I was wondering if anyone could suggest / describe some exercises that I could do on the viola to improve my general technique, especially intonation, bowing and vibrato. I'm about grade 5 standard. As I don't have any spare cash atm, I would prefer descriptions of the exercises, rather than the title of a study book.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Emma

For intonation, I find it helps to play double stops as then you can really hear the intervals and whether or not they're in tune. Being a pianist I find it hard to hear whether I'm out of tune on a single note. Scales in 3rds and 6ths, although difficult are a great way of doing this as well as improving your left-hand technique, including shifting.

For vibrato you can practice alternating the note back and forth in rhythms, eg start with quavers at a fixed tempo, then move on to triplets, semiquavers, sextuplets etc. This will help your vibrato to have a flexible speed. Also make sure that your shoulder rest (if you have one) allows you enough freedom in you left arm. I find I can't do vibrato if I play without a shoulder rest as my left arm is stuck holding the viola up.

What aspects of bowing in particular do you want to improve? To improve flexibility in my bowing hand I sometimes practice with a pencil, moving it up and down through knuckle movement only.

Thanks Hannah, that's great! I'll try these out. I really want to improve my general bowing skills, especially flexibility.

Also scales in octaves on 1 string (particularly G string). Painful to start, great for flexibility. You could try some 3 octave chromatics for intonation. If you have the 4 seasons, the sequences are good to try for flexibility and also to make you more aware of the scales of the key.
Vibrato...try to play for a day without any vibrato at all. None whatsoever. Then the next day, do 5 minutes no vibrato, and then play "normally". It makes it so much easier, you might think your vibrato isn't sounding properly but this exercise tends to show that it is. You could ask your teacher about different types of vibrato, I expect you use wrist vibrato like most people but there is also finger or arm (aka elbow) vibrato. My friend uses arm all the time and it's a really different sound. I find it really hard to practice vibrato as when I think about it, it tends not to work. I have to get out some really old music and test out different types while playing something slow.
Bowing...oh I love this one, best thing to do is video yourself. You will be either amazed or appauled at how straight (or not) your bow arm is. This is the thing which makes most difference to sound above grade 2ish. You also want to have a look at how fast you move the bow (very important to create certain "moods") and where it is in relation to the fingerboard or bridge. Try playing right near the bridge, and then over the fingerboard. Keep experimenting until you find your favourite spot. When you think you've sorted your bow arm out, video it again, and compare. (I did this and was so shocked at how bad I was at bowing, but it certainly made me work on it and I no longer get snide comments from other violinists about my bow arm!)

Good idea, but be careful. If you have small hands or a short little finger - and there are many players like this - don't strain the left hand or wrist. There is a big difference between developing flexibility and ending up with muscular or tendon injuries....and unable to play at all!!

Ooops, I should have mentioned, if you can do it with 1st and 3rd finger higher up, it's better for you physically and stops hand/wrist problems, and makes you get "over" the violin more. As Miss Tendonitis I should have mentioned this.
PS - I hope before you attempt any of this you all warm up well and stretch, but don't stretch cold...

Wow, thanks for all of this! Loads to work on!



That's a really good idea, although I will be very careful of course as my viola is quite large!



Oh, I noticed that I have a tendency to over-use vibrato, which is affecting my intonation - at the orchestral course I've just been to, I kept getting pulled up for my intonation We were playing some pieces that didn't need vibrato and it was so hard not to use it! That exercise also sounds really good, I need more control over my vibrato (I THINK I use finger vibrato).



I don't actually have any means of videoing myself but I'll practise in front of a mirror. I know that my bowing is improving but I still need extra flexibility.

Thanks for all these exercises everyone, I've got loads of things to keep me busy now!

Thanks for posting good tips here. I think they stand true for the violin as well. I'm rather pleased that I'm getting little vibrato in my hand now! And I hope you get a a great result, bohemian. You sound really experienced and good at the violin!

By the way, I should have added that I've just been spending the month not practicing, but have actually learnt vibrato during class for about a month, and now it's taking off a bit. I'll try to remember the advice about NOT playing vibrato for a piece and experimenting with vibrato later on. That's good advice.