Etude & Exercise Books

 Sevcik Exercise Books - Essentials

Some of these exercises may not look quite as fun as a few of the pieces you'll find in the Etude books, but these are essential and when practiced carefully and regularly will improve your violin playing greatly. 

These books have some really challenging stuff in them! But don't let that scare you away, if you open it and scroll halfway down and see stuff that you think you could never do, take a slower look around. Many of the exercises in these books are meant to be done one after another, so by practicing and mastering the beginning exercises first you can build your skill for the later more advanced ones.

As my teacher is always telling me, remember to practice slow and carefully! If you try and speed through these you're going to get way less out of them.

1) Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 1

This book is a great resource if you're a newer player or if you're just trying to sure up your fundamentals in first position, which is what this books covers. Some of the exercises towards the very end of the book are more advanced too, but still in first position, if that's what you're looking for. 

It'll help you a lot with your intonation by having exercises in different keys and with accidentals. It'll also help when it comes to bowing, while that isn't the main purpose of the book, many of the exercises aid you in bow skills indirectly. Overall, It's just a really great book for anybody to start on.

Download Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 1 Here

A Physical Copy of Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 1 can be purchased here.

2) Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 2

Unlike book 1, which stays just in the 1st position, this book covers 2nd to 7th position. Because of its progressive difficulty, it recommends an order you should practice them in, which you will see on the bottom of the first page. 

This book is especially great because it has dedicated exercises for all the positions, starting easier then moving to more advanced in that position. This means you can pick and choose if you know you have some positions you need to work on. Really just a great book. Make sure to go slowly, use a tuner to check for intonation, and get advice from others if you can.

Download Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 2 Here

3) Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 3

You might be thinking - Why do I need this when Book 2 also went over all the positions? Well, what book 2 did little of is actual shifting, it mostly focuses on one or two positions at a time. This takes what you learned from book two and teaches you how to use all those positions together. This book is also great if you're already pretty good in certain positions, but want to solidify your shifting between them. For easier shifting exercises that don't require knowing all the positions, like this one kind of does, check out our dedicated page for violin shifting exercises.* (Coming soon)

Download Sevcik - School of Violin Techniques - Book 3 Here

Etude Books

In these books you'll find a large variety of exercises that cover most things from finger technique to dynamics, they're wonderful resources with lots to offer. Etudes are great because they help you practice your technique, but in a musical context. Use these in your daily practice, trying out different exercises that help skills you want to improve. Practice them until you have them down perfectly! There are lots of benefits you can gain from these if you do.

1) Wohlfahrt - 60 Studies for Violin

This book is fantastic not just for beginners, but for more advanced players, too! It covers finger technique, rhythm, bow technique, and more. (If you're looking for shifting exercises, this may not be the one for you, but I still highly recommend it for everything else.) It serves to create a really good foundation for you to build more advanced techniques.

As you'll see at the beginning of the book "If practiced carefully and intelligently, they will serve as a solid foundation for the technique of any ambitious player to become an artist."

Download Wohlfahrt - 60 Studies for Violin Here

A Physical Copy of Wohlfahrt - 60 Studies for Violin can be purchased here.

2) Mazas - Three Intermediate Etude Books

If you've learned more about the positions from violin from the position exercises that can be found on this website, then the Mazas Etudes are a great set of intermediate books to continue your progression on with. All they cover is so vast that It'd be best for you to take a look at them instead of me trying to describe all they have to offer.

In this book, the melodies are much more musical and enjoyable to play than what you find in some etudes, which is part of what makes these so attractive. They also, in being more musical, prepare you for the jump to standard pieces or student concertos of the same level. There isn't as much of a huge gap to 'real music' as you sometimes find.

Download Mazas - 30 Special Studies (Book 1) Here

Download Mazas - 27 Brilliant Studies (Book 2) Here

Download Mazas - 18 Artist's Studies (Book 3) Here

3) Kreutzer - 42 Studies or Caprices for Violin

This book contains a wide variety of exercises ranging from fairly easy to quite advanced. It covers bow technique, shifting, finger technique, and more. You'll probably be ready for it if you've made it through the Mazas, but if you want to try some things from Kreutzer before that, there are a few ones I recommend to anybody.

For anybody, I recommend exercise 2 to start with. Above it is different bowing styles you can apply to the entire exercise (look here if you're confused about how to read them), so it's fantastic for learning different bowing styles. I also found 3 great for shifting and intonation, as unlike 2, it spends quite a while in the higher positions on all strings. You can also apply the same bowing exercises from exercise 2 to exercise 3!

Download Kreutzer - 42 Studies or Caprices for Violin Here

A Physical Copy of Kreutzer - 42 Studies or Caprices for Violin can be purchased here.