in all positions.
I was introduced to this mode of doing scales when I was a freshman in college on viola through Heidi Castleman's scale book. Seems so simple, but it was completely transformative for my playing!
Wow!! This was a wonderful presentation which could have easily gone for an hour or two. I knew about the Markov method but had never actually seen it. I wonder if it's still in print. I know Markov's son Alex who is famous for his Paganini Caprices, especially the 24th. Albert Markov will soon be 90 years old. The bowing example you give at 11:45 is actually used by Pekka Kuusisto in performance!! The interesting thing I have concluded about sound is that its innate - it comes from within. (I have two pupils who are sisters - one is 11 and the other 14. They have been studying for about three years each - they began at almost the same time, about four months apart. The 11 year old has a much better sound than the 14 year old, although I have taught them almost exactly the same way.) I only teach beginners so I will immediately put this scale method into practice as it is pretty simple to memorize and super useful!!! I wish I had discovered it years ago. Bravo, as always!!! Thanks for all the magnificent and inspiring videos.
Thanks very much! Yes, there are innate abilities and predispositions. But also, in terms of aural ability, there are many things that (could) happen environmentally from age 0 to age 1 which are crucial for development, such as development of perfect pitch. I have the Markov book pdf in Russian only. However, an English version does exist somewhere...
I have tried Hrimaly, flesch and galamian... That method by Markov is new for me I really like the concept I will try this week with g major key...thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙂🙂
Te felicito por tus vídeos! Aprendo mucho solo con verte tocar. Eres un gran maestro! Tengo que seguir con mis clases de inglés para poder entender bien todas tus explicaciones y consejos! Mil gracias!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💜🎶💜🎻
@@DanielKurganov Muchas gracias, Daniel! Utilizo la traducción automática en el PC. No es perfecta pero para mí es una gran ayuda. En todo caso seguiré estudiando inglés para intentar comprender mejor cada día, y atenta a tus vídeos para seguir aprendiendo contigo! Un abrazo! 🤗💜🎶💜🎻
Hi, there!! I really like how you think the violin and the authors ("hidden gems") that you bring to light. I have been doing a lot of one-position scales lately and this is a quite nice step-up. Thanks for your videos! Great job and keep it up!!!
I love how systematic the vid is It was easy to follow 😄 Also, even though the topic is pretty fundamental, you made it interesting and somehow exciting to watch. Btw, when you're playing a piece, what is usually going on your head? Some people say they're singing in their head or thinking about notes and phrases. Maybe other are solely on techniques. It's pretty interesting to think about 🤔
Thank you so much for this. I needed a detailed demonstration of this and here you are. The number of variety is overwhelming but I guess just do one at a time.
Very interesting. I play Guitar, and developed a very similar Pattern Based approach to playing scales. It certainly makes navigating the fretboard a lot easier. Thanks for sharing the Markov Approach. I'm looking forward to watching your "Good Legato" video.
1-position scales have really changed my playing over becoming more systematic with them. One variation I was hoping you’d mention was broken thirds, though I guess they aren’t quite “scales.” They were one of those things my longest teacher said are really unpleasant when they come up and they caught me last year so I’ve re-upped my practice of them every other day or so instead of doing straight scales, or I mix and match going up positions.
Broken 3rds are great! Especially when played in position: awkward string crossings but excellent for building speed+efficiency. Bach allegro movements benefit from that greatly, and you won't have to use fancy fingerings.
as a relative beginner who has switch from cello to violin this is such an eye opening exercise. So Thankyou so much for it. I do have one question that I find I am struggling with though I practice in front of the mirror daily to aid in correcting it. I seem to squeeze with my thumb and my wrist bends slightly outward. It was much worse a few months ago, however I wondered if you have an exercise of series of them that can in time correct this. Once again many thanks in advance.
being the wrist out is usually a confused motion which aims to 'reach' a note that you feel you can't reach. It actually works against expanding the reach, and as you noticed, caused tension in the thumb and other parts of the hand. The feeling that the notes are 'reachable' lays in the frame of the left hand. I mention bringing out the elbow in this video, but I talk more about handframe elsewhere (I forget which video). Basically it's supination of the left hand (forearm supination) + swing of the arm as demonstrated in the video + making sure the fingers hit the fingerboard at an angle, not perpendicular/standing straight up. So the hand is sort of "fanned out" in the end. Then you won't have the wrist problem. In fact, the wrist if anything will go a bit inwards, not out. Hope that helps! I would recommend having a teacher demonstrate and put their hands on you in person. It's a challenging topic to explore digitally.
