Here you will find practice material (both exercises and repertoire excerpts) to develop the skill of shifting on the thumb. The exercises are divided into “single-note” and doublestopped material. It is easier to start with the single note exercises (rather than the double-stopped ones) as these are the easiest to hear and get in tune.
SINGLE-NOTE EXERCISES
Stepwise Shifting on the Thumb: Exercises
Minor Third Shifts on the Thumb: Exercises
Mixed Arpeggio Shifts (Thirds and Fourths) on the Thumb: Exercises
Perfect Fourth Shifts on the Thumb: Exercises
DOUBLESTOPPED EXERCISES
These exercises include material in broken doublestops also. In other words, here we will find all material in which the shifts are made with another finger (in addition to the thumb) stopping the string during the shift, even though the bow might not be sounding both strings simultaneously. Doublestopped shifting exercises are more difficult than exercises with only single notes because we need to hear and correct two notes simultaneously. But they are potentially much more useful than singlenote exercises because the fact of having two fingers stopped obliges the hand to move “in position”. Click the following highlighted link to doublestops for more discussion about this idea.
Semitone Shifts on the Thumb: Doublestopped Chromatic Scales With All Other Fingers
Stepwise Tonal Shifts On the Thumb: Major and Minor Scales
Minor Third Shifts on the Thumb: Doublestopped Diminished Seventh Arpeggio Exercises
Perfect Fourth Shifts on the Thumb: Doublestopped Arpeggio Exercises