Contemporary Violin Technique, Volume 1: Scale and Arpeggio Exercises with Bowing and Rhythm Patterns by Frederick Neumann and Ivan Galamian

This book was the missing puzzle piece to my learning.I'm self-taught and read Galamian's other book, Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching. That book helped me so much in understanding basic technique, but the section in it about fingerlings, since I am without a teacher, left me with more questions than answers.After getting this book, everything as far as fingering started making sense. I felt more comfortable doing 3 or 4 octave scales now that I had a standard fingering system, and the complexity of choosing fingerings for each piece is so much more clear. The part II, which is the little book that includes bowings and rhythms, is helping me with my bow control.I highly recommend!

Although at first glance this scale book seems straight forward, it is definitely for the advanced player. Instructions not as clearly laid out in this as in Carl Flesch scale system book. I’m sticking with Carl Flesch. Maybe one day I’ll play out if this one, so I won’t be returning it.

However, I'm not the biggest fan of the arpeggio studies because the diminished and dominant 7th arpeggios are in their own section, not with all the other arpeggio studies. Oh well. There are some fingerings that seem like errors but you can usually figure out what the editor meant. I think Fleisch is where I like my arpeggios best, but now I have this and several Sevcik books so I'm not going to get another boring scale study book anytime soon.My version came spiral bound (thank god) hope that yours does too.

Great book of scales! I had been using the Carl Fischer violin scales for the past 6 years and needed something more difficult, with 4 octave scales. Schirmer's Contemporary Violin Technique on Scales is the perfect step up. The book is very sturdy and I am determined to perfect all of these scales as I progress from concerto to concerto.

i started re evaluating my technique with a coach recently (im a professional) and was highly recommended i use this book as supplement to practice. some of the explanations at the intro are wordy, but this book is a must for any violinist.comes with a secondary book inside that has rhythm and bowing patterns to be used along with main book.