Viola Book 0
Auditive Phase
Prepare yourself for (the first part of) a viola method book by
developing your ear and viola basic technique.

The result is that you play freely on the viola with a relaxed
technique, beautiful tone, creativity and musicality.

By: Zlata M A Brouwer MSc BMus

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Author: Zlata M A Brouwer MSc BMus
Copyright: Zlata M A Brouwer MSc BMus
1st Print 2015

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Index
Index 3
Introduction 4
Problem 4
Auditive Phase 5
Goal 5
Viola hold 7
Strings 9
Exercises with the bow 10
Dry bowing 14
Bowing exercises on open strings 16
1st Finger 21
2nd Finger 26
3rd Finger 29
4th Finger 35
A cake of notes 42
Instructions for the use of your viola and bow 44
For teachers 46
About the author 48
Gift 49
Violin & Viola Academy 50

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Introduction
This book serves as a preparation for other viola method
books. That’s why the name is ‘Viola Book 0’: it’s a
preparation to the first part of several method books like
Suzuki or Sassmanshaus.

Problem
I often see beginner violists bent over their music stands.
They play scratchy and play note after note.

They hardly have a basic technique, don’t know how to

create a beautiful tone, have no idea what they do
musically and are overwhelmed by the many things they
have to learn at the same time.

This phase takes very long, sometimes years. In these

years many wannabe violists quit.

Luckily there is a way to get results faster and have more

fun.

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Auditive Phase
All auditive phase means is ‘without sheet music’.

First you learn the basic technique: viola hold, bow hold
and bowing with a beautiful tone. This needs to be
automated, before you can proceed to learn other things.
It’s a condition before you take any new steps.

Only if you have a good basic technique, you can start

playing with fingers on the strings. You will learn the
fingers one by one.

To maintain the student’s focus on the basic technique

and the listening, the teacher demonstrates the pieces
the student has to learn.

Playing ‘note by note’ doesn’t happen in this way, as the

piece as a smooth musical whole to the student.

Goal
After 10 to 20 weeks of lessons the auditive phase comes
to an end.

At the end of the auditive phase the student as to be able

to do the following:
• To have a relaxed, flexible and correct viola and bow
hold whilst having a healthy body posture.
• To possess a basic bowing technique, being: moving
the fingers of the right hand while bowing, bowing
smoothly, being able to do some bow division and
being able to play different tempi effortlessly.
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• To be able to intonate: the student corrects the place
of the fingers on the string by ear.
• To play simple tunes on the viola by ear with a
beautiful tone and in tune.
• The student has a musical experience in the lessons
and during practice time. The student is motivated.

De length of the auditive phase depends on the student’s

progress, talent and effort.
After this auditive phase the student can proceed to a
regular viola method book. In this book the student starts
over again on open strings, learning the fingers one by
one.

The basic technique is taught twice: once in the auditive

phase with this book and once with a regular method
book while reading notes. Perhaps this seems like a
longer journey, but in reality it’s a shorter journey. Besides
that the student will play the pieces in the method book
more musically, with a more beautiful tone and with better
intonation.


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Viola hold

In steps

• Hold the viola in front of you with the scroll to the left
• Lift the viola above your head
• Point the scroll to the front left
• Slide the viola with the chinrest side along your cheek
• Put the viola on your shoulder
• Let the viola rest in balance on your collarbone/chest


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Please note…

• Don’t have the scroll too high like you are shooting on
birds in the air
• Don’t have the scroll too low like you are shooting on
mice on the ground
• The viola rests 50% on your collar bone and 50% in
your left hand. You shouldn’t squeeze your viola with
your chin and shoulder. The risk of injury is very high.
Besides that it’s better for your intonation (playing in
tune) if your viola rests partially in your left hand.
• In this stage you place your left hand against the sound
box, your wrist is straight and your fingers are above
the strings like an umbrella. In this way your left hand
hold is already preparing itself to finger placement,
vibrato and position play.
• Your left wrist is straight and your left elbow points to
the floor. Your left arm is relaxed and dangles under the
viola.
• Experiment with different chinrests, shoulder rests,
cushions or nothing at all to discover what is best for
you. There’s no one stop solution for everybody.


