Are you looking for a way to improve your violin playing? If so, you’ll want to check out these exercises. These violin exercises will help improve your technique, flexibility, and tone.
And best of all, they’re fun! So give them a try and see how you can improve your playing.
How Do I Strengthen My Fingers for Violin?
As a beginner violinist, focus on these key areas:
- Improving your posture
- Holding the violin bow correctly
- Fingering the violin correctly
- Developing intonation
- Violin chord exercises
- Playing rhythm cleanly
- Training your ears
Most of all, try to stay mentally focused on each of these individual violin exercises we’ll tell you about below.
Staying focused is key if you want to improve your technique. Of course, working with a violin instructor is a good idea, too. Sign up for violin lessons and you’ll learn all the violin exercises you need to know, plus tips like how to tune your violin (which you’ll see in the video below):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U3HT0wwxSA
What Can I Practice to Get Better at Violin?
Learning to play a musical instrument – and finally being able to play all of your favorite songs for violin – is an amazing feeling! However, it can be easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of learning to play violin songs quickly, and to overlook the important basic step of developing your sound from the very beginning. Nothing will help build these skills more quickly than concentrated exercises; just a few short bursts each day to concentrate on each area will hone the skills you need to play the violin well.
When determining the best violin exercises for your goals, it’s important to be honest with yourself, and identify your weak areas. For example, if you already play another instrument, then exercises designed to improve theoretical musicianship may not be necessary. However, for the beginner violinist, a combination of theory and practical exercises will pay off.
Daily Violin Exercises to Try
If you’re like most violin students, you’re always looking for ways to improve your playing. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced player, there are always new exercises and techniques to learn. In this post, we’ll share some of our favorite exercises for improving your violin skills.
We’ll start with basic exercises and gradually move on to more challenging ones. So whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your playing to the next level, keep reading for our best violin exercises!
Reading Sheet Music
If you can’t read music, this is the best place to start. You might think that those marks on the page are unintelligible, and that you’ll never be able to work them out, but it’s just like learning a new language – it takes time! The best violin exercises to try will incorporate reading music, such as identifying time signatures and keys. Your violin teacher can help guide you and show you which exercises to try.
Violin Warm Up Exercises
Before you do any other violin exercises, make sure you take the time to warm up!
You can find some excellent violin warm up exercises here, but even basic things like scales, arpeggios, and slow trills can help your fingers get ready for practicing.
Rhythm Exercises for Violin
There’s considerable common ground between basic theoretical musicianship and developing a good sense of rhythm. However, unlike learning about keys and notation, your rhythm exercises can be practiced both with and without your violin, and even with and without your bow. Try some of the following:
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One of the best violin exercises doesn’t even require your instrument: Take out the music you are practicing, and read through the notation, paying special attention to any difficult areas. Identify whether the notes fall on the beat, on off-beats, or if they are syncopated or otherwise complex rhythms. Take a pencil and mark where the beats are directly on your music.
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With your violin (but without your bow), practice both your pizzicato technique and your rhythmic skills by plucking the strings as you read through your music. If you don’t have the best internal clock for keeping a rhythmic beat, invest in a good quality metronome, or download a metronome app for your smartphone.
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Finally, add your bow into your rhythm work. Make sure that your bow speed is even, as inconsistent bow speed can affect your tone and the rhythmic pulse of the music.
Bowing Exercises for Violin
Another one of the best violin exercises you can do for finger strength in both hands is to practice your rhythm exercises pizzicato. Scales will train fingers and ears simultaneously – practice changing strings, and also changing positions on the same string. Pay careful attention to your hand position; singers will usually practice in front of a mirror to make sure they aren’t doing anything to cause tension or upset their technique, and this is a good habit for you as a violinist to adopt, too. Flat fingers will not only lead to messy string changes, but will make it harder for you to depress the string enough to get a crisp sound. Keep your nails short, and make sure to use the tips of your fingers.
