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With experience, string players become accustomed to the required shape and position of the left hand. Some positions are located relative to certain touch references, or landmarks on the instrument. For example, fourth position on the cello (used in the example below) has the player's thumb resting in the "saddle" of the neck root.
In notation for keyboard instruments, numbers are used to relate to the fingers themselves, not the hand position on the keyboard. In modern scores, the fingers are numbered from 1 to 5 on each hand: the thumb is 1, the index finger is 2, the middle finger is 3, the ring finger is 4 and the little finger is 5. Earlier usage varied by region.
The cello thumb position is introduced on the second or half-string harmonic, [1] the note "A" on the highest string. Play ⓘ The note D is difficult if impossible to reach with the fourth finger in 7th position without removing one's thumb from the neck, while it is easily reachable with the third finger in thumb position.
For each hand-position of four frets, the left hand is stationary while its fingers move. Consequently, three hand-positions (of frets 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12) cover the 12-fret octave of each string. [7] In common with other classical stringed instruments, classical guitar playing and notation use formal positions of the left hand. The 'nth ...
In the neck positions (which use just less than the half of the fingerboard nearest the top of the instrument), the thumb rests on the back of the neck; in thumb position (a general name for notes on the remainder of the fingerboard) the thumb usually rests alongside the fingers on the string and the side of the thumb is used to play notes. The ...
Normally the player holds the pick with thumb and index finger, picking the string, and utilizing the middle and ring finger to finger pick adjacent strings. In the context of styles of music from the American South , such as country music , bluegrass , and rockabilly , it is often called "chicken pickin'."
Left hand finger patterns, after George Bornoff First position fingerings. While beginning violin students often rely on tapes or markers placed on the fingerboard for correct placement of the left-hand fingers, more proficient and experienced players place their fingers on the right spots without such indications but from practice and experience.
This technique—also used on the cello—is called thumb position. While playing in thumb position, few players use the fourth (little) finger, as it is usually too weak to produce reliable tone (this is also true for cellists), although some extreme chords or extended techniques, especially in contemporary music, may require its use.