Strings Class Warm-ups for Beginners

My K-3 violin class had a great warm-up the other day that I would like to share with you.

I wrote combinations of A, B, and C# on the board for the class to sight-read. (e.g., ABC#, AAB, C#AB)

My simple instructions were as follows:

1. Sing the letter names.
2. Sing the finger numbers.
3. Play it on your instrument.

(Remember to have young ones repeat these instructions to you before you begin to make sure they understand. This can save you from having to repeat yourself over and over again.)

It's nothing special, but think about this for a moment. First, this exercises allows an opportunity for your beginners to sight-read. (It's never too early!) Second, it helps demonstrate their proficiency in transferring finger numbers into to letter names, and then into playing their instrument. Last, but not least, it forces your budding musicians take time to set the pitches in their ears before they ever touch bow to string to play those notes. How often you have your string players sing. Hopefully the answer is "all the time", as we all know that "if you can sing it, you can play it", and how important that is for intonation in string playing!