First started on chromatic scales, dreaded 3 octaves again. The G, D, and A string I'm fine. When I get up to E string, oh boy. By the time I get to A (last note I can be confident whether I'm sharp or flat), everything goes down hill. The high E is another check point for me I'll bow open E to check and by this time, I'm completely out of tune (usually flat), then going up to the G i'm eitehr way sharp or way flat.
Is there any trick to this? The chromatic scale on the piano is SO MUCH easier!!! Without a thing for me to look at, if my eyes are not GLUED to my book and counting the fingerings, I wouldn't even know where to stop!!
HELP!!
Full Version: Chromatic Scales
My 'cello teacher said, "Eventually you make friends with the fingerboard", and nearly 40 years later (now on bass) I can feel it happening. Meanwhile, I have been doing what, I suspect, most amateurs do: listen to my note and correct it to fit with what is going on around me. I have the advantages of playing piano and horn, and having done quite a bit of singing in my earlier years, so that my pitch perception is more acute than that of most beginners.
How about leaving an electronic tuner playing a single note* (A will do) and playing the difficult part of the chromatic scale on the violin while listening to it? That will give you frequent check points at the unison, minor and major thirds, perfect fourth and perfect fifth, and help you to learn what the other intervals sound like. You need also to get a good short term memory for the pitch of your starting note, so that, in time, you can do without the tuner.
* If you have an electronic keyboard with a sustaining pedal and an organ stop, you can sit at it while playing your violin and hold the note of your choice with your foot on the pedal.
How about leaving an electronic tuner playing a single note* (A will do) and playing the difficult part of the chromatic scale on the violin while listening to it? That will give you frequent check points at the unison, minor and major thirds, perfect fourth and perfect fifth, and help you to learn what the other intervals sound like. You need also to get a good short term memory for the pitch of your starting note, so that, in time, you can do without the tuner.
* If you have an electronic keyboard with a sustaining pedal and an organ stop, you can sit at it while playing your violin and hold the note of your choice with your foot on the pedal.
QUOTE(kenm @ Oct 31 2008, 11:11 AM) 
How about leaving an electronic tuner playing a single note* (A will do) and playing the difficult part of the chromatic scale on the violin while listening to it? That will give you frequent check points at the unison, minor and major thirds, perfect fourth and perfect fifth, and help you to learn what the other intervals sound like. You need also to get a good short term memory for the pitch of your starting note, so that, in time, you can do without the tuner.
You can do it without the tuner anyway if your main problem i the E string just by holding an open A double stopped with the E string as you get higher. Try and discover exactly what the problem is. Sure, they are hard, but is it the shifting, semitone gaps, internalisation of the tonic note etc? Once you identify a single issue to work at the rest will come much easier.
QUOTE(bohemian @ Oct 31 2008, 01:51 PM)
QUOTE(kenm @ Oct 31 2008, 11:11 AM)
How about leaving an electronic tuner playing a single note* (A will do) and playing the difficult part of the chromatic scale on the violin while listening to it? That will give you frequent check points at the unison, minor and major thirds, perfect fourth and perfect fifth, and help you to learn what the other intervals sound like. You need also to get a good short term memory for the pitch of your starting note, so that, in time, you can do without the tuner.
You can do it without the tuner anyway if your main problem i the E string just by holding an open A double stopped with the E string as you get higher. Try and discover exactly what the problem is. Sure, they are hard, but is it the shifting, semitone gaps, internalisation of the tonic note etc? Once you identify a single issue to work at the rest will come much easier.
I think I am under-estimating the distance between the semitone. I can identify it since I noticed that i'm flat arriving to the A made me think that I am not clear on the distance of the semitone. They are further apart than I think they are!
Coming down is another challenge (again, just on the E string).
QUOTE(fayewolf @ Oct 31 2008, 03:10 PM)
Coming down is another challenge (again, just on the E string).
Like cats that insist on climbing to the top of a tree, descending proves a huge challenge.In fact, most of my pupils will suffer problems with the descending portion of a scale - esp. on the E string.
QUOTE(fayewolf @ Oct 31 2008, 02:10 PM)
I think I am under-estimating the distance between the semitone. I can identify it since I noticed that i'm flat arriving to the A made me think that I am not clear on the distance of the semitone. They are further apart than I think they are!
Coming down is another challenge (again, just on the E string).
So surely if you fix the first problem, the E string thing may (partially) fix itself? If you haven't got the hang of what a semitone sounds/feels like, there's no way you'll be able get up and down the E string in tune
Chromatics are just hard though, so don't give up.
Erk - don't talk 2 me about chromatic scales 
I'm only doing them 2 octaves at the moment, so what I notice is the way that whenever I play an open string it suddenly plays a completely different note from what I was expecting...
I'm only doing them 2 octaves at the moment, so what I notice is the way that whenever I play an open string it suddenly plays a completely different note from what I was expecting...
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