Office Hours – April 2026

Overview

This session covered a lot of ground — double stops, chords, vibrato, the chromatic scale, and even some viola talk. If you’re working on backup chords or trying to make your vibrato faster and more consistent, this one’s for you.

In this session we covered:

• Switching to viola — tips for intonation and navigating the bigger instrument
• How to practice double stop transitions more effectively
• Vibrato direction and how to build speed
• Chord theory — building chords from the G and C major triads
• Chromatic scale on one string — how to approach it in first position

What We Covered

Switching to Viola

Kathryn is a month into learning viola after years on violin. The challenge: the strings are in the same order, but the spacing is wider and everything needs to be remapped.

The main advice: use drone tuning and an electronic tuner together. Start with the strings you already know — D and A are familiar from violin. Tune each note with the electronic tuner first, then look away and rely on the drone. Get your ear involved early.

If you switch between violin and viola regularly, use scales as a reset. Run some scales when you switch instruments so your fingers know where they are. The more you go back and forth, the faster the remapping happens.

One practical shortcut: if you’ve memorized tunes on violin, try them on viola without sheet music. You already know the music. It’s just a matter of getting used to the new mechanics.

Practicing Double Stop Transitions

Several students are working on chords and double stops this month. The sticking point for most people: getting from one chord to the next quickly enough.

The fix is to isolate the transition. Don’t try to play through the whole progression. Just pick two chords — start with an easy one like open D and A1 — and practice going back and forth slowly. Give yourself time between each switch. Then reduce the pause.

If that’s still messy, break it down even further. Practice just what your first finger is doing. Then just the second finger. Then put them together. These are small, atomic exercises. They feel slow and boring at first. That’s the point.

Once you can switch cleanly, start adding rhythm. Play the same transition with different bow patterns. Then transpose it to other string pairs — you get compound interest on the same exercise without learning anything new.

Vibrato: Direction and Speed

A great question came up: does vibrato go below the pitch, or both ways?

It goes below. The reason: the highest pitch you hear is what your ear identifies as the actual note. If your vibrato goes above the target note, it sounds sharp. You want to start on the note and roll below it — then the top of each oscillation lands right on target.

To build speed, use a metronome. Start slow and track your tempo. Sometimes unlocking speed on one finger unlocks the whole thing — so start with your second finger, which is usually the easiest.

Another approach: practice the motion in guitar position. Hold the fiddle like a guitar and do the rocking motion without the pressure of playing. The goal is to teach that first knuckle that it can move. Once it loosens up in guitar position, bring it back to playing position.

A good reminder from the group: there’s no single right way to do vibrato. Watch ten great fiddlers and you’ll see ten different approaches. Find the motion that’s comfortable and build on that.

Chord Theory — Building from Triads

This came out of a question about backup chords: are you looking for the third and fifth off the root? Yes — any two notes from the triad (root, third, fifth) make a chord.

Jason walked through the G major triad — G, B, D — across two octaves on the fiddle. From those notes, you can build multiple G chord voicings by pairing any two across adjacent strings.

The easier ones use open strings: open G and D1, or open D and A1. Get those automatic first. Then work toward the harder voicings that require both fingers down.

Then the group tried the same thing in C major — triad is C, E, G. The exercise: find as many C major chord double stops as you can. Start by playing the triad up and down. Then look for pairs of notes on adjacent strings.

The key insight: once you understand how the triad works in one key, you can figure out chords in any key. You don’t have to memorize every chord from scratch.

Sliding Double Stops

A quick bonus tip: once you have a double stop in tune — especially one with an open string — try adding a small slide into it. It’s a fundamental fiddle sound. A sliding double stop with an open string is approachable even for intermediates and immediately sounds musical.

Master the intonation first. Then add the slide.

Chromatic Scale — One String at a Time

A question came up about playing a chromatic scale on a single string and how shifting into higher positions works.

The advice: don’t go there yet. Master first position on one string first. Get it clean and in tune. Then learn it on all four strings. Then you can think about higher positions.

Even in first position, break the chromatic scale into sections. Practice open, low 1, and 1 together. Then 1, low 2, and 2. Then 2, 3, raised 3, and 4. Get each section solid, then link them. Test intonation against the open string.

When you do eventually shift, start with something much simpler than the chromatic scale. Shifting is most useful for getting higher notes on the E string — and you’ll want to learn the motion with simple material first.

Further Learning

Try applying the triad concept to one tune you already know. Pick a simple melody in G major and see how many chord double stops you can find that fit underneath it. You don’t have to play them all — just knowing they’re there changes how you hear the music.

For vibrato, pick one note and make it your benchmark. Track how fast you can do a clean, even vibrato on that note with a metronome. Check back in a week and see if anything changed.

Related Lessons

Introduction to Double Stops 1-1 — The starting point for double stops on the fiddle, covering the foundational shapes and string pairs used throughout today’s session.

How to Build Chords from Triads — The written companion to the chord theory discussion from today — covers exactly how to find chord voicings from any major or minor triad.

Chromatic Scale on D — The best place to start with the chromatic scale question — a step-by-step approach to first position on the D string.

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