Links

ScalesAce helps students learn their violin, viola and cello scales and arpeggios. The fingerboard on the left hand side shows the finger positions for each note in the scale. Click on the fingers to hear the individual notes. Press play to listen to the scale and see the finger positions light up on the fingerboard showing the current note. Change the playback speed and as you become more confident, increase the speed. Try ScalesAce and explore the wide range of features on offer.

What are the benefits of creating a ScalesAce account?

ScalesAce enables students to rate each of their scales with a star rating. Once signed in you can save star ratings for each scale and your settings will be available on any device. Clicking on the Progress tab, you will see an overview of your progress at a glance, making it easy to see which scales are strongest and which need more practice.

What is TeacherLink?

TeacherLink links the teacher and student accounts so that the teacher can see their students' progress. Once linked, the teacher will be able to see their students' star ratings, make changes to the star ratings and set some of their students' preferences such as exam board, grade and sticker colours. This ensures your students are using the correct settings when practising at home. Both teachers and students are able to break the link between the accounts at any time.

How to set up TeacherLink:

• Go to www.scalesace.com
• Sign up for an account and sign in
• Click on 'Teacher-link'
• Enter your teacher's unique code in the 'Teacher's code' box.
• Check the student's 'Display name' will be recognisable by your teacher
• Click 'submit form'
• When your teacher next signs in, they will accept your request to link to their account and the accounts will be linked

The ABRSM Aural Training app is a great way to prepare for the aural tests at home. Most students find this extra practice very helpful and reassuring. There are two versions of the Aural Training app, one covers Grades 1 - 5 and the other Grades 6 - 8 (around £7.99 each). Currently, this is only available as an iOS app for Apple devices.

High quality recordings of all the violin pieces are available to download from the ABRSM website. I recommend downloading the three relevant 'violin & piano' tracks (marked ‘F’ for full). The price for three tracks purchased together is £1.80 for Grades 1 - 5 and £2.34 for Grades 6 - 8. There are also piano only versions of the tracks which you may find useful when you are more confident with the pieces.

Music Speed Changer slows down and speeds up audio recordings without changing the pitch. Compatible with iOS and Android phones and tablets. It can also change the pitch of the track without affecting the speed. The clear layout allows quick access to a wide range of options including detecting the key and tempo in bpm (beats per minute) of the current track (select in settings menu). I use this app regularly and am hugely impressed with the ease of use and sound quality.

E-Music Maestro is a website based training solution which includes the Aural Test Trainer. There are free samples to try which are a great way to test yourself for the exam. The website covers Grades 1 - 8 for both the ABRSM and Trinity exam boards. If you find it useful, there are packages to sign up for, giving access to a large range of tests. These cost between £2.99 and £4.99 per month.