Introducing the Positions, Volume 1, is an instructional book with fingerings and instructional text for beginning a course of study in position playing. Volume 1 introduces the violinist to the first, third and fifth positions. Volume 2 continues with the second, fourth, sixth and seventh positions. Together, these books constitute an introductory school of position playing. Also available: Introducing the Positions, Volume 2 (HL.4472560). - Publisher.
The purpose of position playing itself is to extend the tonal range of the violin, and obviously, those students who play only in the first position, by necessity, have no alternative than to remain in elementary ensemble groups, or to play the lower violin parts in intermediate orchestras. They cannot become first violinists in advanced school orchestras because of their inability to play in the higher positions of their instrument. The positions with which these individuals should become acquainted are the third and the fifth, yet if they turn to traditional violin methods for aid in acquiring a knowledge of the higher positions of which they are in need, they are confronted with an array of ungraded material, starting with the second position and passing directly from the second to the third position, from the third to the fourth position, and so on, in numerical order. From a modern pedagogical standpoint, such a procedure is entirely wrong, and obviously, methods written in such a manner are of little or no value to students in the public schools of the present day. The scope of the present work is purely that of an introduction to the art of position playing, and because it is limited to the needs of violinists in school orchestras, it is not to be assumed that the author advocates neglecting the study of the remaining positions of the violin. It is a fact, that each position of the instrument should be thoroughly studied by all conscientious students of the violin, but notwithstanding this, the second, fourth, sixth and seventh positions should not be taken up by students until they have acquired an adequate mastery of the third and fifth positions. - p. [1].
