Need advice for half positions

August 12, 2016 at 08:22 PM · Hi Bailey, it is a bit confusing that you talk about half position and C major scale together. Half position is where you use the 2nd, 3rd and 4rd fingers for notes that you would use the 1st, 2nd and 3rd finger for in first position. For example, it could be useful in passages in B major on the G string, or passages in E major on the D string. You don't play C major scale in half position! So I think you simply refer to first position, and are talking about the awkward placement of the first finger on the F on the E string. The advice below is written in that context.

The most important is that you don't move your hand, you only draw your first finger away from you. You can practice this best on a single string first, as follows. In the following I use the A string but you can do it on any string.

First phase: place your 1st finger on B and make sure the thumb is in its natural position, opposite the first finger or even a little bit more towards you. Also let the other three fingers hover nicely over the string. Now repeatedly draw back the 1st finger to a Bflat, back to B, back to Bflat, and so on. It's like working out your 1st finger! Make sure the thumb and the other fingers and the general hand shape remains largely the same while doing this exercise.

Second phase: place 1st on B as before but also 2nd on C#. Leave 3rd and 4rd nicely hovering over the same string. Now again pull your 1st finger back and forth between B and Bflat, leaving everything else as unchanged as possible. Of course if you leave the 2nd finger on the string you will hear the C# and will hear no change in pitch! Indeed this is an exercise you do without the bow.

Third phase: now place 1st on B and 2nd on C# as before, and also 3rd on D. Try to leave your pinky nicely hovering around the E spot. Again pull 1st back and forth leaving the hand frame as stable as possible.

The fourth phase is pretty difficult already, now you place all four fingers on the A string on B, C#, D and E (you can also do C natural instead of C#, this is harder). It is actually easier to place all four fingers starting with the 4rd. Place the 4rd on E nicely relaxed and rounded. Add the 3rd on D. Add the 2nd on C#, finally the 1st on B. While doing so try to keep everything relaxed and rounded but this is NOT easy and requires daily practice. Also, make sure your wrist is not pushed away from you too much. This produces tension and is a common error. You can allow your wrist to ease slightly towards you actually. Now with all four fingers in a nice hand frame, again pull 1st back and forth between B and Bflat.

Once you do these exercises and get a feel for pulling the 1st finger back while leaving your hand frame intact, this becomes automatic and it can then be applied also on different strings, e.g. when you play a C on the A-string in first position followed by an F on the E-string.

Have fun practicing!

August 12, 2016 at 08:37 PM · Thank you for such an in depth response Jean. This sounds like a very practical exercise, and is one that will greatly assist to refine the overall shape of my hand whilst playing as well.

August 12, 2016 at 09:08 PM · My experience, when I was finally learning intonation properly as an adult, having failed to do so through 12 years of childhood violin study, was that my first finger needed to be somewhat closer to the nut for F, Bb, Eb, and Ab than felt natural. As you progress you're going to see -- and I think you might already be seeing -- that the exact tuning of notes depends on the key that you're in. It always sounds weird that Ab might be different from G#, but in the key of A Major the G# is the leading tone and often needs to be high. So a G# (first finger on the G string) in a section that is in A Major will be a different pitch from an Ab that is leading down to the G in a section that is in G minor.

There is a beautiful, erudite, and crystal-clear description of key sensitive intonation in the landmark book "Scales" by Simon Fischer.

Disclaimer: I'm an amateur violinist and my comments are always subject to improvement or outright rejection by those with superior skill and training.

August 12, 2016 at 09:16 PM · I'm a pretty big beginner too. One thing that helped me with my intonation on F-natural is to pull my first finger further back than I thought I would need to (I was always playing it too sharp). Now, this might be advice specific to me—but to generalize it a little, it seems like a really good thing to do first is to figure out why you're intonation isn't correct and go from there.

Is it consistently too flat? Too sharp? By a lot or a little?

August 12, 2016 at 10:15 PM · Good advice so far.

However,..in a passage in B flat major on the upper strings, I will shift the hand back into "half" position for comfort and stability (not to mention vibrato), rather than have 3 ot of 4 fingers curled back. I mean "half position" in a physical, rather than notational sense. I calculate my positions in semitones anyway: half, first, low second, high second, etc. This clarity avoids much frustrating inconsistency of intonation as we cross the strings.

August 13, 2016 at 12:09 AM · "... experimenting with other keys and music beyond my standard suzuki path"

That's good. Keep it up.

August 13, 2016 at 04:27 PM · I agree this experimentation is good, but there is a reason the Suzuki books are organized so much around D major and A major type pieces, because what you are learning is the relative positions of the fingers for a well-tuned major scale. So it's fine to be wandering off into new keys, but then make sure you are having your teacher hear what you are working on so that you don't develop any bad habits intonation-wise. Also, "half position" is really a different position, you move your thumb. It's a shift. That's something also where your teacher should be seeing what you're up to.

August 13, 2016 at 08:42 PM · I have a colleague who shifts her hand back and forth, more often than I do in fact, but does not communicate this "secret" to her students! With painful results. If I try to discuss these techniques, she just says "they should practice more".....

I fear this is quite common.

August 13, 2016 at 10:38 PM · Thank you all so much for the ideas!

@Paul I agree with what you said, however I do make sure to practice all my scales and intonation exercises with a tuner in front of me. My teacher actually gives me most of the supplemental materials. Suzuki can get dull pretty quick after all the songs in the first half of book 2 are relatively simplistic aside from the techniques each song introduces.