SHIFTING
Shifting is the second most important left hand skill, after hand position. Once you can play in tune in first position it is easy to apply those principles to every position. The trick is to move from position to position successfully: shifting. A successful shift is as reliable and in tune as your open strings. Use your drone to train your ears for precision and accuracy. Once you can play in one position fluently with easy consistency, and you can shift correctly, the fingerboard is yours to enjoy—you can now spend all your time thinking about the right hand! Shifting is a wonderful opportunity to develop your sense of hand position, which is a shortcut for playing double, triple, and quadruple stops. If you can plop your fingers down wherever you are on the viola, you can plop them on neighboring strings. Of course, with The Stops, sometimes we have to visit a crazy hand position place momentarily, but being able to get right back from that flattened fifth or unusual diminished realm is critical for success. Shifting correctly gives you a chance to practice putting your hand into position reliably, no matter where you are coming from.
First, you must master the simple shift. Do not worry about the occasional fancy or artistic thing you want to do with a shift. Learn how to play a super reliable shift and keep it in your toolbox.
Keep your motions simple. Do not lock your hand, but do not lead with anything, especially not the wrist. Simply release your thumb and fingers and move your whole arm to the new position. Use what you know about playing in tune on each string in first position to help you find the most neutral place for your elbow, always accounting for 1 and 4, in higher positions. Sometimes the most neutral place is not all that neutral for your body, but I find that I can practice shifts through seventh position pretty comfortably on the A string.
Every shift is from first finger to first finger. KEEP 1 DOWN AT ALL TIMES. Look to verify you are not lifting it, particularly on down-shifts. If you miss a shift in your repertoire look to see if you are accidentally lifting your first finger, or if there’s a way to put it down to help anchor your hand.
The most important finger is 1. The second most important finger is 4. You must be able to play both of them in the the origin and destination positions in tune!
The upper fingerboard is less familiar than the lower fingerboard; HOWEVER, down-shifts are less reliable than up-shifts. DO NOT NEGLECT THEM.
Maintain a consistent sound while you shift: up-shifts move the bow toward the bridge, down-shifts move the bow away from the bridge. Even small ones.
Practice all shifts up-and-down on up bow and down bow.
All shifts should be as slow as you can get away with musically.
All shifting exercises double as ear-training exercises. Ear training starts with your imagination. You must hear the origin note and then imagine the goal note, then play them. Each shift involves a clear goal from your mind. Your shifts should be as in tune as your open strings. Listen for overtones that verify your meticulous intonation.
Every shift is from a finger pattern to another finger pattern. This means you must name the finger pattern you are starting with and the one you are heading to, so your hand structure inside your hand frame makes sense. Simple shifts, which should be mastered first, are from one finger pattern in one position to the same finger pattern in the next position.
The most overlooked shifting skill is right hand tracking. Every shift involves a change in string length, and every change in string length involves a small (or large) shift in the tracking point in order to make a consistent sound. While you shift, look in the mirror at your bow’s tracking point. You should see (but not necessarily feel) a small pull in toward the bridge on every up shift and a small release away from the bridge, still catching the string and creating the same sound, on every down shift. The amount you must change the tracking of your bow depends on how large the apparent shift is—how much the string length actually changed. This means first position to fourth position might be fourth finger to first finger—no change in string length—or first finger to fourth finger, a major seventh—a large change in string length. Unison or seventh is the size of the apparent shift in these two examples of one kind of position change. Use your eyes, ears, and brain to maintain a consistent sound through your shifting exercise. It can be helpful to know that sometimes you may be missing a shift because the sound quality is changing and distracting you. Keep your eyes peeled for right hand problems you are trying to solve with your left hand.
DAILY PRACTICE:
Pick a shift you want to master. You might even start with a shift from your scale. For the D Major scale I love to practice, I practice third position to sixth position on the A string, WW1/2 in both positions (despite the fact that in the scale I play WWW in sixth position). My main project is the move between F# and G natural, particularly on the down-shift. I practice all four fingers to all four fingers in order to feel good about shifting from G to F# in my scale. The apparent shift I am interested in mastering is a half step, but the real shift I must master to predictably play that half step change in pitch is the shift from third position to sixth position. This seems like a long route to take to master a simple half-step shift, but it is truly a shortcut; once you know it, you can confidently use all the permutations for shifts (any finger to any other finger) and you will be able to play in tune once you get there because you have organized the true shift. This also means you have fewer shifts to master and provides an anchor for confidence—if you can name the shift, you can execute it. Once you’ve mastered how to shift from a position to another position you have done most of the work of learning to shift. Applying the principles of shifting correctly to other position changes is relatively simple once you’ve taught yourself how to comprehensively simplify and master a shift.
Turn the drone to the first finger pitch in the first position. I turn on D natural (D5).
Drop your first finger to match the drone. It can be useful to drop it repeatedly, as with intonation exercises in first position, to make sure you are really comfortable finding the D.
Play 4th finger to find your elbow position, and in this case hear the new pitch for 1st finger. Make sure you are applying all the principles of playing in tune in first position to your starting position, whether it is first position or third or any other position.
