Shifting Techniques Part 9

In the past weeks I got several questions about shifts, correct positions and exercises to improve shifts generally.
So let’s take a short break from our practicing series and let’s focus on shifts again.
In this article I’ve already mentioned Sevick’s “Op. 8″. A particularly amazing work when it comes to shifts. In that post I chose a sequence dealing with the connection between the first and the fourth finger.

Today we’ll have a look at the connection between the first and the third finger, quite common in violin literature:

We start in the first position and go on in the third position. How do we perform these shifts? Do you remember? There was something with the last played finger…

Precisely. That’s it. We must actually hear the shift. But don’t apply too much finger pressure during the shift. Think of your fingerboard as some kind of curtain rod. We just slide along this curtain rod into the next position.
We’ll get rid of the glissando later on by sophisticated bowing technique, not by increasing shifting speed.
But for this exercise we should focus on the shifts, not on bowing techniques.
Repeat this a couple of times and increase speed:

Fingering remains the same, technique as well. You can even increase speed further if you like. But always stick to your “sliding-technique”.
The subsequent measures look like this:

Basically the same, just one note higher. Repeat them as explained above. Then you should carry on up to the sixth or seventh position. When you have finished the G-string repeat the same for D- A- and E-string.

Have fun and: Take your time for the shifts!