Apr 19 2019 Practice Journal - Zen and the Art of Archery

The Universal Scale

Today I started a very special scale. It is the B-flat major scale. This scale is unique on violin. This can be played full 2 octaves in a single position without the use of open strings. I'll explain why this is useful in a moment. I did not play it long because it can be hard on the hands when not used to it. It has been a long time since I played this scale and I quickly found that my mussels were straining. This brings me to another point.

Zen and the Art of Violin??

Zen and the art of Archery is a little big with big ideas. I read it when I was at university many years ago. It tells of how the Zen masters could use archery as a means to enlightenment. Specifically it presented ideas on how mussel control can be used as a form of meditation and how being aware of your mussels as you try to complete physically demanding activity can help improve that activity. My violin teacher at the time helped me apply these ideas to the playing of the violin. I will getting into the details of this another time, but for now I decide to stop playing today because I need to ensure that I mussel control is where I want it to be when playing this tricky scale.

B-flat Major Scale

Now for the B-flat major scale. As I mentioned, it can be played 2 octaves without changing positions and without using openstrings. I can move my hand up 1 semitone so that I am starting the scale on B-natural and play that scale with the exact same fingering. Move up another semitone to C and do the same. Then C#, D, D# and so on. It makes it great for accompanying another instrument because no matter what key they play in I can use this scale to always be where I need to be. Someone is playing in C#-major? No problem. Just start this scale's fingering on C# and I am all set. Nice little cheat when backing up singers with limited range and require whacky keys :)

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