@@DanielKurganov Thankyou very much for this. I will pay closer attention to my arm being more under the instrument, as I think I have been a bit lazy in this regard. Your videos are always a constant source of inspiration and knowledge. It has been difficult to see my teacher for months due to the Pandemic so hopefully soon that will change. Canada still has some pretty tight restrictions on indoor and in person learning, however that is soon to open up.
Great! I'm already seeing improvement in intonation and dexterity after a few days of this, thanks. I've mostly been working on bowing lately, though, and it caused me to notice your bow hand and arm in the "Even sound in scales" section (around 10:30.) There I notice your wrist is up when on the G string, wrist down when at the tip sometimes, and your bow grip changes quite a lot as you play the scales. Sometimes your pinky is off the bow. And it looks like your forearm "leads" the upper arm changes when you cross from higher to lower strings. That's how my bowing works, by default, too. Other bowing videos are telling me I need to correct that, i.e., lead string changes with the upper arm, keep the wrist flat, maintain the bow grip, etc. Are they wrong?
good eye ;) I did an experiment with this video: 1 microphone. It had to be very close for speech to sound good, which means violin clipped by 30db. No problem for mixpre's 32-bit float! But still very dry and flat violin sound due to the proximity :)
Thank you so much for this lesson! Many things you've said made me better understand some of my problems and I'm more hopeful of being eventually able to clean out my scales. Sometimes it's a little thing we need to hear to generate that eureka moment. Thank you!
That was a great lesson/post. It had so much in it that I think I'll be coming back to it periodically for months to come. Thank you. On a side note can I ask you what shoulder rest you are using? I've seen them before but don't know the name of the rest. Thank you in advance for both the lesson and the information. - Mark.
The last minute or so contains the most important takeaway from this - the 'Key Insight', as the caption says. Establishing an instant connection between your fingers and the interval patterns is invaluable on any instrument. To a beginner it might seem like an abstract concept, but as you gain knowledge of music and start to see how scales and intervals relate to music in general, this approach pays off in spades. @Daniel Kurganov - I'd be curious of your thoughts on combining this with Visualization habits. Ever since I was very young I've obsessively run through these types of patterns in my head (yeah it's maddening!) when not holding an instrument. When I hear any music my mind instantly starts visualizing my fingers playing whatever it is, and having these patterns and the interval shapes 'at the ready' makes learning new music easier I think. As you said, you're removing that layer of correlation - I'm not thinking literal 'This is a minor 3rd, this is a whole step' or 'This is a major scale...' It's just an automatic thought process. All of the various patterns and intervallic shapes become very familiar. Of course there are always new variations but the differences become slight. This is a great lesson for players ready to receive it!
Well said, John. I also think of various patterns (visual, auditory, physical) when listening to music. One thing I am always developing is hearing harmonic progressions internally and instantly. Once harmonic function become intuitive, the musical reaction to those harmonies becomes intuitive, and hence, erasing another translation layer - the one between the hands and the heart.
@@DanielKurganov After thinking a few days about this scale system, there was one itching question that always bothered me. Why isn't melodic minor or harmonic minor integrated? I tried and it is possible, but extremely confusing, especially with melodic minor going down to natural minor. Is it even worth it?
@@kehwa good question. Definitely melodic and harmonic minor should be used. As you said, sometimes it doesn’t work out well, but I think only when there are 1st position discrepancies due to open strings. Otherwise it’s all good!
Я очень хочу учитьса вашей staccato. Не всем удаетьса это.А вы доказеваете ,что каждого научить можно. Вашу книгу не смог достать .Есть и на русском или на немецком? Хотел бы поговорить с вами по WatsApp или Skayp e
As always, thanks a lot! Your videos always give me new motivation to practice and to practice carefully. I am a maths student and play violin as a hobby, so the systematic way you isolate different aspects of violin playing is just perfect for me! I would even say that possibly only because of this channel I started practicing daily again. There is one aspect of scale practice that I always wondered about: As somebody who is not comfortable in all key signatures yet, is there a systematic order to go through all the keys from “easy” to “difficult”?
Very glad to hear that! I will try to not let you down :) As for keys, I would follow the circle of 5ths in major, then after a few of those, go back and start introducing minor keys and go from there. That having been said, the best scale to work on is often the same one that your music is written in. Coordinating in that way is a good practice, in general.
This technique is used a lot in the Didier Lockwood methodology for violin jazz to help you find the correct fingering when changing scales (pattern of 4 fingers).
