How to Play Faster (Increase Speed) on the Violin
Okay, the very first basic way to practice getting speed in the left hand is to put your metronome on and play scales, easy! That’s the very first foundational way to increase speed.
Increase speed with rhythmic scales
Another way to increase speed is to practice rhythms. You can apply these rhythms to your scales, etudes and difficult passages within pieces.
Just a few rhythms to get you started:
- Long short
- Short Long
- Triplets or groups of threes
Ready to increase speed by improving note reading, finger association and finger independence? Improve your overall playing skillset with “Strengthening Exercises for First Position.”
This immediately downloadable ebook educates violinists how to excel in first position via six most common first position finger patterns. These exercises are great for the beginner violinist wanting to master first position and the seasoned violinist wanting to increase speed, discover and heal any intonation inconsistencies.
This book also focuses on three distinct issues typically neglected in other method books with exercises to implement: the importance of holding fingers down, lifting fingers, and the importance of hovering fingers.
Increase speed with rhythmic scales
Another way to increase speed is to practice rhythms. You can apply these rhythms to your scales, etudes and difficult passages within pieces.
Just a few rhythms to get you started:
- Long short
- Short Long
- Triplets or groups of threes
Increase speed with finger pattern exercises
Another creative way to increase speed anywhere on the violin is to take a simple formula within a specific finger pattern. This way you can work out the intonation and accuracy between fingers within a specific pattern anywhere on the violin.
For example.
- 4041424340
- 414243404
- 4321234
- 1234321
- 1413121
Practice these on every string in any position.Pretty simple. then you can even add rhythms to the above formulas.
Take these exercises and just practice faster and faster and faster so you can develop the speed and accuracy specifically between the fingers.
With speed and separate bows always have your right hand be solid and make your left match you right that’s the biggest biggest biggest secret for speed, cleanliness and coordination.
For articulation, listen that your fingers are coming down really strong. If the fingers are coming down fuzzy and mushy, it will sound fuzzy mushy. To be articulate, it is neceesary to have nice stron hammer fingers coming down. Not tense but strong.
Have tension in your left hand? Check out my blog post on how to get rid of left hand tension.
Have fun incorporating different techniques, trills, shifting in your developing speed journey.
Let me know in the comments below which methods you will use to develop speed in your violin playing.
I like the pattern exercises and have started them already
Great to hear!