Why You Need to Study Violin Positions to Take your Playing to the Next Level

Why You Need to Study Positions to Take your Playing to the Next Level

Are you wanting to take your playing to the next level and play more advanced pieces? Why study violin positions? You have to be studying violin positions.

In this post, I’ll be talking about why you need to study positions on the violin in order to take your playing to the next level.

Why study violin positions

Let’s take Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro as an example. On the last page one has to play first position all the way to seventh position and played every single position in between.

If you want to just rattle off some really advanced pieces comfortably and freely you need to be fluent in your positions on the violin. If you don’t learn positions on the violin you’ll be stuck playing only in first position. Now playing the first position can be really, really beautiful but you can play more beautifully if you take exactly the same notes in first position and move it up into third position.

Why study violin positions? To be a better violinist.

Positions provide more tone colors

There are so many different colors that you can get out of your violin if you start to explore the different positions.

What exactly are violin positions?

You may be asking well what exactly are violin positions? The violin is set up like a grid. When you first learn the violin, you learn first position.

If you replace your second finger in first position with your first finger, that puts you up in second position.
If you replace your third finger in first position with your first finger, that puts you up in third position.
If you replace your fourth finger in first position with your first finger, that puts you up in fourth position.
If you replace your third finger in third position with your first finger, that puts you up in fifth position.
If you replace your fourth finger in third position with your first finger, that puts you up in sixth position.
In sixth position, where you play your second finger, that’s our seventh position.

Seventh position is a lot of fun because it cuts the string exactly in half. The seventh position lives right in the middle of the string. Seventh position reads like third position just a string over and fifth position reads like first position but just a string over.

Is mastering violin positions on your to do list?

How many times have you said to yourself…”if only I had proper violin position training…” Well, if not now, when?

This is why I created Position Mastery Academy. Where you don’t have to lose time to think what to practice or search for more violin position exercises. Your technical practice is all laid out for you. All violin position books included for you to see massive improvements even if all you have is 15 minutes a day of concentrated mindful technique practice.

Discover more here

Pieces will fly off your fingertips!

As you can see when you know your positions and you’re fluent in your positions, it’s going to be super, super easy to play more advanced pieces and to have them fly off your fingertips. How to get to that point is to make sure you have a daily position practice put into place. Focus on a position and really learn that position. Violin positions are the framework to all intermediate and advanced pieces on the violin. Position knowledge is an absolute must for orchestral playing. Some people ask me how do violinists know the best fingerings to play? That’s because they have position knowledge. You’ll be able to determine what are the best fingerings once you know your positions better. I would suggest at least one-sixth of your practice time be devoted to studying your positions. Dedicated position practice is important to schedule in your practice sessions no matter how advanced you are. It’s an excellent practice to focus in on a position by playing scales, arpeggios and exercises for technical cleaning and strengthening. Are you ready to take your violin journey to the next level by studying your positions? Make sure you check out my video, Three Things You Must Develop Before Learning Positions on the violin. If you’ve already started to learn positions but you’re struggling with it, definitely check out this video. I’ll see you there. Ciao.