Great point at 10:03 In my case, the answer to your question of how many times I've used my Carl Flesch scale fingerings in actual literature is "probably never". So scales are basically exercises I've practiced in a vacuum, and when I'd encounter scalar passages in the literature, it would feel like starting from scratch, like the scale practice didn't do much to actually prepare me for the passages. Edit: I should give some credit to William Primrose's "Technique is Memory" scale method, which is similar in many ways to the Markov scales. I worked on it a bit about 15 years ago, but not enough. Seems to be out of print and very hard to find in digital format. I'd better not scan and upload a copy... Also, I'm chicken about fast scale practicing. I stop short of what feels outside of my control tempo-wise; consequently, I can't play very fast.
Push yourself and get confident with rhythms and shifting exercises first, then fast playing is far more accessible. For example, look at the Ysaye Exercises part 2 (the part directly after the 1-13 exercises initially). Get that to be speedy. It's very controlled in its scope but gets the juices flowing. I would be curious to read Primrose's book. Not sure if it's because of or in spite of the fact that he was a violist.
@@DanielKurganov Primrose was originally a violinist, until his teacher, Eugene Ysaye, suggested he would make a fine violist. Hard to argue with the result!
I am certainly a proponent of your playing and teaching. Thank you. You have previously done a video about your violin with your luthier. If you have done one about your bow, i have not found it. Would you do one, and about bows in general?
So inspiring to listen your videos, your tone is so great! 2 questions; -Do you have the perfect pitch? -Is it a good idea to practice with a drone note? For the intonation? Or is it a crutch? Thanks!
thanks! 1. no; 2. yes a drone can be very helpful if there are major issues with the frame of the hand. Essentially, you have to get the 1st and 4th finger frame solid and reliable. More specifically, tonics, 4ths and 5ths which can be checked with open strings are crucial. A drone can be a first step in realizing what the problem is, but as as you said, any extended use can turn it into a crutch. I also recommend more organic drone tones: search UA-cam for "indian drone tones"
@@rabindramaharjan7050 The "Indian Drone Tones" that I was referring to (available on UA-cam) do include a tanpura. I can't tell if those drones are real or computer-generated, but they're quite realistic and do the job of giving you a rich complex tone to match and "merge into" rather than some MIDI tone. Indian Classical and Western Classical both function on diatonic harmony. There is absolutely no conflict in this respect. In fact, there is perfect alignment in terms of the importance of perfect 5ths.
@@rabindramaharjan7050 From my understanding, Tanpura is always holding a 1st and 5th scale degree as drones. I have actually never heard it any other way, so maybe it's a limit of my experience. Of course with vocal or instrument melodies, you have all sorts of Gamakas like Jaaru, Janta Swaras, etc. But for the tanpura drones, I've only ever heard perfect 5ths being used. The youtube tanpura drone tones which I am referencing are definitely just perfect 5ths...so it matches perfectly for any classical music use. Single note MIDI drones lack overtones and are actually less useful and effective. The Indian drone tones are superior. All of that having been said, there are situations where drone tones are less helpful, like if you start getting into the specifics of just diatonic intonation versus melodic/Pythagorean intonation. The bigger point is also that it depends on what you're playing. You have to identify which drone note(s), if any, are appropriate to use. It's easy enough to put C+G drones on for a C major scale, but it's often less clear/obvious in actual repertoire.
Sometimes I practice major scales starting with just the root, 4th, 5th, and octave. Then add the 3rd and the 7th on the next pass for the leading tones, finally add the 2nd and the 6th.
Also a good method! I think Simon Fischer writes out that approach in his book. If I was more diligent I would do that with scales. I do however take such an approach in passagework as a way to see the 'grander structure' of the fingers.
Since I changed my strings ( Infeldt blue) my violin has found its voice and is resonating like a toaster powered by a car battery so playing scales in 1st and 3rd positions has got a lot easier.
Hi, your video has been most helpful. However, I seem to be a little confused when practicing scales. For example, when I have to practice pentatonic, whole tone etc, does this mean that I do not have to practice them with shifting? Like I need to playing on one position? In terms of speed and dexterity?
I have a book by Aram Tadjirian (now sadly out of print), using very similar patterns of scales, similar to Markov’s system. It has been one of the most valuable (short) study books of my professional career, so I’d be interested to find this book by Markov or is it yet another out of print gem?
This was very interesting and inspiring. Q: how about shifting? Do you combine this system with other scale systems that go up the string or let’s say 3-4 Oct I.e flesh or galamian?
The Markov definitely adds some spice to a larger scale system that includes Galamian-style acceleration scale/acceleration arpeggio, various bowings and rhythms, single-string scales and arpeggios and double stop work!