Tone Exercises for Violin
Still looking in the mirror, take a good look at your bow hold – is there enough flexibility in your grip to enable you to play freely? Once you’re sure that you’re holding your bow properly, the best violin exercises for tone involve an even mix of scales and long notes. Try these two:
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Using the scales from your pizzicato exercise, first practice by using a single long bow on each note. Start with a down bow, and aim for as even a sound as possible for each note. Repeat the exercise with two notes to a bow (known as “slurring”), then four up and four down (ending with a down-bow), then a single bow for the whole scale, up and down. Make sure your left-hand fingers aren’t sliding between notes (unless that’s your intention!), and that the tone quality is consistent.
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Practice long tones – usually the preserve of woodwind and brass players, they can also pay dividends for string players. The best violin exercise is to play a whole note on an open string. The open string will be more responsive to any changes in your bow speed, and you’ll hear inconsistencies quickly. Practice this exercise on first position notes as well, and with equal attention to up-bows as well as down.
Vibrato Exercises for Violin
Vibrato is a technique that can be tough to master, but if you want to be a more expressive violin player, you’ve got to take the time to learn how to do it. It can project the character or mood of a phrase or note.
There are both arm and wrist vibrato techniques you can learn.
One easy vibrato exercise is to place your left wrist at the violin’s rib, with the first finger stopping the violin. Put your thumb on the left side of the neck of the violin. THen, use a wrist motion to roll the tip of your finger up and down.
You can learn more vibrato exercises by checking out this vibrato post!
4th Finger Violin Exercises
For most violinists, the fourth finger is far weaker than the rest.
To practice using that infamous fourth finger, you’ll need to strengthen it. An easy way to do it is to play your scales while using the fourth finger instead of an open string. You can also do dedicated fourth finger exercises like these.
Of course, don’t forget to remember to do your hand position exercises, too. Hand stability is important for proper intonation. One easy way to do this is to start each lesson by tapping each finger on the fingerboard, starting with the first finger and then going down. Don’t be tense or keep your finger hammer down on the fingerboard.
You can then do trills between your fingers. These are created when you alternate between two fingers quickly and can help build finger speed and velocity.
Violin Chord Exercises
Violin chord exercises are vital if you want to get better at playing the violin.
Here’s a resource to help you master violin notes and chords, and another with a video tutorial with some scale exercises you can try.
As you might expect, scales are also essential. They are vital for good violin intonation, helping you build finger accuracy and ease of playing! Here are a few violin scales to master.
How Long Should You Practice Violin a Day?
Make it a goal to practice violin more often, but for shorter periods of time with regular breaks. As a beginner, 30 minutes is all you need for a solid lesson, as long as you have a great and effective practice routine in place.
Remember, to get better, you’ll need to practice all of the following:
- Violin chords
- Scales
- Arpeggios
- Fourth finger exercises
- String crossings
- Slurs and long notes
- Etudes
…and more! Diversity in your practice routine is key if you want to get better.
One more tip? Even if you’re teaching yourself how to play the violin, you can get an idea of how you sound by recording yourself playing.
You might not always hear the mistakes you’re making as you make them, but if your record yourself – especially if you do so with video, so you can watch your posture and finger positions – you can get an idea of how you’re doing by looking back at the recordings later on.
Violin Exercises for Beginners
If you’re a beginner violinist, we hope these exercises help you get started on the right foot. Remember to always warm up before practicing and take regular breaks to avoid injury. Most importantly, have fun! The more enjoyable you find playing the violin, the better you will become.
All this aside, it doesn’t matter if you’re practicing best violin exercises in the world – if you don’t have a trusted pair of ears to help you, such as a qualified and experienced violin teacher, there will come a point beyond which you cannot progress on your own. A qualified teacher will not only be able to supervise and correct your exercises, but will be able to suggest others that will take you further. It’s important to have a pair of eyes that know what they’re doing as well as a pair of ears – poor bow hold or posture even lead to injuries if not corrected by a professional. Even if you have no intention of taking your playing further than for your own pleasure, or perhaps the local amateur orchestra, it can be frustrating to hit hurdles that you cannot immediately overcome yourself.
Good luck!
Photo by FaceMePLS
Suzy S.