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Strings

Guess
the string
The teacher
turns
around and
bows on an
open string.

The student
names the
string.



C G D A

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Exercises with the bow

Bow hold
• all fingers round
• wrist and knuckles low

Hold the bow at the balance point. As you train yourself in

the exercises, hold the bow more and more to the frog
until your reach the frog (see picture).

When you are not playing, keep the bow up straight, so

you don’t strain your hand and fingers.

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Tip: Use a fake bow for the exercises
Instead of doing these exercises with the bow, you can
also use a thin round wooden stick. These are for sale at
various DYI shops.

If you buy one, please mind that the width, weight and
length are somewhat similar to your real bow. To make
this fake bow even more realistic you can make one of
the ends a little heavier to simulate the frog.

The advantage of using a fake bow is that you won’t fear

to drop it and you can experiment and relax more. This is
good for your right hand technique. Besides that the hair
of the bow doesn’t get in the way of the exercises you
perform at the balance point.

Build the bow hold

1. Hold your bow with your left hand in the middle of the
bow without touching the hair.
2. Throw your fingers (right hand) relaxed over the bow
with a gummy bear feeling in your hand and fingers.
Your thumb should not be locked. Your thumb nail
should point in the direction of the tip of the bow. The
side of your thumb touches the bow between the
leather and the frog. Don’t put your thumb INTO the
frog!
3. Hold your wrist and knuckles low on the same height
as the bow itself.
4. Place the tip of your pinky on the bow. The pinky is
curved. The other fingers hang loosely over the bow.

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5. Slowly let go of the left hand and hold the bow with
your right hand only.

Window whiper

Do the following exercise holding the bow a the balance

point and move slowly to the frog as you get more trained
and experienced.

Take the bow in the bow hold and move the bow like a
windows whipper by pivoting your wrist.

By giving your bow a push with your pinky, the bow

swings to the right.

By giving your bow a push with your index finger, the bow
swings back to the left to the starting position.

Experience the ‘ping pong’-ing between your pinky and

index finger.

During the whole exercise the bow hold stays intact.

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Bridge

Do the following exercise holding the bow a the balance

point and move slowly to the frog as you get more trained
and experienced.

In this exercise only your pinky is allowed to move (bend

and stretch). If your other fingers, your hand or your wrist
move along, grap the palm of your hand and hold it
during the exercise.

By bending and stretching (never overstretch and/or lock

your pinky), the tip of the bow slowly moves up and
down.

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Dry bowing
In this exercise you bow with the whole bow and watch
your pinky, thumb OR wrist. Only watch one thing at a
time. On down bow say out loud ‘1 2’ and on up bow say
out loud ‘pinky/thumb/wrist round’. Do this rhythmically
and evenly in speed, pressure and sound.

The first symbol above (the square without bottom) is the

symbol for down bow. This symbol resembles the frog.
Down bow is a bow stroke that moves from frog to tip.

The second symbol above (the V) is the symbol for up

bow. This symbol resembles the tip of your bow. Up bow
is a bow stroke that moves from tip to frog.


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There are 5 ways to do the above three
exercises:
1) Have your left arm in viola hold, bow through your
elbow (have a cloth in your elbow to bow on).
2) Through your elbow over a cloth while holding the
viola with your left arm in viola hold (so you bow
under the viola).
3) Hold a toilet roll on your left shoulder with your left
hand and bow through the toilet roll.
4) Take your viola on your shoulder in viola hold.
Observe where you normally bow (between
fingerboard and bridge). Remember this spot, put the
viola away and hold a toilet roll on this place/height
with your left hand. Bow through the toilet roll,
simulating bowing on your viola.
5) Play the exercises on the viola on each string
separately.