![The most important tip for Violin Vibrato [Scroll Support Method]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OSi3H676qAU/mqdefault.jpg)
That’s why it is so difficult to sight read any music by Prokofiev: the scales in his music are often times stepping out of all patterns you are used to and that you expect. I remember breaking my fingers and fall into desperation when trying to find fingerings to perfectly manage all of the countless scales and runs in his opera “The love for the three Oranges” at the beginning of my trial year at the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. That was hard work! 😂
Sight-reading Prokofiev. Sounds painful :)
Could you pls help me to find pdf of the book or something please
😊
Couldn't you just ask your co-workers?😂 (Even when not perfect, you could still change Things to fit for you) I'm not a violinist so sorry probably its stupid
After surviving, do you get a lifetime seat at HPSO? 😅
Because the distance between the notes are much larger on the guitar, I did and taught this 1-2-3-4 as a chromatic scale through the entire fingerboard, just like this.. It's a good way to warm up, but doesn't teach you the positions the same way the violin does.. This is a brilliant way to get to know the fingerboard! I'll work on this with my violin starting tomorrow. Thank you so much for making a video about it!
I love the Galamian scale books for both single note scales and double stops. The Scales in One Position at the start of the book are almost identical to the Markov exercise you covered. There are also Arpeggios in One Position. I love the arpeggio series based on ten different chords.
That said, I have for the past year or two been enjoying The Heifetz Scale Book by Endre Granat. It condenses everything very nicely so that you can cover lots of ground in each key. Thanks so much for your careful demonstrations and for all the new materials you present. There is so much great material for developing technique which has fallen by the wayside, and your are rescuing it from oblivion.
The amount of good information in this video is insane! 👏👏👏
Glad it was helpful!
Hence me being a beginner at violin BUT semipro at guitar i can speak out of personal experience that practicing scales is the backbone to each and every virtouse technique. I played scales on the guitar for countless hours with the effect, that everything afterwards was just a walk in the park to play.
Thank you very much Daniel, for giving me the "keys" to unlock this on the violin aswell. I will practice this for the next months/ years and am really curios how far this will bring me and how fast it will be in the end.
Best.
Daniel delivers again! as a jazz violinist this is how i typically do scales. improvisation is better done with less shifting in the classical sense. maintaining a single strings sonority isn’t so important.
also !! this can be done with arpeggios! take a G major arpeggio and play it through the positions.
love all the variations and bowings and ways to practice you give here !🙏
Thanks so much! As a guitarist, I wish I took it seriously enough to practice stuff like this. I was just trying to will the jam into existence :)
I had to pay lots of money for online master class for my daughter! Just found ur video by coincidence it turn out to be way better that what we paid for!! Thank you for ur time and ur very well done video!!
Glad it was helpful! I’m curious what course it was and how much it set you back :)
Thank you very much sir...from India 🇮🇳...
Thank you so much for sharing this scale system, among other exercises, and HOW TO WORK IT. You have so many inspiring beautiful powerful performances on your channel. I appreciate how you take us into your practice lab and teaching studio and demonstrate what these performances are built on. It is generous and probably very courageous. I know no other performing musician or pedagogue who does something remotely similar.
Very encouraging as always, Anne! I guess I have to keep going :) My new studio is finally ready for action, which hopefully means frequent videos!
You don’t have to ❤ I have a feeling that you will, though ❤ Looking forward ❤
Your picture video quality is exceptional!
Thank you very much!
Thank you Daniel for your enormous contribution and for sharing this more consistent information. Greetings from Brazil.
My pleasure!
Stumbled on this searching for Alexander Markov and left with something I will use for a lifetime. Brilliant stuff Daniel!
Sir, very useful and effective your teaching methods and the information about the practice tips.
Hi, I am a cellist. Just want to say how much I enjoy your channel. I like keeping an eye out for technical and practicing tips from other instruments. Your knowledge of "obscure" violin technical book is fantastic. so as your practicing tips and methods. Keep up the good work. I have another variation for you. Have you tried starting the Markov with another finger than the first finger. You say scales in pieces don't always start on the tonic. I would add they don't always start on the first finger...
Absolutely! You are opening up a can of worms :)
Ye s but if you think about this exercise by the time you have got to the end e.g you will have played g major one octave (Ionian) scale (2nd octave) starting on 3rd finger (1st pos) 2nd finger (2nd pos) 1st finger (3rd position) 4th finger (fourth position). so its pretty well covered. Also scale patterns 1234 2341 3412 4123 on each position should well cover every inevitability situation I am a cellist too and a jazz guitarist. The Jazz scale practice tries to cover all inevitabilities and this exercise (or approach) is similar to what I do on guitar (in terms of covering all positions) with the addition of scale patterns broken 3rds 4ths 5th and 6ths etc plus all 7 4 note arpeggios in all positions.
