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Ah the confusion makes sense. I’ve just made a new recording and video with a new camera and mic. It’s harder to find because it has fewer views so far.

Wise man.

Thanks Amy! Hope this helps.

You’re welcome!

Thanks Kate!

Good question. In this stage of practicing, I don’t ghost on the way down. You should have a sure feeling of where 1st position when starting this exercise so I feel that it adds unnecessary complication. Typically, however, we will want a ghost note on the way down. Also, if ghosting helps you here, it definitely won’t hurt. 👍

​@@priceviolinacademywhat is a ghost note?

Welcome!

Yeah good question. I can see how that’s confusing. Perhaps supinate is not the perfect word here. It’s only a mild supination if so. More than a drastic supination the idea is that the weight of the arm is being transferred into the ringer finger and pinky. This will result in a flattening of the knuckles like you described. The shift in weight should be gradual and be accompanied by a slow motion colle which will relax the bow hand. Hope that makes sense. Some of the later videos in the tone series go more into depth on this topic so check those out if you haven’t already. 👍

Thank you!

No kidding! It makes a massive difference.

The difference is pretty wild.

Love to hear it! It was one of my faves growing up.

That’s so nice! I actually did think about my voice inflection right when I started making vids because I felt that I sounded monotone so that’s really nice to hear. As to your question, it’s a good one. If you want to get into the nitty gritty, some element of muscle use is required for everything we do on the instrument, BUT the amount is so minimal that it’s counterproductive generally to talk about it. Usually people just have way too much tension. So the true answer is that there is slight muscle twitch in the bicep, but if you notice it, it’s probably way too much. Definitely not what most would call tension. Hope that helps!

@@priceviolinacademy Yes, that helps immensely! Another thing I need to work on, then - one of the few times I dislike playing viola, due to the size 😕

@@ab-zg8pt Yeah! It does make things a bit more challenging for sure.

Hmm good question. It’s definitely a possibility in the future but a good course on music theory isn’t high on my list of priorities at the moment. I’d assume that there are already some good free ones on TH-cam. If not though, I might make some.

I appreciate it Sedat!

Haha yeah making one for each scale is definitely a possibility. I was thinking this one could be used to get a sense of the progression which would then be applicable to all the other scales. I have some other videos in the works that I think will be more immediately helpful but this is the 2nd request I’ve gotten to make one for every scale. If a few more come in, I’ll definitely bump it up the priority list. 👍

Thank you!

Love to hear it! Game changer for sure.

Haha honestly though! Audiences can sense stage fright too to some extent if your musicality doesn’t supersede it.

And yet so many don’t fully use them. 🥲

@@priceviolinacademy 😔

Tricky to answer this in a comment. The easiest way is probably to just grab Barbara Barber’s scale book for advanced violinists. It’s a pretty standard arpeggio progression and the book will help you out long term so you’ve got all the stuff together conveniently. 👍

@@priceviolinacademy 🙏 thanks

Thanks Edward! Not too familiar with ABRSM grades so not sure on that one.

Thanks so much for saying so! It honestly means a lot to me. I’m glad that you brought up how to practice as I feel like that is THE most important thing to teach students and is not easy to understand. Maybe you feel the same. I’m currently planning out a series of videos on general principles for how to practice that I’m really excited about so keep an eye out for those. As a teacher I’d love to hear your feedback on more videos and any ideas for tweaks or things you would want on here for your students. 👍

You and the rest of us brother! I think the best advice is in the video but I think setting up for what is comfortable for the 4th finger and reaching back for the 2nd finger is really the key. It’s all about having a complete hand frame where all the fingers are accessible with a loose thumb and index finger. Figure out the right hand frame keeping in mind elbow wrist and finger position that favors the 4th and be patient. It took me a long time to dial it in. You got this. 👊

@@priceviolinacademy yeah the key is to keep practice and practice I think 😁

I’ll take it. 👍

Congrats! Love to hear it. 👊

Thanks Lola! Yes they are!

Thanks Virginia!

Nice to hear and thanks for reaching out! I haven’t gotten a lot of feedback so I’ve been on the fence about posting more. I’ll definitely be giving another couple a try at least.

I would love to see more! What I found particularly useful about this video is that most of the pieces the students played are around my level (I'm an adult learner), so I can immediately apply Melissa's advice to my own playing. And of course, the fact that the masterclass is recorded means I can always go back to it whenever I need help with a particular piece. I'm always happy to learn new ways to make the pieces I'm playing sound more musical, emotional and expressive. I do have an awesome teacher, but we tend to go through our lessons at a fast pace, and sometimes I don't get to polish the things I'm learning to a level that I personally find satisfying, so I really appreciate having lessons like these available online, for some extra guidance. Thank you again for posting this! 😊

Haha I feel you there. :) Go slow enough and you should be able to ADJUST each note till it’s perfect before leaving it at least. 👍

@@priceviolinacademy yeah, I've only been playing about two years so intonation is still quite iffy. You are perfectly right though; slow and steady is the best way 👍

@@_pigeons_ 👊👍

Hey! I’m assuming you just mean add tags so you can easily jump to what part of the scale you need. Is that what you meant? That is definitely coming. Let me know if you meant something else.

@@priceviolinacademy I meant that you may cut them into individual video and each video is a scale. Each scale could repeat several times. It will be helpful for the beginners if the scale is played without vibrato. Adding the tags is another option for sure. Thanks

They’re sixteenth notes in a 3/8 time signature. So six of them in a measure. I suppose if you wanted to advance it further you could do rhythms in groups of 6 and it might help you to feel it closer to the way it’s felt in performance.