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Bowing exercises on open strings
Do these exercises on all strings separately. Do these
exercises rhythmically. Try to practice as many times on
each string. Don’t practice more on a certain string you
like better. If you have more difficulty bowing on one
specific string, you can consider practicing on that string
more often. For most students this is the G-string or the
D-string.

Use the middle 50% of the bow. To be aware of the

place of the bow, put stickers on a quarter of the bow
from the frog and a quarter of the bow from the tip. Bow
between the stickers. For short notes (from sticker to the
middle of the bow) you can consider putting a third sticker
on the middle of the bow.

Down Up Rest Rest

Ap-ple

Down Up Down Up Rest Rest

Ap-ple Ap-ple

Long Long (count for the first note ‘1 2’ and for the
second note ‘3 4’)
Pear Pear

Long (count for this note ‘1 2 3 4’)

Or-ange-ap-ple

In these exercises the duration of one bow stroke is

doubled and then doubled again. The idea is that you are
using the same 50% of the bow for each bow stroke. For

16
the last very long bow strong you can use more bow if
necessary. Play these exercises in different tempi.

Bow Division
The long notes are from sticker to sticker, so on the
middle 50% of the bow. The short notes are from sticker
to the middle of the bow at the frog or at the tip.

Long Long Short Short Short Short

Pan-cakes ma-ple- sy-rop

Short Short Short Short Long Long

Ma-ple- sy-rop pan-cakes

Long Short Short Long Short Short

Straw-ber-ry Straw-ber-ry

Short Short Long Short Short Long

Cin-na-mon Cin-na-mon
At the frog at the tip

‘Keep up’ bowing

Long Short Long Short Long Short
Short Long Short Long Short Long

Use the same bow length for the long and short notes.

Doing this think about shooting an arrow with a bow:

slowly tighten it and shoot it away!


17
Explore your bow
Move your fingers while bowing like a swimming jellyfish.
Knead with your fingers, keep your wrist flexible and keep
your upper and lower arm almost steady. This might take
some weeks or months to master and will improve the
fluency of your bowing and your tone.

Down bow -> fingers stretch

Up bow -> fingers bend

Start in the middle of the bow with bowing short notes

with little bow… move (while bowing short notes) slowly
to the tip until you reach the ‘extreme tip’. Now (while
bowing short notes) move back to the middle of the bow
and move to the frog until you reach the ‘extreme frog’.
After this move back slowly to the middle.

Super Slow
Make the longest bow you possibly can bowing with
whole bow. It should take as long as possible. Play
around with weight and speed to be able to keep a
beautiful tone. Do this exercise up bow and down bow.
Take care that the bow is rosined sufficiently. 


18
Silent string changes
Let the bow rest on the string (slightly above the middle
of the bow) and change from the G-string to the D-string,
to the A-string, to the E-string and back again. Let the
bow rest on the string with weight and without making a
sound.

String change exercises

Do the string change separately from the bowing, so:
bow - change - bow
Take a break to be able to perform the string change very
controlled.

Important in string changes:

• make the movement of the string change as small as
possible
• do the string changes with your upper arm, bow mainly
with your lower arm
• don’t make noises like scratch, squeak etc
• don’t bow and change at the same time: make the
string change during the bow change (between up bow
and down bow)
• always make a beautiful tone

Perform the exercises on the next page with lots of

repeats and in different tempi.

Always begin down bow. Every character is one bow

stroke. The color and the letter indicate the string you
should be on. Read from left to right and from top to
bottom.


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CCGG CGCG
GGCC GCGC
GGDD GDGD
DDGG DGDG
DDAA DADA
AADD ADAD

20
1st Finger

• Have your index finger against the neck of the viola.

With the side of your index finger you should feel the
edge at the beginning of the fingerboard.
• Your left thumb should be somewhat in front of your first
finger (index finger).
• Put your finger down firmly and confidently.

