Major Scales and Fifths

I'm doing well with my basic major scales. I know my minors a bit well, but not too well. I put in about an hour and a half of practice today and I can tell that my skills are improving. That rosin really had a dramatic effect. I also recently started remembering to loosen my bow before I put it away, I guess it will warp if you don't. The hair looks funny when it goes limp.

Also, I noticed that the metal coils on my bow are almost loose. They are movable pretty easily, and sometimes they go over each other which is kind of weird.


Practicing major scales really helps. Try to get as close to the correct note as you can though, my main problem is that my third finger gets out of key sometimes, and it sounds really bad.


Time for some theory! This is still useful even if you don't play violin. Piano references will be common.

The three open major keys you ca play are G major, D major, and A major.

G major has one sharp in it. F#
D major has two sharps in it. F# and C#.
A major has three sharps in it. F#, C# and G#

On the piano, sharps or flats are the black keys on the piano. The notes E and B do not have a sharp note, they go straight to F and C respectively. F and C do not have a flat, they go straight to E and B respectively. If you want to get technical, F flat could be E, but it is never referred to like that.

# = Sharp note
b = Flat note.
For example, Bb would be B-flat. A# would be A-sharp.

A# and Bb are the same note, but it has two different names which are used depending on which key you are in. When you go up from an A note by one semitone, you get an A#. When you go down from a B note by one semitone, you get a Bb. You can choose the note name by either preference, or by reference to the previous note. If you moving down a scale, calling a note flat is most common. When going up, sharp is more common.


Hopefully this isn't too dense. One more little bit of information you really should know.

If you go from the thickest string on a violin to the next string(the G to the D), you have a fifth. This means that in the G major OR G minor scale, the fifth note you will play is going to be a D. Fifths are common in chords, and knowing your fifths is really useful. I will eventually get into that later, but for now just know that from one string to the next smaller string is a fifth.

If you know the Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do' thing, that is the major scale. Sing that. When you get to 'so', that is the fifth of Do. This is called solfege.

Hopefully some people who read this will find this useful.


My to do list:
Get a shoulder rest
Get a Cleaning cloth
Write an article about the Circle of Fifths