Slides are a wonderful, and fairly easy ornament you can add to your fiddling. Although they sound pretty simple, there is a lot going on. So I’ve got some tips and tricks for better slides!

First off, make sure you are practicing slides in your scales and warm-ups. This not only helps your slides, it helps your left hand form and technique. Playing slides as a regular part of your warm up with help you reduce tension in your left hand and get you prepared for more advanced techniques like shifting into higher positions and vibrato.

===>Download your free Scales with Slides Exercise here.

Tips for Better Violin Slides

When playing slides you also want to remember a few other things:

Find medium pressure with your left hand. You don’t want to be too heavy, nor too light.
Don’t reduce the pressure with your bow. Just because you're sliding with your left hand doesn’t mean you should reduce any pressure with your bow. Keep that weight into your bow for a good, strong sound.
Decide whether you need to shift your whole hand back for the slide or if you can just reach a finger back.
Don’t over-slide and slide past your target note (resulting in being too sharp).
Make sure you start the slide low enough so you have plenty of room to slide up into your target note (aim for about a half step below the target note).

Alright, have fun practicing slides!

Happy Practicing!