Scale Studies 11/12/2021

If there's one thing that guitarists and singers are good at, it's changing the key of a song. If there's one thing that has the potential to get on the wrong side of a violinist, it's changing the key of a song. For one thing, violins do not come equipped with capos, and for another, the resonance of a violin is dependant on sympathetic vibrations ringing out from the open strings not being played at any particular time.

Fortunately (in my experience) most listeners are not so discerning as to be able to tell the difference between substantial playing in an open key and adequate playing in a closed key.

Violinists do not always get the last say, and there will always be one listener who can hear the difference, so for those players who are subject to the dependancies of a singer's voice or the whims of a guitarist's capo it's a good idea to familiarise themselves with what playing in an alternative key may actually feel and sound like.

I've included a simple four bar phrase, to which I've added double stops, and I've moved the phrase around the circle of 5ths. There are other harmonies that could be used, and you are welcome to try those, but for the purpose of this exercise I've tried to keep the harmonies as simple as possible (which is not to say that it's simple to play.... just simple sounding)