All Thumbs

I play three different stringed instrument: violin, guitar, and finally ukulele. Though each shares nuances with the others, they are all independent, unique instruments requiring work and practice to be put into them before progress can be made. Time spent on one instrument can, however, affect my ability on another. A specific example of this is the shape of my left hand when playing my violin. The thumb should be perpendicular to the ground, across from my index finger when I am in first position. Guitar requires my thumb to be much closer to my middle finger as it must be closer to the center of my hand so it can support more pressure. For the ukulele, do to its small size, my thumb tends to rest a little bit off center from palm, though it is largely in the same position due to the similarities between the ukulele and guitar. This constant change in the position of my thumb causes me to, if I am not actively thinking about my thumb placement, move my thumb much to far down my violin neck. This in turn changes the position of my hand just enough to where my muscle memory is causing me to play sharp. Despite having played the violin for almost seven years, the more natural thumb position required to play both my guitar and ukulele has caused my less natural thumb position on the violin to degrade. On another note, my progress with the ukulele has been chugging along. I took it with me to celebrate Christmas in the balmy winter weather of Florida. Musicians are drawn to other musicians, and while waiting for my flight, a friendly woman struck up conversation. She herself was a professional ukulele player and played in an all ukulele orchestra. I know, I didn't know such a thing existed either. After discussing the joys of ukulele playing, and dispensing some advice, she left to board her plane and I left to board mine. I later searched "ukulele orchestra", and not to my surprise, they are as weird as they are cool.