So I just wanted to share my latest mini break through. I thought I’d had a mini breakthrough the other day but turns out it was a false alarm. Anyway I’ve been doing a few vibrato exercises and doing them made me realise I don’t have a gap between the neck of the violin and my index finger. And that left to me realising I’m holding the neck of the violin pretty wrong- like I’m basically holding it with my hand more than I should be. So I then started to play with a gap but my playing was awful really really terrible and also my thumb kept slipping from the side of the neck. So after a lot of grumbling and thumb slipping and really awful playing I adjusted my shoulder rest I raised the legs up a bit and it’s higher and much more comfortable. I’m not actually holding the violin now and it doesn’t feel like I’m looking down! So I’m hoping I might start progressing now again… I hope!!

Anyway I thought I’d share in case anyone has any other shoulder rest experiences! 

Katie