Intonation

Check the position of left elbow, arm, hand and fingers, ensuring that the fingertips are close to the strings.

Encourage learners to:

• internalise and play/sing simple intervals both aurally and from notation, e.g. tonic/dominant, major/minor thirds and sixths, perfect fourths
• check intonation within a harmonic context, e.g. a major third in a chord

Build on previous copycat/call-and-response games.

Show learners exercises to develop simple shifting and position work.

Teach learners a wider range of major and minor scales, modes, etc., over two octaves, aiming for more fluency. Ask them to listen carefully to the distance between each degree of the scale.

Ask learners to play a wider range of arpeggios over two octaves, listening particularly carefully to the third of the chord.

Demonstrate how to play a chromatic scale, beginning on an open string. Ask learners to copy, listening carefully to the distance between each semitone.

Following on from double stopping exercises described in B4, extend to include dragging the open string above the one that the melody is being fingered on, focusing on finger placement. For example:

• Play the first four notes of the D major scale on the D string whilst dragging the A string
• Check the position of the left elbow, arm, hand and fingers, ensuring that the fingertips are close to the strings.
• Make sure that the fingers are on the tips, and placed off-centre, away from the open string, in order to avoid whistle tones. Learners should be able to feel their fingernails resting on the string below.