How to shift positions on violin, viola, cello, and bass

Shifting is the point where a string player stops being a beginner. Everything above the first few notes on the top string lives in a higher position, and a player who avoids shifting either stretches for those notes with unreliable intonation or plays them on the wrong string with the wrong colour. It is also, unlike most technique, learnable deliberately in a couple of weeks.

What a position actually is

A position is a place for the hand, not for a finger. In first position on the violin the first finger sits a whole or half step above the open string, and the other three follow in a fixed frame. In third position the whole hand moves up so that the first finger occupies what was the third finger’s note, and the frame comes with it. Nothing about the relationship between the fingers changes; only the hand’s address on the fingerboard does.

This is why thinking of a shift as "reaching for a high note" is the wrong model and produces the wrong action. You are not reaching; you are relocating, and the fingers stay in the same relationship to one another once you arrive.

Why third position comes first

• It has a physical landmark. On violin and viola the hand meets the body of the instrument; on cello, the thumb finds the neck heel. A first shift you can verify by feel is a first shift you can trust.
• It covers the notes school parts actually need. Almost every part beyond the first year reaches a few notes above the staff, and third position puts a comfortable hand under them.
• It lets a passage stay on one string. Staying on one string keeps the tone consistent, which is often why an editor marked the fingering that way.
• It gives a reference for everything else. Second and fourth position are learned relative to it, which is why second position, despite the number, is usually taught afterwards.

The guide finger

The mechanism that makes a shift accurate is contact. The finger that is already down stays lightly on the string and slides to the note the new position needs; only then does the next finger arrive. The arm learns the distance as a physical sensation rather than as a visual guess, and a sensation is repeatable in a way a guess is not.

1. Release the finger pressure until the finger is just touching the string, enough to feel it, not enough to stop it.
2. Move the whole arm, from the shoulder, so the hand travels as one unit. The fingers do not reach ahead of the hand.
3. Let the guide finger slide to the destination note of the new position, even if that is not the note you are about to play.
4. Place the new finger only after the hand has arrived.
5. Restore pressure and play.

Hiding the shift

Once the hand knows the distance, the slide is concealed with the bow rather than the hand. Three moments hide it well: a bow change, a string crossing, and a rest. Where none is available, lightening the bow, less weight and slightly less speed, for the instant of travel makes the slide almost inaudible.

A slide left deliberately audible is a portamento, and it is an expressive choice with a long tradition, particularly in Romantic repertoire. The distinction that matters is intent: a portamento is chosen, and a swoop is an accident.

A two-week practice plan

1. Days 1–3: one string, first to third position and back, first finger only, slide audible, no bow, just the sound of the finger travelling. Two minutes.
2. Days 3–6: the same with the bow, still audible, checking the arrival note against an open string or a drone.
3. Days 5–10: add the second finger arriving after the shift. Then the third. The guide finger is still the first.
4. Days 8–12: shift from the third finger, using the third finger as its own guide. This is the case most students never practise and most passages actually require.
5. Days 10–14: find every shift in a piece you are already playing, mark it, and practise those bars alone, slowly, with the slide audible before hiding it.

Cello, bass, and thumb position

On cello the same principles apply, with the extra landmark of the neck heel where the fingerboard meets the body, the point at which the hand can no longer stay behind the neck. Above it the player moves into thumb position, laying the thumb across the strings as a movable nut, which is a genuinely different technique rather than another position in the same series.

On double bass, shifting is not an advanced topic but the fundamental one: the Simandl system covers the instrument through a ladder of half, first, second, and higher positions using 1-2-4 fingering, and a bassist shifts constantly from the first year. The guide-finger principle is identical, and the distances are simply larger.