hey. i've been playing the viola for 3 years now and i've started shifting. i can't seem to get my fingures going fast enough for this one part in this song i'm learning 2 play. i've tried speeding up slowly, but that doesn't seem to help me. any advice??

i never learned how to shift my self but if you give it time and ask you superiors you will learn.

ps. the more you practice the better you'll feel when there is a part in a song you have to shift in and are the only one who can do it =)

set your standards high and start SLOW

Well, I've been playing viola for about...8 years now and I am a veteran at shifting. You should, of course, go very slowly. Practice hitting your mark (where you shift) over and over and over until you hit the note perfectly everytime. Don't even worry about the other notes until you can hit that note correctly. Then go slowly and if you get confused as to what the shifting is supposed to sound like, play the problem area in a lower, more comfortable position until you get used to hearing what it sounds like! Happy shifting!

I've been playing for about 7 years now. The way I learned it a long time ago is to have a "spot" on your hand that you hit the body when you shift (I'm guessing you're trying third position). That spot will remain constant, and as long as you hit that spot, you will get almost perfect pitch everytime. One of the huge advantages of the "spot" is that you can shift very quickly but still get the note because the body of your viola is stopping your hand from going further. This makes it easier to play fast phrases.

I been playing for 10 years now... and I never got the shifting right until about 4 years ago. I had a really well known teacher in high school who thought we were taught very badly. So he had to re-teach us... not bad my high school group got to go to carnegie hall, I of course moved out of the state and did not attend (I still kick myself every now and then).
BUT, he did teach me something (I am going to try hard to explain). 1st start with a simple D scale, everything one bow stroke (like E note to F# 1 bow stroke, F# to E 1 bow stroke).
Start E (1st finger) and put your 2nd finger down on F# (like a regular scale all on on bow stroke) Then take off 2nd finger leave 1st on down on the E keep playing E . Now! the hard part...slied your 1st finger down to the F# spot and put your second finger down on G. When you release your 2nd finger, slied (at the same time) your 1st finger back to E. Of course keep going up the scale. Play E and slied your 1st finger to G and put the 2nd finger on the A note. SO on and so on.
2nd (with the 3rd finger now and same like last time on the D string) start 1st finger on E the put 2nd finger down. Different bow stroke F# back to E. Now Play E (one bow)then 3rd finger down to G. THen from G to E. HOld E, (1st finger) now slied 1st finger down to a G (3rd position) and put 3rd finger down for an A.
The point of this exersize he said was to get comfortable with shifting... you would want to start off slow and go alittle faster along the way. It help me. Any questions or mot understanding I will try my best to help. LIke I said it help me and my fellow Carengie friends

I just started with a new teacher the other day. She told me to imagine having my wrist pulled (forward or back) and the finger following. Amazingly, it works amazingly! I can shift almost perfectly up and down, after 1 day of practice, when I take the pains to remember this. And I don't use a shoulder rest, so I couldn't figure out how to shift down very well before, but now it's great. It's faster and has better intonation. How come no one told me of this before!

ive been playing for 10 yrs, and im doing grade 8 AMEB (its australian, yes i do live in aus) so i think i might have the shifting thing down.

all i can really recommend is practicing it over and over again till u get it up to speed, or putting a marker where u need to shift.
i no u said that practicing it slowly doesnt help, but perhaps u should start slowly, and when uve mastered it at a slow speed take the speed up a notch, and when u get it perfect at that speed take it up again...etc. until u get to the normal speed.

i no that u posted ur qs a long time ago but o well...