The Bullseye Method for the Violin

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m J-Adam Smith with Fiddle Team USA and Violin from the Heart and I speak on behalf of Expert Village again. We were talking, on our last segment, about note reading. Well, let’s talk about the end, where I was finishing up on the Bullseye method. Once you understand the lines, the spaces, and notes that you are playing. Now let me show you how to put it all together and actually to be able to put your fingers in the right spot on your violin. If you look at this board over here. Again, this is the method that I created over years of playing because I had a hard time. I had to find tricks and understand how to play easier and more efficiently. Notice that I shaded in the bullseye. Now, the bullseye, I don’t have any stems on it, because all I’m doing is basically showing you where they sit on the staffs. So you can imagine that there are some stems on it. But notice if you are to look for patterns, you’ll see that there is a open string and then you have got 1, 2, 3 up open string. Can you guess what the next one is going to be? 1, 2, 3, up open string, 1, 2, 3 open string. Can you guess what is coming next? 1, 2, 3, and upper ledger lines. Now notice, this box right here is your standard staff. I have to draw lines to hit the lower so these are called ledger lines. The ledger lines are going to be telling you how to find your G string. It’s also going to help you decide how to play notes on your E string. So this is the G string. This is the D string. This is the A string and this is the E string. Notice, in between, in a musical alphabet it is ABCDEFG. It’s going to be starting on G. One finger on the G string would be A. Two fingers on the G string would be B. Can you guys guess what the third finger is going to be? Yes, it’s C. Guess what? You just found your open D, the next letter in the alphabet. Now, I am going to let you see if you can get along with me. What’s this one? That’s the E. What’s this one? That’s the F. What’s this one? That’s the G. Now, the easy way to find out where your notes are, is if your saying, that this is on the second line from the bottom, is G. What’s the closest open string below it? The D string. So this G is going to be on the D. If I say, ‘What is this note?’ And you say, ‘It’s a C, because it is on the third space up.’ I’m going to say, ‘How do you play it?’ Well, you’re going to be looking for the closest open string below it. How many up from it is it? One, two. Two fingers on the A string. I’m going to let you play with this and have a little fun with this on your own. It’s an easy method, really good start, from that point on, then you will learn your scales and understand how to play different scales along with that. Have fun learning."