Make sure your first finger is still in tune with the drone. After playing the fourth finger, make sure you have not changed the pitch of 1. If you have, you have destabilized your hand before the shift has begun.
Release the thumb without lifting your first finger so you can glissando up to G natural. You should always hear the gliss; your first finger should stay down. Keep going until you hit the perfect G. (If you are sharp you are going too fast; if you are too flat, keep shifting up, making sure you don’t squeeze!) Play C natural above the G to make sure you can play your fourth finger in the new position without shifting your arm or elbow or hand again! THIS is sixth position—the one where you can play the G AND the C. Find that position with your body—do a viola scan, a body scan, and a tension scan—to identify a usable 6th position. Play a few 1-4 sirens to make sure you’re IN SIXTH. Then, lift your fourth finger, play that G, still perfectly in tune a fourth above the drone, and gliss back down to third position; your first finger should be down the whole time. Play some 1-4 sirens to make sure you are IN THIRD. The gliss should continue until you get to the perfect pitch to match the drone or the perfect fourth above the drone. Wag your elbow to find a neutral spot. What you are teaching yourself is where your elbow (and the rest of your big body) should be to support your hand position in 3rd position and 6th position, and how to move your elbow (and the rest of your body) the simplest way to get from one place to the other and back again. THIS CAN TAKE A WHILE. Really invest in 1-1, with fourth finger verification. It might take a while (days, weeks?) to figure out how to move first finger from one position to another so it sounds like you’re as in tune as you are when you tune your instrument. Don’t lose heart—your progress will be logarithmic. Figuring out how to shift simply and reliably from 1-1 the first time you pick a shift to master is THE MAIN PROJECT OF LEARNING TO SHIFT.
Once you can nail 1-1, play 1-1 and then drop down your 2 in sixth position. The gliss happens between 1 and 1, but the 2nd finger is a plop. The perfect 5th you make after hearing the perfect 4th will also create beautiful overtones with your drone. Make sure the overtones are the same every time. This is such a cool way to listen to your intonation, and it is completely unforgiving. You will learn to be very precise if you can recreate the same overtone every time. The next step is 1-1 with a gliss and then plop down 3; then 4. These overtones are not perfect intervals but they will still teach you about reliability. They should also sound the same every time.
After you can shift from D to all the fingers in sixth position, change the drone to E natural. Play your second finger in tune with the drone in third position. Check that your first finger is down and perfectly in tune. Shift from 1 to 1, with your second finger down if you can, lifting it along the way to arrive at that same familiar G on first finger in sixth position, now a third above the drone. If you need to lift your second finger right at the beginning of the gliss, you can do that while you are figuring out what it feels like to shift from inside the finger pattern. The hidden notes that anchor you on the fingerboard are your friends and helpers, in this case the first finger D that you will leave down during all shifts from E natural to sixth position. You can listen to them as much or as little as you find useful. On the down-shift, play G back to D and then plop the E down until you are very secure in the shift and all three pitches are meticulously in tune. Once the intonation is perfect you can begin to drop 2 on the way down and eventually check the D after you play the E. Apply the principles of second finger on E to the F# and G 3rd and 4th fingers.
Master simple shifting in a variety of positions before you tackle complex shifting.
SUPER USEFUL SHIFTS:
1st position to 4th position— you can play the octave above the open string with your fourth finger! You can play the open string above at the same time as your first finger!
1st position to 5th position—you can play a fifth up from first position, pretend you are using the same fingerings from one string higher but with a darker color, and get up to B on the A string. Being able to play first finger in first position and then zipping around up a fifth is remarkably useful. You can play 1 in first position, 4 in fifth position and make a zippy octave—useful!
3rd position to 5th position—all the benefits of getting to and from fifth, but you need less gasoline! You’ll use this one all the time.
3rd position to 6th position—I love this one for the D Major scale, which is the gateway scale to master.
Learn any shift you love or need, then learn the rest. The main idea is to make sure you understand how to shift reliably. You want to pick up your viola and know that you can get to all the places you need to go, and find a reliable route when there’s an unusual shift in the repertoire because you know how to master a shift. Invest deeply in the ones you’re most likely to need first.
COMPLEX SHIFTING:
Once you are able to keep the hand frame and the finger pattern reliably in tune between two positions, you are ready to augment your skills with complex shifting. This involves simply incorporating the idea that you are moving from one finger pattern to a different one while you shift. This happens all the time in music. Practice tough shifts from your repertoire during your warmup to demystify them. Learn all the fingers to all the fingers from the first position to the second position. Consider enharmonic spellings to simplify the reality of your repertoire shifts if it’s useful. Always name the shift from 1-1, even if the finger pattern changes, so you know what position you are going to and how big the interval is from 1 to 1. If you keep missing a shift in your repertoire, name it, practice it, and call it easy. Keep 1 down all the time, even if it is unheard on a neighbor string (unless you have to pick it up, which does happen). Practicing the simplest version of the shift (same string) and keeping 1 down in both positions will help you feel grounded while you execute the shift and string crossing and change in finger pattern. You have anchors to let you know where you are, and they will allow you to move freely and confidently around your fingerboard. Complex shifting should feel like a small step if you have mastered playing in tune in first position and simple shifting.