21
• Your index finger should be round when placed on the
string, so your finger tip touches the string. Your
knuckles shouldn’t collapse.
• Listen to yourself… are you playing in tune?
• Keep your left wrist straight.
• The other fingers are dangling above the string like an
umbrella.

Pizz (pluck the string) the exercises before you bow in

guitar hold and after that in viola hold.

In the following exercises there is no string color, which

means you have to perform these exercises on each
string. 0 Means open string and 1 means first finger.

Variate in tempo and rhythm. Repeat the exercises.

0011
1100
0101
1010

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Twinkle twinkle (part of it) in 3 ways

0000110
0000110
0000110


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Exercises
Recognize the color of the string. 0 Means open string
and 1 means first finger.

00110
001111010
1110011110
0011111101
0101010
101010
110101001
101010101010
111100111100
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000011000011
001111
Improvise with the 1st finger and make your own music!

25
2nd Finger

Pizz the exercises before you bow.

Do the exercises on each string.



Variate in tempo and rhythm.

Repeat the exercises.

26
Do Re Mi

012 210 201 120

On each string.

Exercises

0120 0120 0120

0120

0121210

0121020

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021012120

02020210
Mary has a little lamb

2101222 111 222

2101222 11 210
Mary

22210 00111120
22210 0011210
Improvise with the 1st and 2nd finger and make your own
music!


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3rd Finger

Place the 3rd finger tightly against the 2nd finger.


29
Double stops
To be able to properly check the 3rd finger, one should be
able to play two strings at the same time. These are
double stops. Practice them first on two open strings.

Tips when playing on two open strings at the same time:

• Don’t look at your viola, bow or strings
• Listen if you hear both strings sounding at the same
time and preferably equally loud
• Distribute the weight of your bow over the two strings
• Make long and slow bow strokes and keep correcting
yourself along the way
• Play in the string with a large tone, don’t bow to
cautiously

Check the 3rd finger with an open string

listening to the octave

0123 0
0123 0
0123 0


30
Major scales

0123 0123
3210 3210

0123 0123
3210 3210

0123 0123
3210 3210


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Exercises

01233210
Play this exercise on each string and check the 3rd finger
with the open string.

012121232323212
121010
0123 03030303
21020202 1012
30303 21010101
2020202 3030


32
Father Jacob

0120 0120

230 230

010 320 010 320

010 010 


33
Jumps

0213 3120
Improvise with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger and make your
own music!


34
4th Finger


35
Check the 4th finger with an open string

01234 0
01234 0
01234 0
‘Boer er ligt een kip in ’t water’ (song)

012343210
Exercises

012343210
012343210


36
Slurred bowing (two notes on one bow)

012343210
012343210
Pinky training

012 34 34 34 3210


37
Scales with the 4th finger

01234 123
3210 3210

01234 123
3210 3210

01234 123
3210 3210


38
Scales with broken thirds

021324310213243
42312013423120

021324310213243
42312013423120

021324310213243
42312013423120

39
Jumps

0123 4343 2424

32 131313 242424
141414 040404
141414 242424
343434 34321
01234 32123 4343
210
021324 423120

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Improvise with all four fingers and make your own music!


41
A cake of notes
Image you have bought a delicious cake:

You invite three friends

and with the four of you
you eat the whole cake.

The cake is now cut in

four equal pieces:

1234
Every piece of cake is one
count.

You meet one friend and

you are both very hungry.

The cake is now cut into

two halfs:

12 34
Every note is two counts.

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 You are alone and
very very hungry.

You eat the whole

cake yourself!

1234
Every note is 4
counts.

You throw a party

and you invite seven
friends. You are with
eight people in total.

The cake will be cut

into eight pieces.

1and 2and 3and

4and

Every note is a half

count.