I was introduced to this mode of doing scales when I was a freshman in college on viola through Heidi Castleman's scale book. Seems so simple, but it was completely transformative for my playing!
Heidi Castleman is a genius!
Always happy to watch these, and they always make me excited for a better practice coming up
Wow l really love Daniel classes. I hope next time he will practice on vibrato.
Thank you so much Daniel.
Wow!! This was a wonderful presentation which could have easily gone for an hour or two. I knew about the Markov method but had never actually seen it. I wonder if it's still in print. I know Markov's son Alex who is famous for his Paganini Caprices, especially the 24th. Albert Markov will soon be 90 years old. The bowing example you give at 11:45 is actually used by Pekka Kuusisto in performance!! The interesting thing I have concluded about sound is that its innate - it comes from within. (I have two pupils who are sisters - one is 11 and the other 14. They have been studying for about three years each - they began at almost the same time, about four months apart. The 11 year old has a much better sound than the 14 year old, although I have taught them almost exactly the same way.) I only teach beginners so I will immediately put this scale method into practice as it is pretty simple to memorize and super useful!!! I wish I had discovered it years ago. Bravo, as always!!! Thanks for all the magnificent and inspiring videos.
Thanks very much! Yes, there are innate abilities and predispositions. But also, in terms of aural ability, there are many things that (could) happen environmentally from age 0 to age 1 which are crucial for development, such as development of perfect pitch. I have the Markov book pdf in Russian only. However, an English version does exist somewhere...
Very good and informative details.
Thank you very much 😊🎉
I have tried Hrimaly, flesch and galamian... That method by Markov is new for me I really like the concept I will try this week with g major key...thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙂🙂
Glad you like it! I think the best is to study all of the methods and develop a sense for what is most useful for your individual goals and issues.
Thanks, Daniel! It's much useful for me. ❤️
Glad to hear that!!
Te felicito por tus vídeos! Aprendo mucho solo con verte tocar. Eres un gran maestro! Tengo que seguir con mis clases de inglés para poder entender bien todas tus explicaciones y consejos! Mil gracias!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💜🎶💜🎻
¡Estoy feliz de que te guste el video! ¿Has probado las traducciones automáticas de youtube? ¿Son buenos?
@@DanielKurganov Muchas gracias, Daniel! Utilizo la traducción automática en el PC. No es perfecta pero para mí es una gran ayuda. En todo caso seguiré estudiando inglés para intentar comprender mejor cada día, y atenta a tus vídeos para seguir aprendiendo contigo! Un abrazo! 🤗💜🎶💜🎻
Subscribed because of that masterful intro.
Thanks!
Thank you very much. Your explanations and demonstrations make sense.
Excellent way to think of scales! Thanks for sharing.
amazing stuff.
Hi, there!! I really like how you think the violin and the authors ("hidden gems") that you bring to light. I have been doing a lot of one-position scales lately and this is a quite nice step-up. Thanks for your videos! Great job and keep it up!!!
Thanks!
Very helpful 🙌
This is so great! Even for cellists...thank you!!!😘👍
This is probably my favorite vid of yours so far 🙃
Wow, thank you! Any particular reason? I want to make more favorite videos in the future :)
I love how systematic the vid is
It was easy to follow 😄 Also, even though the topic is pretty fundamental, you made it interesting and somehow exciting to watch.
Btw, when you're playing a piece, what is usually going on your head?
Some people say they're singing in their head or thinking about notes and phrases. Maybe other are solely on techniques. It's pretty interesting to think about 🤔
Thank you so much for this. I needed a detailed demonstration of this and here you are. The number of variety is overwhelming but I guess just do one at a time.
You're very welcome! Yes, do one at a time. Notice what's easier and what's more challenging.
Wonderful! Thank you so much. Very helpful.
Scales is the food for music!
amazing class, thank you so much!!
You're very welcome!
Fantástico….Que Deus continue abençoando este seu Talento seus vídeos são perfeitos
Very interesting. I play Guitar, and developed a very similar Pattern Based approach to playing scales. It certainly makes navigating the fretboard a lot easier. Thanks for sharing the Markov Approach. I'm looking forward to watching your "Good Legato" video.
1-position scales have really changed my playing over becoming more systematic with them. One variation I was hoping you’d mention was broken thirds, though I guess they aren’t quite “scales.” They were one of those things my longest teacher said are really unpleasant when they come up and they caught me last year so I’ve re-upped my practice of them every other day or so instead of doing straight scales, or I mix and match going up positions.
Broken 3rds are great! Especially when played in position: awkward string crossings but excellent for building speed+efficiency. Bach allegro movements benefit from that greatly, and you won't have to use fancy fingerings.
