Violin Etudes For Beginners

[Beronike Watkin]

Thego-to etude book for beginner violinist is 60 studies op 45 by Wohlfahrt. The first 29 etudes are in the first position. They cover bowing, intonation and rhythm. These etudes can support you playing your first student concertos.

Usually, they are focusing on a specific technique, so if the etude is for practicing double stops, for example, you will encounter several examples of double stops in all strings and various positions. While there are exceptions, especially for advanced levels, they are usually monotonous and rarely sound like an actual musical piece.

Etudes contain similar motifs as the classic repertoire and are composed as a preparation for it. Only studying repertoire will be more difficult. Practicing them is also a fantastic way to stay in shape or use them as a warm-up. They can really help if you want to improve a specific technique and they are a great supplement to your practice. Any violinist who takes the craft seriously should practice etudes.

This is one of the books everyone has played at least some etudes. They are very appropriate for a beginner and tackle a lot of techniques such as many types of bowing (dtach, marcato, staccato, etc.), trills, double stops, and more. Every different technique is introduced in a way that a beginner will understand and the difficulty level is progressing evenly so it feels easy going through it one by one.

Usually, I give this along with Kayser and pick the most suitable from both. Mazas is more melodic and some of the etudes are beautiful to listen to, which is usually rare on that level. They are very stylish and need a lot of finesse.

These are advanced studies that require mastering all violin techniques so far. For some, this is one of the most difficult books on the violin, but someone who has mastered them can have no fear of conventional violin techniques.

Someone suggested Wohlfahrt to me a few months ago when I mentioned not knowing what or how to practice after loosing my teacher (and lacking money to pay for lessons) I have hardly practiced at all the last few months as I completely lost motivation and am also very tired and in a lot of pain due to stress. But the last couple of weeks I've felt more like practicing again and I've been trying to do Wohlfahrt( starting with 1-30) to get more efficient in 1st position. Teacher got me started on 3rd which I did spend some time on learning finger patterns, but I've chosen to focus on 1st as I believe that one should feel comfortable in first before jumping into 3rd. I think my teacher was more about enjoying playing songs than most efficient way of learning.

I've only gone through a few of the first ones when I discovered that on page 4 it says "In the second, third and seventh etudes the same bowings that were given for the first etude are to be used"

The bowing given being what? On the top of the first page, and on some other pages i noticed when scrolling through it, is 2 lines of notes showing staccato and legato. Is this the bowing mentioned? Am i supposed to memorize some kind of bowing pattern to apply to the etudes? Seem strange to me if that is so. Especially since it doesn't look like a fixed pattern either and I would have no idea how to apply it anyways. Also I do not understand when there are legato AND staccato markings on notes. I have very limited knowledge in this as I only had lessons for a year and my last lesson was in May.

So far I've only used these etudes to practice intonation and finger patterns, really feel like i need it after having played so little in a long time. Haven't paid too much attention to bowing with it as I never understood if there is supposed to be any particular technique applied to it.

Trying to learn on my own is hell for me. I am a very unorganized person in general, but even more so after stress made me sick. I am so lost with it. I'd be able to do it if there was a curriculum I could follow on what to learn next. Wishing I hadn't sold my piano and taken piano lessons instead. :S

Sorry if this was messy.

I really don't have a lot to add to this. My main thing is playing the violin should be fun and a way to relieve stress. It shouldn't be adding stress. When I need to relax I go and play a few songs. Practice should be fun too. Get your fundamentals in, work on intonation, and push yourself a little bit so you can grow.

To answer your question on the bowing, those etudes you're asking about list several different bowings at the top of the page. You are supposed to go through the etude using each one. They don't list them either so you memorize the pattern and probably so that they didn't have to have several pages with each pattern printed out. The bowings are something that eventually become second nature and really don't feel weird not having them printed out.

That said, maybe jumping back in with etudes isn't the right thing for you to be motivated at the moment. You can use learning fun tunes for the same purpose (getting comfortable in 1st position and intonation).

