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* Position Shifts Difficulties** Length of the Position Shift (1st In general, position shifting should be used to 15th make life easier for your fretting hand. Let's identify the difficulties in fretboard-fingering and position is more difficult than 1st to 2nd)-shifting:** Frequency of Position Shifts (Shifting every note is more difficult than shifting every 5 notes)
1 3 6 3 1
'''So there's always some balance between tone and difficulty, with difficulty having balance between fingering difficulty vs. position-shifting difficulty.'''
→Using Position Intelligently
It's technically possible to play a single note passage using only your index finger, shifting positions for every note. Or to play the same passage in one position, even if it means some nasty stretches or awkward transitions between fingers. In rare cases, manic position changes are desired for their tonal aspects, but normally they are reserved to make playing easier.
* Fretboard Fingering Difficulties
** Non-repetitive Patterns
** Frequent or Lengthy Stretching
** String-Skipping
** Differences in the number of notes on one string to the next
* Position Shift Difficulties
** Length of the Position Shift (1st position to 15th position is more difficult than 1st to 2nd)
** Frequency of Position Shifts (Shifting every note is more difficult than shifting every 5 notes)
** Getting Lost on the Fretboard (not knowing notes for some position)
Thus, shifting positions makes sense when it alleviates fingering difficulties, but not to the point where it creates its own. As you grow as a player, you should be able to start breaking down both sets of issues; but until you are a virtuoso, don't be afraid or mystified by shifting position. It may seem to present its own difficulties at first, but ultimately it makes playing easier. And it definitely makes learning the fretboard easier.
Let's look at some examples of difficult fingerings and how positional shifts can help. ''Do not try to practice the tab below - as a beginner you will find it frustrating and it will not bring you any benefit yet.''
E-1-2-----------------------------------2-1--
i m i p r p r m i m p m i m r p r p i m i
1
E---------------------6----------------------
E-1-2-----------------------------------2-1--
i m i p i m i p i m i m i p i m i p i m i
Both examples above have the same notes. Notice the difficulty we face trying to play it all in first position in the first passage. Playing it, we have no repeating pattern; some strings have 2 notes, some have 1, and one has 3; and we have a particularly nasty stretch on the highest note. Also notice we are using all of our fingers with some ring-pinky transitions, which can be difficult.
Compare this to the second passage which shifts positions from 1st to 3rd to 6th then back. We only have 4 shifts, and they only span 2 or 3 frets. Each position has at least 4 notes, so we are not shifting too frequently. In return, we alleviate all the difficulties mentioned above: we have a repeating finger pattern each shift, almost every string has 2 consecutive notes, and there are no awkward stretches.
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