Thanks. Greetings from Brazil
Gracias por compartir siempre contenido de valor 👏🙌🙌🙌
¡Gracias! espero que los subtitulos automaticos en español de youtube no sean horribles...
It is really very useful. I have benefited a lot so far. Thank you very much. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Glad to hear that!
Wonderful! Very helpful! Thanks!!!
as a relative beginner who has switch from cello to violin this is such an eye opening exercise. So Thankyou so much for it. I do have one question that I find I am struggling with though I practice in front of the mirror daily to aid in correcting it. I seem to squeeze with my thumb and my wrist bends slightly outward. It was much worse a few months ago, however I wondered if you have an exercise of series of them that can in time correct this. Once again many thanks in advance.
being the wrist out is usually a confused motion which aims to 'reach' a note that you feel you can't reach. It actually works against expanding the reach, and as you noticed, caused tension in the thumb and other parts of the hand. The feeling that the notes are 'reachable' lays in the frame of the left hand. I mention bringing out the elbow in this video, but I talk more about handframe elsewhere (I forget which video). Basically it's supination of the left hand (forearm supination) + swing of the arm as demonstrated in the video + making sure the fingers hit the fingerboard at an angle, not perpendicular/standing straight up. So the hand is sort of "fanned out" in the end. Then you won't have the wrist problem. In fact, the wrist if anything will go a bit inwards, not out. Hope that helps! I would recommend having a teacher demonstrate and put their hands on you in person. It's a challenging topic to explore digitally.
@@DanielKurganov Thankyou very much for this. I will pay closer attention to my arm being more under the instrument, as I think I have been a bit lazy in this regard. Your videos are always a constant source of inspiration and knowledge. It has been difficult to see my teacher for months due to the Pandemic so hopefully soon that will change. Canada still has some pretty tight restrictions on indoor and in person learning, however that is soon to open up.
I'm looking forward to trying this. I'm sure it will be most beneficial!
Fine masterclass on violin scales
Thanks for such a valuable lesson!
My pleasure!
Thank you . Very helpful for me
Thank you for this video! This is so helpful!!
I've been loving your astonishing wooden sound, Maestro. Bravo!
Thank you so much! It was very informative 👌👌👌
Great scale exercises!
Очередной топ-урок! Спасибо большое!
У Маркова очень своеобразная "школа", но безусловно одна из самых полезных и актуальных.
Spasibo bolshoe!
Really great video!
Great! I'm already seeing improvement in intonation and dexterity after a few days of this, thanks. I've mostly been working on bowing lately, though, and it caused me to notice your bow hand and arm in the "Even sound in scales" section (around 10:30.) There I notice your wrist is up when on the G string, wrist down when at the tip sometimes, and your bow grip changes quite a lot as you play the scales. Sometimes your pinky is off the bow. And it looks like your forearm "leads" the upper arm changes when you cross from higher to lower strings. That's how my bowing works, by default, too. Other bowing videos are telling me I need to correct that, i.e., lead string changes with the upper arm, keep the wrist flat, maintain the bow grip, etc. Are they wrong?
Thank you for your advices and dedication on your videos! Amazing sound quality from that Mixpre 10 💪🏻
good eye ;) I did an experiment with this video: 1 microphone. It had to be very close for speech to sound good, which means violin clipped by 30db. No problem for mixpre's 32-bit float! But still very dry and flat violin sound due to the proximity :)
Thank you for your analysis and willingness to share! Just curious what kind of violin you are playing. It sounds radiant!
Thank you so much for this lesson! Many things you've said made me better understand some of my problems and I'm more hopeful of being eventually able to clean out my scales. Sometimes it's a little thing we need to hear to generate that eureka moment. Thank you!
Wonderful!
Great exercises and advice! Thank you!
Excellent!
very good ticnique!
Hi Daniel.
I really love how u explain how to play the violin. And I would love if you treat a topic on harmonics. Thanks
Great suggestion!
That was a great lesson/post. It had so much in it that I think I'll be coming back to it periodically for months to come. Thank you. On a side note can I ask you what shoulder rest you are using? I've seen them before but don't know the name of the rest. Thank you in advance for both the lesson and the information.
- Mark.
This is very helpful
That's a really good practice! I even enyoy it! Thanks for sharing! Wish the best!
Thank you!
The last minute or so contains the most important takeaway from this - the 'Key Insight', as the caption says. Establishing an instant connection between your fingers and the interval patterns is invaluable on any instrument. To a beginner it might seem like an abstract concept, but as you gain knowledge of music and start to see how scales and intervals relate to music in general, this approach pays off in spades.
