When we talk about someone’s character, somehow it’s just as bad to be “shifty” as to be “shiftless.” When we talk about playing a stringed instrument, though, it’s only shiftlessness we should avoid. Being “shifty” is actually a very good thing; moving your left hand accurately up and down the fingerboard enhances your melodic line and can keep your tone more consistent.

According to Arizona State University violin professor J. Patrick Rafferty, “If you want a sustained, long line, you want to keep the color as similar as possible throughout the line. So you want to stay on one string as much as possible, to avoid changing color when you cross.”

Rafferty cites as an example the beginning of the slow movement of Mendelssohn’s E minor violin concerto. If you stay in first position, after a few measures you begin to have disruptive changes in color because of the necessary string crossings.

“The moment you change strings you get a little bump or discontinuity in sound,” he says. “You can avoid that by staying on one string, especially if you do nicely sustained, connected shifting.”

Rafferty acknowledges that you may sometimes have perfectly good reasons for not staying on the same string as long as possible. “If you want a bright, sparkling sound, the thing to do is play in the lowest positions. If you want a darker sound, play in the highest positions, on the lowest string that’s practical at that moment.”

Going the Distance

Now, many beginning and intermediate string players will avoid shifting if they can; once they get their hand set in a good position, and their fingers know where all the notes are, it’s a shame to move rather uncertainly to a new position and start playing a little out of tune. The solution to that problem, Rafferty says, is to stop fearing the shift, and develop a clear physical memory of where each position is. If you know exactly where you’re going, the journey shouldn’t be intimidating.

“Too many violinists, especially young violinists who are advancing, are more concerned with the distance of the shift than the actual point of arrival at the end of the shift,” he says. “If you see a big shift, say going from first position to fifth position, it may seem like a long distance, but if you have a routine, a physical memory of what the fifth position feels like, you should be able to find fifth position from any point on the fingerboard.

You’ll know that in fifth position your elbow is at a certain angle, your thumb will be at a certain place, your wrist and hand will be at a particular angle. Memorize how it feels when all those things come into play, and then when you shift, think of the feeling of the position itself rather than the distance. Just reaching up to the mark makes it harder.

“It’s good to have some physical point of reference to feel. Always try to move your hand to some unique spot on the neck for each position. For example, there’s a little groove at the end of the neck where it comes into the body. That little groove is a good place to put your thumb when you go into higher positions, rather than leaving your thumb where it had been in second or third position and trying to turn the whole thing into an awkward extension.”

Another piece of good advice from Rafferty: Keep your hand stable—don’t stretch it, and don’t scrunch it as you shift. Keep a natural handshake all the way, as if you’re grasping a ball. “A larger hand will be more relaxed, and it will avoid tension as you shift up,” he says.

Shift ’N’ Slide

Rafferty has a whole catalog of types of shifts: using one finger for both the old and new notes, sliding with the “old finger” and then putting down a new finger when the hand arrives at the new position, sliding with the “new” finger, and so on. One suggestion that covers many of these shifts: Don’t be afraid to play the slide between the notes. That used to be common practice less than a century ago, then it became largely unfashionable. But just because you’re sliding, it doesn’t have to sound gooey and syrupy if you don’t want it to. What counts is how it fits into the context of the melody you’re playing.

“An expressive slide emphasizes the dramatic moment of going to the note you’re ending on,” Rafferty points out. “Going for a high note is one of the more dramatic things that a soprano or tenor can do during an opera aria. They always connect the note before to the high note, not taking a breath before the highest note in an aria. The same should be true in playing the violin, since we are trying to duplicate the vocal effect.

“Don’t be afraid of the sound of a shift. A sliding sound is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of students become paranoid about connecting their shift with any kind of sliding sound, and therefore they stop playing during the shift. They stop the bow on the string, or do something else to interrupt the sound. That’s not a good thing if you’re trying to sustain a melodic line. Now, if the character of the music at the moment calls for a break, or you want to disguise the sound for some musical reason, that’s one thing. But even in some Classical and Baroque music, a little bit of connection in the shifting is not a bad thing. You can alter the speed of your shifting to minimize the sound of the shift without eliminating any connection between the notes. It will still sound clean.”

Rafferty offers several points to consider when you’re shifting in fast, awkward, or brilliant passages. First, don’t put shifts too close together. “Get solidly set on the fingerboard for a while before you move,” he says. “If you move too soon, it tends to give you less security, so you don’t feel rooted in your spot before you move on.

“Avoid big shifts. When you’re going faster, big shifts become more difficult because they cover more territory and they tend to take a little bit more time to cover than a small space. If the passage is fast, it makes it harder to be accurate and still relaxed.

“Stay in position when possible in fast or awkward passages. Shifting is one of the more perilous things we do with the left hand; it provides more chances for inaccuracies. The less shifting or the smaller shifts we can do will always help for accuracy when you’re moving fast. And the faster you go, the more important it becomes.

“Using extensions can help. By extensions I’m talking about staying in position, reaching to the note, and then returning to the position. You can change position after doing an extension, too, which is another thing extensions are good for. A lot of great violin music has been written by composers who played the piano, and a lot of passages that pianists write tend to work really well for five fingers; unfortunately, we only have four. So if you get good at doing extensions in either direction, it’s almost as good as adding another finger to your hand.”