Shifting

What it is

Shifting is moving the entire left hand along the neck to a new position, so that different pitches fall under the fingers. This belongs to the left hand section.

In first position the first finger sits near the top of the fingerboard. In third position it sits where the third finger used to be. In seventh position the hand is near the body of the instrument.

Without shifting, a violin is limited to roughly an octave and a half. With it, the full range of the instrument becomes available. It is the technique that opens the fingerboard.

How it is produced

A shift has three components and all three must coordinate.

The arm carries the hand along the neck. The motion originates in the upper arm and shoulder, not in the hand.

The thumb travels with the hand and must move at the same time. This is where most shifting fails.

The guide finger stays lightly in contact with the string during the shift, giving the hand a physical reference for how far it has travelled.

The finger pressure lightens during the shift and returns on arrival. A finger pressing hard through a shift produces an audible slide and a rough arrival.

Guide fingers

The guide finger is the mechanism that makes shifting accurate rather than approximate.

The hand does not jump from one position to another. A finger maintains light contact with the string throughout, so the hand feels the distance travelled rather than guessing it.

Which finger guides depends on the shift. Sometimes the finger playing before the shift guides all the way. Sometimes the finger that will play after the shift takes over partway. Sometimes an intermediate finger is used.

Choosing the guide finger is part of learning a passage, and good editions mark it. Students who shift without a guide finger are essentially throwing the hand and hoping.

The thumb

Almost every shifting problem is a thumb problem.

The thumb must release and travel with the hand. If it stays behind, the hand stretches away from it, the frame distorts, and the arrival is out of tune. If it grips, the hand cannot move at all. Our free chromatic tuner helps with this between lessons.

Students are often unaware their thumb is not moving, because attention is on the fingers. Watching the thumb specifically, or having a teacher watch it, is usually the fastest diagnosis available.

The thumb also has to arrive in the right place, not just move. In lower positions it sits opposite the first or second finger. As the hand climbs it moves under the neck, and by very high positions it comes out from under entirely.

Types of shift

Same finger. The finger playing before the shift also plays after it, sliding to the new note. Simplest to hear and to control.

Old finger guides. The finger playing before the shift guides to a point, then the new finger arrives. Very common.

New finger guides. The new finger takes over the guiding partway through the shift, arriving with less audible slide.

Silent shift. During a rest or a bow change, where no sound covers the movement, so the hand can move freely.

Each produces a different sound and the choice is musical as well as technical.

What goes wrong

Thumb left behind. Covered above. The single most common fault.

No guide finger. The hand jumps and the arrival is approximate.

Too much pressure during the shift. Produces an unwanted audible slide.

Arm not leading. The hand is dragged by the fingers rather than carried by the arm, producing a laboured, uneven shift.

Frame collapse. The hand shape distorts during the movement and has to be rebuilt on arrival, which is slow.

Rushing. Shifts take time, and a shift crammed into no time at all is inaccurate. The time usually comes from the note before the shift, slightly shortened.

How it is taught

We start with the motion alone: the hand sliding smoothly up and down the string, no specific target, establishing that the arm carries the hand and the thumb travels with it.

Then shifts to a specific note, slowly, with the guide finger conscious and the arrival checked for intonation.

Then the same shift with different guide fingers, so the student hears the difference and understands there is a choice.

Then speed, then repertoire.

Shifting is one of the techniques where slow practice is not merely helpful but essential. A shift practised fast and inaccurately becomes a fast inaccurate shift.

Where the time comes from

A shift takes time, and that time has to come from somewhere in the music.

It normally comes from the end of the note before the shift, which is shortened very slightly. The listener does not perceive the shortening, but the hand gets the fraction of a second it needs.

Students who do not allow for this either arrive late, disturbing the rhythm, or arrive inaccurately because the shift was rushed.

In fast passages the available time is very small, which is why fast shifts have to be economical and why the guide finger matters more as tempo increases.

Practising it

Slow, with the intermediate stages audible. Play the shift so that the slide is deliberately heard, so the hand learns the distance. Then progressively suppress the slide until it is silent.

Students who practise shifts silently from the start never learn the distance; they learn to guess quietly.

Check intonation on arrival every time, and check with the fourth finger as well as the first. Arriving with the first finger in tune proves the hand travelled far enough, not that it arrived in the right shape.

Soul Music Lessons teaches private and group violin lessons in Sugar Hill, Cumming and Sandy Springs. If left-hand work like Shifting is what you are working on, book a no-commitment evaluation lesson and bring it to the first session. Call 470-789-2422.