My violin teacher gave me some pieces to look-over during the christmas break - my practise has been terrible over christmas, I didn't seem to find much time to play and have only this week started to look at the pieces!

They're excerises in playing more complicated rythems and sharps required for grade 2.
I having trouble playing sharps with my third finger (G sharp, D sharp), I either move my finger too far forwards or not enough, does anyone have any tips or exercises to help my fingers get used to playing sharps?

Any help would be appreciated,

Lisa

On general principles, practise an exercise that requires you to move that finger from the natural to the sharp and back again, and listen hard to the tuning, all the time; e.g. round and round the following sequence:

|: E F# G F# E F# G# F# :|

Thanks, I'll try practising this!

G# and D# are both in the higher 3rd position on the D and A strings respectively. Try placing your 4th finger on A (on the D string) and E (on the A string) and then place your finger just below them. That was how I was taught. Slowly, you'll learn to recognise the correct tone for G# and D#. Good luck!