@Daniel Kurganov - I'd be curious of your thoughts on combining this with Visualization habits. Ever since I was very young I've obsessively run through these types of patterns in my head (yeah it's maddening!) when not holding an instrument. When I hear any music my mind instantly starts visualizing my fingers playing whatever it is, and having these patterns and the interval shapes 'at the ready' makes learning new music easier I think. As you said, you're removing that layer of correlation - I'm not thinking literal 'This is a minor 3rd, this is a whole step' or 'This is a major scale...' It's just an automatic thought process. All of the various patterns and intervallic shapes become very familiar. Of course there are always new variations but the differences become slight.
This is a great lesson for players ready to receive it!
Well said, John. I also think of various patterns (visual, auditory, physical) when listening to music. One thing I am always developing is hearing harmonic progressions internally and instantly. Once harmonic function become intuitive, the musical reaction to those harmonies becomes intuitive, and hence, erasing another translation layer - the one between the hands and the heart.
Daniel, I always enjoy your videos. I just have one request: can you please stop blowing my mind?! 😉
Deal!
@@DanielKurganov After thinking a few days about this scale system, there was one itching question that always bothered me. Why isn't melodic minor or harmonic minor integrated? I tried and it is possible, but extremely confusing, especially with melodic minor going down to natural minor. Is it even worth it?
@@kehwa good question. Definitely melodic and harmonic minor should be used. As you said, sometimes it doesn’t work out well, but I think only when there are 1st position discrepancies due to open strings. Otherwise it’s all good!
Thank you so much !!
Thank you! I have new motivation to practice sales:)and also to apply it with my students!
Great! It's so fundamental that it's great for players of all levels. I discovered the true value of it AFTER I finished conservatory.
Beautiful content !
Thank you!
Super!
Спасибо вам.
Ja ochen rad 4to vam nravet'sa!
Я очень хочу учитьса вашей staccato. Не всем удаетьса это.А вы доказеваете ,что каждого научить можно.
Вашу книгу не смог достать .Есть и на русском или на немецком?
Хотел бы поговорить с вами по WatsApp или Skayp e
Thank you.
holy +*%!! thats alot to take in in that short time, but thankyou so much for this insight. you dont give online virtual lessons do you?
As always, thanks a lot! Your videos always give me new motivation to practice and to practice carefully. I am a maths student and play violin as a hobby, so the systematic way you isolate different aspects of violin playing is just perfect for me! I would even say that possibly only because of this channel I started practicing daily again. There is one aspect of scale practice that I always wondered about: As somebody who is not comfortable in all key signatures yet, is there a systematic order to go through all the keys from “easy” to “difficult”?
Very glad to hear that! I will try to not let you down :)
As for keys, I would follow the circle of 5ths in major, then after a few of those, go back and start introducing minor keys and go from there. That having been said, the best scale to work on is often the same one that your music is written in. Coordinating in that way is a good practice, in general.
thank you!!
This is the mentality of every guitarrist, and this makes people lazy about music theory, but it does help understanding scale patterns
I am so good at playing violin it sounds like saxophone, but I am not good at saxophone.
Really though, great video and information!
This technique is used a lot in the Didier Lockwood methodology for violin jazz to help you find the correct fingering when changing scales (pattern of 4 fingers).
Yes, on a fundamental level, it's totally universal!
You made me want to practice technique! 😍
Technique and music are one and the same!!
Wow this is amazing! thank you Daniel.. Also do you have any other recommendations for sequential run patterns?
King!
M. Kurganov, thank you for all your videos. I have question for you. Could you tell me what is the brand name of your chinrest? Thank you.
thank you
Please mr Kurganov can you make a video of how to get a beutiful tone like you?
Your string wants to oscillate! Always look after its healthy and rich oscillation!
@@DanielKurganov Can you make a video about that concept? mr?
Good Idea ✅
Nice!!!😍🌹🌹🌹🌹Thank you!
Great point at 10:03 In my case, the answer to your question of how many times I've used my Carl Flesch scale fingerings in actual literature is "probably never". So scales are basically exercises I've practiced in a vacuum, and when I'd encounter scalar passages in the literature, it would feel like starting from scratch, like the scale practice didn't do much to actually prepare me for the passages. Edit: I should give some credit to William Primrose's "Technique is Memory" scale method, which is similar in many ways to the Markov scales. I worked on it a bit about 15 years ago, but not enough. Seems to be out of print and very hard to find in digital format. I'd better not scan and upload a copy...
Also, I'm chicken about fast scale practicing. I stop short of what feels outside of my control tempo-wise; consequently, I can't play very fast.
Push yourself and get confident with rhythms and shifting exercises first, then fast playing is far more accessible. For example, look at the Ysaye Exercises part 2 (the part directly after the 1-13 exercises initially). Get that to be speedy. It's very controlled in its scope but gets the juices flowing.
