Position Shifting Exercise for Guitar

When many guitarists get the idea to play a violin piece on guitar, they might want to jump immediately to playing Paganini, some of the most virtuosic and technically demanding music written for violin, challenging to even the top violinists.  

But if an advanced violin piece is challenging even for an advanced violinist, how difficult must it be for a guitarist to play well?  

Even Fernando Sor, one of the guitar world’s foremost historical figures and composer of hundreds of works, including an important guitar method, studies and pieces, once stated: “I have never aimed to play … with great rapidity, because I have been of opinion that I could never make the guitar perform violin passages satisfactorily.”

Although violin music can indeed be extremely challenging on guitar, a lot has changed since then.  Guitarists, both classical and electric, have managed incredible feats, and continue to elevate the kind of musical expression we think the guitar, and the guitarist, is capable of.

If you want to play great sounding intermediate or advanced pieces of music written for violin (or other string instruments such as the cello) on guitar, it would be a good idea to work on some of the same things that violin and cello players work on when learning and building the foundation of their playing technique.

While an electric guitar player’s learning path can feel somewhat random or scattered at times (due to in part to the wide range of musical options at our fingertips, as well as the DIY spirit of guitarists in general), there is logic, reason and tradition in the learning path of a well trained orchestral musician.  There are specific pieces and studies that must be learned, usually given in a specific order, and well designed exercises selected to work on specific technical issues present in both the repertoire, and in the playing of the instrument itself.  

The string exercise I’ve adapted for guitar in this lesson is one such exercise.

Jump to PDF download of all exercises

It comes from a set of exercises that have been a staple for string players for over a hundred years: the exercises of Otakar Ševčík, composed for violin in 1895, and later adopted by Cello and Viola players.

Now, guitar players too can benefit from the solid feeling, and accuracy in position shifting that these exercises help to develop.  

Start by playing the exercise along the 6th / Low E String. 

When you look at the left hand fingering indicated in the notation, you’ll see that we shift up with the first finger, but we shift back down by landing on the second or third finger, rather than shifting back with the first finger again.  This is as in the original cello or violin fingering, and will take some getting used to for guitarists who may be used to shifting always with either the first or fourth finger.  Start with the fingerings I’ve written out here, but experiment with other options (see the pointers below).

Continue along the rest of the guitar strings:

Note:  The original exercise as composed for violin differs slightly both in melody and in fingering.  The version presented here follows the cello adaptation, which more closely fits the note spacing on the guitar fingerboard, and the needs of guitarists.

Directions included with the original set of exercises state that we should:

Practice in moderate tempo:

a) each measure separately,

b) each group of 2 measures (mm. 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, etc.),

c) all measures on the same string (mm. 1-5, 6-10, etc.),

d) the entire exercise

Key points to remember:

Practice Slowly – Focus on efficiency and relaxed control.

Move Quickly (while playing slowly) – train your fingers to get to the next position quickly, efficiently and automatically – you are fine tuning the mechanism here.  By teaching your fingers to snap to the next position as quickly as possible, even while playing at a slow tempo, you are preparing yourself for faster playing, while remaining in control.  

Maintain Awareness – Relax and pay attention to the feeling and sound of the notes you are playing.  

Practice, not Performance – This exercise is for you.  It is not about flash, or about impressing anyone, it is about building a solid and controlled fretting hand technique.

Don’t Overdo It – Spend 5 to 10 minutes max with this kind of exercise.  Stay relaxed, and always maintain awareness of any tension building up in the hands.  Stop if you feel any pain or excess tension.

Divide and Conquer – You don’t need to play through the entire exercise every time.

Sometimes practice just on one string, or only a couple of measures at a time, as indicated in the directions.

Experiment with Different Fingerings – The suggested fingerings are not carved in stone, but serve as a good starting point.  Try different fingerings and approaches to shifting – be aware and notice how different approaches feel.  Try at different tempos and play one measure repeatedly, with different finger choices – notice if one fingering feels more solid or secure than another.  

Be Mindful – Be sure that your finger choices are intentional and on-purpose rather than random or mindless.

Download FREE PDF of all guitar exercises (TAB & Standard Notation):