Crabbers Alternative Scale System

If you find the process of learning and remembering scales challenging, then the Crabbers Alternative Scale System will help you.
These simple unique manuals for violin, viola and cello break from traditional notation and instead use only letters and numbers. The manual will help you to identify finger patterns more readily and therefore will improve the efficiency with your practice.
Richard Crabtree.

Find out more -Violin, Viola & Cello

The crabbers scale manual is the best system for learning scales! The clear presentation of note names with corresponding finger patterns, along with bowings and string changes, makes learning and memorising scales simple and straight forward. You automatically memorise the finger patterns and develop aural awareness through reading the notes in a 'grid/table' format, rather than reading endless lines of exhaustive staved notation.

Ronan MacManus BM (Hons) MMus,LTCL
Violin/viola tutor  
Programme Director  The Conservatoire
Music & Arts  Blackheath  London


Mr Crabtree's scale system is absolutely brilliant, and is so clear to understand. The new context of playing scales by using just notes and letters is for me a pleasant change from a traditional scale book. I would recommend this book most strongly, to professional and amateurs alike, as it creates a sense of achievement after finishing scale after scale. Also, there is a scale chart which I find invaluable; it gives me the chance to mix and match all the various scales. I have found that this helps improve my intonation as the more difficult scales are worked on each day. I thank Mr Richard Crabtree for investing so much of his time producing this wonderful manual - the value of it is priceless.

Justin Pearson 
Chairman of the London Cello Society