Reddit reviews Introducing the Positions for Violin: Volume 1 - Third and Fifth Position

The auditory component will always be there. You still need to primarily develop the mechanical muscle memory side of things but violin intonation is about constantly adjusting based on your ear.

Here is a great video by Nathan Cole, associate concertmaster of the LA Phil discussing how to nail shifts that I think you'd find useful. Keep in mind he is talking especially about how to do big jumps, from first to sixth+ position for instance. It's still very important to teach your muscles where the basic positions are, such as knowing where third or even where first position is, which is where the muscle memory mechanics come into play.


Edit: The practice exercise you described is exactly how you should be developing the motions. Slide up to the pitch that you are going for and eventually you can start hiding the glissando sound, through shifting fast enough and/or by slowing down your bow/changing bow direction. I highly recommend you also start practicing 3 octave scales with basic shifting, even if you only go up to the highest note you can play in third position for now.

The Whistler shifting book is a staple resource for developing all this.

Your uncle is right. The older one is, the harder it is to pick up something as technical as the violin. However, because you have experience as a musician, I don't think it's out of the question that you could reach a basic proficiency, at the very the least.


With that aside, I would definitely check out the videos from Violin Masterclass, Todd Ehle, and the great virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin. In terms of method books, check out the Learning the Positions series, the Tune a Day series, and also the Sevcik and Schradieck scale books. Violinist.com is also a great place to ask around. I'm going off the top of my head here, so perhaps other people can chip in as well, since I know I'm missing a bunch.


Anyway, you need go into this like a sponge; listen to everything your uncle suggests. Watch videos and listen to recordings of the great performers, such as Perlman, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Heifetz, Zukerman, Hahn, Mutter, Bell, Shaham, etc. (i could go on and on about this one, haha) and see what you can learn from them. Attention to detail is a must! Most of all, be patient! I have been a violinist for the majority of my life, and yet I am still constantly learning new things from my teacher and other violinists.


I hope this helps, and best of luck to you as you learn this wonderful instrument!

Instead of tapes, get a book:

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Third-Position/dp/1423444876

What I like about this is it builds on what you already know, first position and your existing ear training. You start out by playing something in first, then playing the same thing with a shift to third position. Normally, I don’t suggest books because I think it encourages doing things outside of lessons that could lead to bad habits. But this book is actually intended for students who need supplemental help with shifting. Assuming shifting has been demonstrated in lessons, the book won’t teach you anything new but will rather help cement some things so you can move forward.

In addition to the Suzuki repertoire, I had these books when I first started:

• String Builder
  
• Introducing the Positions for Violin
  
• Hrimaly (Scale Book)
  
• Practical Method: Violin Method
  
  String Builder, Intro to the Positions, and Practical Methods all have several books in the series, and I went through quite a few of them. If I recall correctly, they're filled with fairly simple etudes that aid in building fundamental techniques. I wonder if a teacher would recommend other progression books for adults, however?
  
  You could also use that extra time to practice one octave scales for intonation, finger positioning, and bow variations (whole notes, quarter, eighths, then different slurs such as 2 notes in one bow, 4 notes, 6...). Not only do scales help in solidifying fundamentals, but just knowing how to play/identify different scales, as well as it's minor, harmonic, and melodic counterparts goes a long way when playing more complex music.

I'm an adult learner and I started with Suzuki. I actually like it. I also use Whistler's Introducing the Positions Vol. 1 and my preferred scale book is The Complete Scale Compendium for Violin by Larry Clark although I also have Galamian's Contemporary Violin Technique. I like Larry Clark's because it's good for beginners and very thorough. Galamian's and Carl Flesch's Scale System are good if you're really familiar with scales and need something more advanced.

YouTube has a lot of excellent videos. I prefer Eddy Chen if I'm stuck with something really particular. His advice helped me to really develop a practice routine that helped me stay focused and actually accomplish something. If you do Suzuki, there are some instructors who do play along videos (some even do slower tempo versions) of the etudes which I find helpful.

>And here you have a method (modeled after Suzuki's view of language acquisition) that says playing a small handful of melodic pieces but those to perfection is all you need.

I think the Suzuki method may successfully reproduce the effect of going through hundreds of scales and other exercises that you'd otherwise do like in more boring books like [Whistler] (http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Third-Position/dp/1423444876/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422686450&sr=8-1&keywords=whistler+violin). But I wasn't aware that teachers use Suzuki as the only material for their students. It was the case for me that I'd have several etude books like Whistler plus a "fun" piece like Suzuki to work on concurrently. Plus I would hypothesize that the core "vocabulary", if you will, is narrower for violin playing than for languages. In other words, you only have to have mastered a relatively small set of variations on the scales, shifting and double-stop exercises before you are able to apply it freely in other pieces. It's like that typing example I mentioned. I only needed to practice for two or three weeks before I was typing completely fluently in a Dvorak layout and in Korean. Compare this with my Latin, where I can drill myself on the endings to the verb "eō" until the cows come home and still stumble when I see something like "inībat".

> We seem to have quite different approaches to language.

After reading the rest of what you wrote, I don't think so, or at least not to the extent that you think. I completely agree with your next statement regarding viewing core language fluency as chunks of words or phrases of varying lengths. Of course scanning language and analyzing syntax at the microscopic level is highly inefficient. I only recommended this as a way to learn the fundamentals before moving on to the 'chunking' phase. But it seems to me that it is still more a matter of chunking grammatical forms than individual words or phrases. Caesar does have a set of very frequently used words but I don't think to the extent that you can call them stock phrases. When I see something like that passage you quoted, for me there is a two part process going on. Just as you do, I instinctively group them together. His, litteris and nuntiis share ablative-like endings so they must convey a "by/for/with" kind of meaning (of course I'm not translating into English as I do this, I'm just trying my best to describe to you in detail the mechanics that happen behind the scenes, i.e. subconsciously, when I read a sentence). Then I interpret the meanings, which is not hard because I know by the stems that they must refer to litterae and nuntium, so there's hardly any difficulty here. Then I see "commotus Caesar" and think this must be the subject and instinctively pair this with the ablative phrase. And so on... But I think this example more demonstrates the repetitive occurrence of form, not individual words & phrases. It could easily be something like "illis servis permotus dux..." or "his legatis, qui in gallia erant, Marcus certior factus..." (k, I'm sure that's not good Latin but I'm trying to make a point). I'm in no way trying to parse them individually. This may be what is happening behind the scenes but I'm not formalizing them into technical terms by saying "ok this is ablative, singular, feminine". The meaning just dawns on me organically. But even if Caesar can be read fluently by having mastered a set of individual stock words and phrases, I think this goes against what our friend here was after, which was about the production abilities in language.

Make sure your shoulder rest (if you use one) is properly securing your violin. You should not have to adjust your grip on the violin after a shift.

I personally had my shifting improve substantially after adjusting my shoulder rest.

Second, don't forget your open string checks. In 3rd position, you have 2 checks that are easy: 1 and 2 can be checked with the lower and higher strings, respectively.

Also, this book has very good exercises: http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Volume-Position/dp/1423444876

Just glancing at the piece, it looks like you should start in third or fourth position. I personally would start in fourth, so that high E can be played without an extension.

I would highly suggest getting the two Whistler positions books, which will help you get your fingers placed properly in the positions, and help you shift to them properly as well.

Book 1.

Book 2.