What is the highest practical positions for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass.

It really depends what you mean by practical. It's technically possible to play off the end of violin fingerboard, and so I assume it would also be possible on the other instruments of the same family. Some schools of technique talk about the thirteen positions

I rarely venture any higher than about seventh position, though - my nose starts to bleed and I get vertigo if it goes any higher! Mind you, I'm a mucky traditional fiddler, so we do love first position a great deal, perhaps that's where my bias comes from!

I don't tend to think in positions though - I usually just hear the note I want and shift to it, then place my fingers by tone or semi-tone after that - maybe that's a naughty non-academic approach, but as I don't play a great deal of classical music, I can get away with it. In seventh, my first finger is on the octave above the open string, so on the e string I can play from e above open e to about a d# above that if I'm prepared to stretch. I don't ever need anything else, so I suppose practical, for me, means about up to seventh position.

Allan

Well - if we're talking practical then I would say no higher than first....maybe third at a push!!

I occasionally venture up as far as sixth or seventh when I REALLY have to, but I'm one of those people who plays everything in first where possible!!

I find myself going up to 9th position on the violin, but by that stage you tend to forget the number of the position, and you're just clawing for the notes!

"The President" (J Scott Skinner) Has, in its first bar, a 4-octave E arpeggio in semiquavers. The top note is the E above the usual harmonic E on the E string... That's the highest held note I've had to play.

I think when you disappear off the fingerboard, your finger's in the rosin, and there's only just enough room between your finger and the bridge to fit the bow, you have reached the limit.

I'd second that!! Unless you start reducing the size of the bow - in which case you might get a couple more notes!!