At the heart of a great intonation, is your ability to practice violin scales. Whether you are an advanced or a beginning violinist – your violin scale practice is key to improve!
Scales are the most common pattern in music, making it all the more reason to start practicing right away.

The goal when practicing scales, is to improve your violin playing in all areas:

• intonation
• bowing techniques
• finger speed
• rhythm
• getting to know the fingerboard

In this blog, I share with you 5 violin scales that are useful for any violin player in two levels: a beginner-version violin scales and an advanced version. You can download the scales here:

1. A Major Violin Scale

The A Major Scale is top on the list of violin scales because it’s often the first scale you learn on the violin!

Let’s have a look at the two versions of the A Major scale: the easy version for beginners – and the advanced version.

A Major Scale: Beginner Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch a detailed instruction video with a detailed top view of the fingerboard (Slow & fast play-along included; JVA Members Only).

A Major Scale: Advanced Violin Scale

2. G Major Violin Scale

The G Major scale is another one of the most commonly used scales on the violin.
This scale can be a little more challenging for absolute beginners, as it goes over all strings. At the same time, you will only have learned more when you got it!

If you’re just starting out to learn advanced violin scales – this is the scale that I recommend to start with!

G Major Scale: Beginner Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch a detailed instruction video with the top view (Slow & fast play-along included; JVA Members Only).

To add an extra challenge, you can learn the G Major scale in broken thirds!

➟ Click here to watch the instruction video for the G Major scale in Broken Thirds (JVA Members Only).

G Major Scale: Advanced Violin Scale

3. D Major Violin Scale

The D Major scale is the second scale most students of the famous “Suzuki method” learn. The scale is a little easier for beginners than the G Major scale, as the pattern is the same as the A Major scale.

However, for advanced players, the D Major Scale is one of the most challenging scales of this list!

D Major Scale: Beginner Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch an instruction video of the D Major scale – slow & fast-play-along included (JVA Members Only).

D Major Scale: Intermediate Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch an instruction video of an intermediate D Major scale (Sheet music, slow & fast-play-along included; JVA Members Only).

D Major Scale: Advanced Violin Scale

4. C Major Violin Scale

The C Major scale is one of the most common scales in Western music. As it has no flats or sharps, it is often seen as the “basic scale” around which all other scales are built.

C Major Scale: Beginner Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch an instruction video of this C Major scale (Slow & fast-play-along included; JVA Members Only).

Have you already learned the scale above, but is the Advanced Version still a little too difficult? ➟ Click here for a tutorial of the C Major Beginner Violin Scale – Level 2 (Members Only).

I can also highly recommend learning the C Major Arpeggio. ➟ Click here for the instruction video and sheet music of the C Major Arpeggio (JVA Members Only).

C Major Scale: Advanced Violin Scale

5. B-Flat Major Violin Scale

Although the B-flat major scale isn’t as “famous” as the other scales above – it is still one of the fundamental scales to learn on the violin!

For advanced players, this is one of the “easier” 3-octave scales. For beginners, this is the first scale I recommend to learn after you have learned the easier scales above.

B-Flat Major Scale: Beginner Violin Scale

➟ Click here to watch an instruction video of the B Flat Major scale (Slow & fast-play-along included; JVA Members Only).

B-Flat Major Scale: Advanced Violin Scale

Final Note

No matter if you’re looking to improve your intonation, violin technique, or just want to sneak in a quick scales session your daily practice routine: scales are a great way to improve your violin playing.

Practicing scales might just be the “magic pill” to becoming a better violin player!

This overview of scales will help you make sure to know the most common violin scales – so you are prepared for almost any piece you’d like to play.
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Want to learn each one of these scales on the violin? Get started with Julia’s Violin Academy to get sheet music, instruction videos, play-alongs & personal feedback for each scale!

Are you a student of Julia’s Violin Academy already? I’d love to help you improve in your scale practice, no matter what level you are at.
I challenge you to choose one of the above scales and practice it as well as you can. After that, be sure to submit a feedback video playing the scale of your choice for our review.