# Position

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/position

**A position is a fixed placement of the left hand on the fingerboard, numbered by which note the first finger falls on, so that a set of pitches is reachable without moving the hand.**

In first position on the violin, the first finger sits a whole or half step above the open string, and the four fingers cover roughly a perfect fourth. Third position moves the hand up so the first finger takes the note the third finger played in first, and so on up the instrument. Cellists and bassists have half position below first, and both instruments add thumb position high on the fingerboard.

Positions exist because a string player cannot see the fingerboard while playing and must navigate by hand shape and muscle memory. Learning a new position is learning a new map of the same notes, which is why a student who reads fluently in first position can be temporarily illiterate in third.

The double bass is the outlier: because the string is so long, each position spans only a whole step, and the numbering follows the Simandl system rather than the violin family's.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/position