the lower strings more easily. Raising either shoulder beyond a natural relaxed position is an easy habit to acquire without noticing it. Like any other unwarranted tension, it limits freedom of motion, and increases the risk of discomfort, while decreasing sound quality. It is useful to pay attention to the "square" formed by the right arm and bow, keeping it in a flat plane, and noticing which parts "lead" in string-crossing motions. Left hand: producing pitch 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. To attain good intonation, violin players train their fingers to land in the right places, learning to hear when a pitch is in or out of tune, and cultivating the ability to correct the pitch rapidly and automatically as they are being played. "Singing" the pitch mentally helps to land in the right spot. (In practice, intonation may be checked by sounding an adjacent open string, and listening for the interval between the two notes.) Although adjusting to the desired pitch after landing the finger is indeed possible, the amount of adjustment needed may be greatly reduced by training the fingers to fall properly in the first place. The fingers are conventionally numbered 1 (index finger) to 4 (little finger). Especially in instructional editions of violin music, numbers over the notes may indicate which finger to use, with "0" above the note indicating "open" string, or playing on a string without manipulating the pitch using the left hand. The second finger may be either "low" or "high," corresponding to G or G on the E string in first position (no fingers on the string). Similarly, the first finger may reach a half-step down for the F, and the 3rd and 4th fingers reach up for A and C respectively, as shown on the chart of Bornoff finger patterns on the left. (Pattern number five may be seen to be the same as pattern number three, but a half step lower, or in "half position".) The lower chart on the left shows the arrangement of notes reachable in first position. Left hand finger placement is a matter of the ears and hand, not the eyes, that is, it has strong aural and tactile/kinesthetic