Quarantine Etudes for Violin by Dr. Piotr Szewczyk
Composed in May 2020 during the global pandemic.

All major etude books for violin, including those by Mazas, Kreutzer, Dont and
others, are firmly rooted in romantic harmonic language; minor and major triads,
arpeggios, diminished and augmented chords, dominant 7th etc.

A 21st Century violinist will encounter a much more varied musical language.
Those standard etudes don?t prepare students for octatonic scales, various
modes, whole tone scales, rapid chromatic twists and turns, atonality, extended
jazz harmonies etc. that are a big part of contemporary music.

I created these bite-sized etudes to help students experience different musical
languages and go against the ingrained familiar patterns their fingers are used to.
I hope they will be fun and adventurous challenge for violin students of all ages.

Corona Etude is a hopeful piece written during coronavirus lockdown. It uses rapid 2, 3 and 4-string crossings to create the sensation of multiple voices. The use of many open strings helps to create a full sound while being relatively easy to play. After players familiarize themselves with the notated version, they are encouraged to create their own realization using the sketch on the front cover. It has a folk-like feeling, while using a standard classical technique. It could be way to introduce students to the string crossings in solo Bach sonatas and partitas, and other standard literature. .