It depends on my mood what I personally find motivating. Some days just having fun playing tunes keeps me going, other days I need a good challenge, other days I just need my scales and a metronome clicking at me. Find what keeps it fun for you.

@Scrap

Oh it's not the playing that stress me out. Well it is, but that is because EVERYTHING in my life cause me stress right now as I am sick. Most likely an exhaustion syndrome, but we'll see what the doctor thinks on Monday..

At least I've felt like playing the last couple of weeks, it's just hard to do on my own.

@damfino

That actually confused me more lol. But after looking at the violinwiki I think I get it. The bowings are suggestions and each bar is a separate pattern you can apply to the whole etude. As in, measure 1 is one pattern that would be repeated in every measure of the etude. Then measure 2 is another pattern that would be applied on its own. Is that correct?

Not the confusing thing I was thinking, that all those 14 measures of bowing are to be memorized at once and somehow applied in some odd way when the measures in the etudes are way more than 14.

I managed to find some videos on demonstrations and tutorials on some of the etudes and they are all played detach, which is what I've been doing.

I actually prefer technical stuff. I absolutely hate playing simple tunes or simplifications of songs I do want to play. They either bore or frustrate me as I usually don't agree with the arrangements. What I want to play is all way too advanced and will be for a long time. So I find scales and technique much more fun to do.

@Bob

Thank you for the links, I will check it out!

Online lessons is an option, but not for someone like me who absolutely refuse to be on live cam infront of anyone at all lol

There is another teacher at the school I was going to, but when money is a huge issue right now it's a no go. Hopefully I will be able to pay for at least a few lessons before they go on a break over summer. I live in a real shitty place for lessons on anything but guitar and piano for adults. Had I lived in southern Sweden, education would be everywhere.

What I really like is Essential Elements. If I were you, I would buy Essential Elements. Get the one with the online interaction, not the CD or DVD. You can play with accompaniment, and I think you can change the tempo with the online help. You just register the code that is in the book. For that reason, do not get a used one as I would assume that code was registered by the previous owner.

Etudes may be fine for someone who has played and has pretty good intonation and bowing. The ones I have seen, and I could be wrong, are not for someone trying a restart, or a beginner. Scales books would be better. It is hard to make yourself do scales. If you do the scale of a song you want to work on a few times before working on the song each time, that should help. Also, warm up with slow long bowing to stretch your bowing arm and get the fingers, arm and elbow working properly.

I hope this helps. That is what I would do. I am not interested in becoming a classical violinist. Maybe that is why etudes are a complete turn off, and why, to me, they all look more for a learner beyond book 1, or even book 2. As someone else stated here, you can learn bowing and intonation with songs you like, and easy songs. I think they are better learned on easier songs. Then you can hone the skills with the more difficult pieces. It should be fun.

@Mouse If you read my post you should know that I do not have an instructor anymore nor the money for one.

We did start with a book, not suzuki thankfully. Some series of books made by a swede. We got through maybe a quarter of it, if even that, for lessons but after that she kept bringing me other stuff from various other sources. I don't know if it's because she thought I was progressing much faster than any of her other students. I did play through the whole book myself during christmas break the first semester. I have been thinking about getting the rest of the books but at the same time I feel like even book 2 might be too easy for me at this point. But basics are always good though and I'm sure it would bring up bowings or technique that my teacher never got around to. But money is still an issue for the time being.

I still really like doing scales. They are boring on a piano but fun on a violin lol. Etudes might not always sound the best but there is still something fun about them, maybe the technicality of the fingering. So far I don't find them that hard. Just take a bit of practice. Those low 1's that I'm not used to doing does give me some grief, but some repetition is all I need.

After my teacher got me started on 3rd position I got Heather Broadbents Mastering 3rd position book which is just finger patterns and scale exercises. I found them real fun to do. Especially when I started hitting those fifths right on the spot lol. But maybe I'm just weird.

I'm not completely starting over either. Playing has been irregular and sporadic the last 2-3 months but I've still played now and then which has been enough to keep my brain in check.

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