I would be curious to read Primrose's book. Not sure if it's because of or in spite of the fact that he was a violist.
@@DanielKurganov Primrose was originally a violinist, until his teacher, Eugene Ysaye, suggested he would make a fine violist. Hard to argue with the result!
Subscribed. Thank you.
thank you dear Daniel. Do we need to review the name of each note, while practicing these positions?
I am certainly a proponent of your playing and teaching. Thank you. You have previously done a video about your violin with your luthier. If you have done one about your bow, i have not found it. Would you do one, and about bows in general?
That's a great idea! The man who made my bow, David Hawthorne, is brilliant and a very interesting individual to boot.
So inspiring to listen your videos, your tone is so great!
2 questions;
-Do you have the perfect pitch?
-Is it a good idea to practice with a drone note? For the intonation? Or is it a crutch?
Thanks!
thanks! 1. no; 2. yes a drone can be very helpful if there are major issues with the frame of the hand. Essentially, you have to get the 1st and 4th finger frame solid and reliable. More specifically, tonics, 4ths and 5ths which can be checked with open strings are crucial. A drone can be a first step in realizing what the problem is, but as as you said, any extended use can turn it into a crutch. I also recommend more organic drone tones: search UA-cam for "indian drone tones"
@@rabindramaharjan7050 The "Indian Drone Tones" that I was referring to (available on UA-cam) do include a tanpura. I can't tell if those drones are real or computer-generated, but they're quite realistic and do the job of giving you a rich complex tone to match and "merge into" rather than some MIDI tone. Indian Classical and Western Classical both function on diatonic harmony. There is absolutely no conflict in this respect. In fact, there is perfect alignment in terms of the importance of perfect 5ths.
@@rabindramaharjan7050 From my understanding, Tanpura is always holding a 1st and 5th scale degree as drones. I have actually never heard it any other way, so maybe it's a limit of my experience. Of course with vocal or instrument melodies, you have all sorts of Gamakas like Jaaru, Janta Swaras, etc. But for the tanpura drones, I've only ever heard perfect 5ths being used. The youtube tanpura drone tones which I am referencing are definitely just perfect 5ths...so it matches perfectly for any classical music use. Single note MIDI drones lack overtones and are actually less useful and effective. The Indian drone tones are superior. All of that having been said, there are situations where drone tones are less helpful, like if you start getting into the specifics of just diatonic intonation versus melodic/Pythagorean intonation. The bigger point is also that it depends on what you're playing. You have to identify which drone note(s), if any, are appropriate to use. It's easy enough to put C+G drones on for a C major scale, but it's often less clear/obvious in actual repertoire.
Great video! May I suggest doing a video on how to improve octaves and fingered octaves.
Good suggestion! I'll definitely make a video like that.
Sometimes I practice major scales starting with just the root, 4th, 5th, and octave. Then add the 3rd and the 7th on the next pass for the leading tones, finally add the 2nd and the 6th.
Also a good method! I think Simon Fischer writes out that approach in his book. If I was more diligent I would do that with scales. I do however take such an approach in passagework as a way to see the 'grander structure' of the fingers.
Excellent video! Can you tell me where can I find Markov's complete book? Thank you.
Not sure where one can find it now, I'm sure it's sold somewhere! Check Scribd, also.
Super ❤️
Since I changed my strings ( Infeldt blue) my violin has found its voice and is resonating like a toaster powered by a car battery so playing scales in 1st and 3rd positions has got a lot easier.
Inspirational ❣️
شكرا جزيلا لكَ 💙
Hi, your video has been most helpful.
However, I seem to be a little confused when practicing scales.
For example, when I have to practice pentatonic, whole tone etc, does this mean that I do not have to practice them with shifting? Like I need to playing on one position? In terms of speed and dexterity?
I have a book by Aram Tadjirian (now sadly out of print), using very similar patterns of scales, similar to Markov’s system. It has been one of the most valuable (short) study books of my professional career, so I’d be interested to find this book by Markov or is it yet another out of print gem?
Let's talk books! Can you email me? daniel(dot)kurganov(at)gmail(dot)com
This was very interesting and inspiring. Q: how about shifting? Do you combine this system with other scale systems that go up the string or let’s say 3-4 Oct I.e flesh or galamian?
22:00 Good point : does it have the necessary variety and openess to always stay fresh and keep challenging you ?
The Markov definitely adds some spice to a larger scale system that includes Galamian-style acceleration scale/acceleration arpeggio, various bowings and rhythms, single-string scales and arpeggios and double stop work!