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Instructions for the use of your
viola and bow

Bow
• When you are not playing or when you have a pauze,
it’s important to loosen the bow, so the hair is loose and
there is no tension on the bow;
• When you play it’s important that there is not too much
tension on the bow: the bow needs to keep his normal
curve always and should not be straight or bend the
other way. In this middle of the bow the hair should be
closer to the wood (distance is about the thickness of a
pencil) than at the tip and at the frog;
• Don’t rosin your bow too much;
• Take care that the grease of your skin doesn’t get on
the hair of your bow: don’t touch the bow hair.
• The bow can lose (one or a couple of) hairs. Loosing
several hairs should stop after a while when the bow is
new. If it doesn’t, contact the shop where you bought
the bow.


44
Viola
• Only use cleaning fluids that are made for stringed
instruments;
• Don’t tune your viola too high, the strings can snap (if
you doubt, tune lower);
• Watch that the bridge is standing straight on the
soundboard en not ‘on his toes or heels’;
• Keep the instrument free from dust and rosin by
polishing it regularly with a soft dry cloth;
• Wood can ‘work’, certainly when the viola you have is
relatively new. The viola has to be tuned more often if
this is the case;
• When you have a new instrument, it will sound better if
you play on it a lot;


45
For teachers

Play after me
In the auditive phase you do ‘play after me’ games with
your student in every lesson. You play short pieces slowly
and the student plays after you.

This can take up quite some time and it’s important that
the student learns to look up the notes in the viola her/
hisself.

In this way the tunes in this book can be taught, but the
teacher can also make up songs her/hisself.

The intention of this book is not that the student reads

music. This book is only a little help when the student is
practicing at home and forgets a tune.

Improvisation
During improvisation the ears of the student are open.
Have the student apply the concepts learned in tunes he/
she makes up her/hisself.

Discover the mistake

Play a piece wrong and right. The student should
recognize and point out which tune is wrong and what the
mistake is exactly. This can be pitch, rhythm, intonation
and bowing.

46
Play the teacher
Reverse the exercises. The student plays an existing
tune or an improvisation and the teacher plays after her/
him. The student should correct the teacher when he/she
makes a (deliberate) mistake.

It’s also good to have the student explain concepts. This

is very suitable for group lessons.

Lesson plan
The intention of this book and method is that a qualified
teacher can handle it creatively and adjust it to his/her
own preferences and the student in question.

This lesson plan is just to give an idea of an individual

lesson of 30 minutes:

Duration Activity

5 mins Evaluate homework and practicing

5 mins Technical exercises while the teacher plays along

with the student or accompanies the student

8 mins Learn a new technique

10 mins Play after me exercises including the newly learned

technique

2 mins Write down and run through the homework and give
instructions for practicing

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About the author
Czech-Dutch Zlata
Brouwer MSc Bmus
(1985) is a professional
violinist and musical
entrepreneur living in
Holland.

She is graduated as a
classical violinist at the
Schumann Akademie
(BMus) and the Utrecht
Conservatory.

She owns a teaching

studio and violin shop
with which she won the
Entrepreneur of the Year
award by the Dutch
camber of commerce.

As a violinist she is 1st violinist in the professional string

orchestra Vegas Strings, is 1st violinist in her string
quartet en her main interest goes to chamber music.

As a teacher she’s exploring innovative ways to teach

classical violin and viola playing to a large audience by
founding Violin & Viola TV (a channel with over 200
episodes, making a new one available each week, free to
watch at www.violinviola.tv) and the Violin & Viola
Academy (www.violinviolaacademy.com), where she
pours all she knows about the violin in video courses.


48
Gift

Free workshop and free weekly video lessons

Go to www.violinviola.tv to subscribe for the free
workshop ‘Weight vs Pressure’ you can follow online in
your own time. In this workshop you learn to play the
violin and viola effortlessly with a beautiful tone.

Besides that you get a free weekly video lesson from the
author of this book in your mailbox.


49
Violin & Viola Academy

This book is part of the Violin & Viola Academy. This is an

online academy where violinists and violists worldwide
can meet each other.

The Academy is filled with video lessons especially for

this book and more.

Would you like to learn to apply this book to your playing

or teaching?

Read all about it here: www.violinviolaacademy.com

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