@@priceviolinacademy thank you for the reply. I love this piece but I never understand the rhythm. So many people play it as if it's triplets but then I saw the music and it's just as you said 16th notes in a 3/8 time. I'm very confused by all this. I wonder if other violinists can comment as well and help me out.

@@Bilscamp I think I know what you mean. Are you referring to the fact that most players sound like they are splitting the 6 notes into 2 groups of 3 rather than 3 groups of 2? If so, I have thought about that before. I do think that 3 groups of 2 sounds really disjunct when it gets up to speed. It’s just too much subdivision. I think ultimately the way to feel it is in measure chunks. Also I think it’s just the way the notes are written that makes it sound like 2 groups of three, particularly at the beginning. That’s my two cents. 🤷‍♂️ I’d be interested in other comments.

That doesn't make any sense to me. I guess I'm not smart enough to play Bach

@@Bilscamp haha nah! That’s definitely not true. I’m making it more complicated than it has to be. Maybe I’ll make a video on compound meters that may help or you can go look for one. You got this. 👍

Thank you!

Yes i do. 👍 Keep an eye out for the channel intro video and you can learn more about what I do. I perform and teach professionally but my teaching is what I’m most passionate about.

@@priceviolinacademy Cool! Do you go on tour?

@@doggoei984 Very rarely at this point. Mostly just teach from my home and perform locally. Every once in a while I’ll take a gig that requires some travel.

Thank you!

Good question. I don’t think it matters hugely because slurring the notes will be fairly easy compared to doing them separately. However, I would probably start by slurring whatever groupings of fast notes I’m doing (groups of 2,3, or 4) and then progress to doing accurate bowing eventually. Meaning stopping the bow in between rhythms but hooking over and over. That will reinforce the right bow distribution through the slur. Hopefully that makes sense.

@@priceviolinacademy that's similar to what I've been doing, I have a run of 22 notes in half a measure, I've been going in groups of 3 and 4 moving up 1 note at a time

@@ggtoxin6148 Nice. There’s one other concept that may help you out depending on how das the passage is, which is starting to practice grouping them in terms of hand frames or positions. Hard to describe in a comment but I’m planning on making a short about it so keep an eye out for that.

@@priceviolinacademy zigeunerweisen

@@priceviolinacademy definitely one of the hardest pieces I've worked on, I just need to work on the fast movement of 1st and 2nd finger up the e string to 9th pos

Sure! The slow one was the 2nd mvt. of Wieniawski’s 2nd concerto and the faster one was the 1st piece in Suzuki book 4- a Seitz violin concerto. I’m afraid I’ve never learned the Wienawski and I just realized I played it in the wrong key because I was just playing by ear.😅

It’s the presto. :) Practice the whole thing like that eh?

🤔 I’ll look into it.

Hey! Thanks for the comment and the video ideas. I’ll definitely be making more of these types of videos until I have series on every aspect of technique. 👍 Until I get around to making the videos that include the topics you addressed maybe these tips can guide you. 1. The higher you get in the string, the more it responds to bow speed rather than pressure. Press less and flow sideways more. 2. Be careful as you transition to not using a shoulder rest to not over grip the neck of the violin with your left hand. I’m planning a violin setup video for both using a shoulder rest and not using a shoulder rest. 3. When practicing the four note chords try to find beautiful sound on the bottom two strings by lingering on them and then do the same with the upper two strings. Find what works with bow speed, weight and contact point before trying to roll too much. Hope this helps! It’s hard to address things perfectly without hearing a sample of where you’re at. I’m hoping to launch a patreon as soon as the channel gets big enough where you could participate in a masterclass and get feedback. Or of course you could email me and we could do a virtual lesson if you like. 👍

@@priceviolinacademy thank you so much for your time and suggestions 🙏 I'm going to try these tips. May health be with you

Hey Edward! It’s a good point to bring up. I start with just a and e as those are the strings that will be used for playing the twinkle variations. I also feel that it’s easier on those strings to get a feel of using gravity for tone production. Progressing to doing the other strings definitely wouldn’t hurt though. I just try to keep things as simple as possible early on because there’s so much to think about.

David, thank you for replying. Since I usually run through some scale exercises at the start of each violin practice I have combined playing tekkas on my scales. I mean for each note on a scale I play I do three tekkas. This is a variation that I find useful too. Helps towards getting 10,000 tekkas! 😂 I’m now working on Tone series 3/6 also. Bless you for sharing with us these exercises which my violin teachers that I have had don’t even know.

@@edwardthtan Love the tuckas on the scales. 👍 Fun to hear you’re making your way through the tone series methodically. I’m eager to hear how your tone develops in the coming weeks.

Hi David, I’ve made a video on 24 May 2024 to show you the current level of tone achievement I have following your exercises. th-cam.com/video/EiM1GEt88Zs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1TsIrkSYDxDqIq0q

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you! Hope it helps. 👍

Thanks Elle!

Depends what level you’re at. I like Barbara Barber Scales for Advanced Violinists as a starting point and then Trott’s book Melodious Double Stops. The latter makes the practice feel musically satisfying in a nice way. Carl Flesch and Bach would be the next step.

The artists technique of violin playing - D.C.Dounis

@@romanlytwyniw3186 Also a great recommendation. 👍