I cannot find a way to play with a shoulder rest. I have tried a total 15 different models with the assistance of one instructor and one very experienced violinist who runs her own violin store. Between those people, I have also tried three different chin rests, including trying to custom modify one of them. The problems I have are these: every shoulder rest tilts the violin forward on such an angle that it drives the back edge of the chin rest up into the rearmost corner of my jaw ramus , causing pain because that's the only part of my jaw then in contact with the chin rest to hold the violin with the weight of my head.
If I try sliding the G-string side of the shoulder rest further out on my shoulder to reduce the height at my neck, it just slides of the end of my shoulder and makes the violin rotate away or slide down my arm. Also, even ignoring that problem, every shoulder rest causes the violin to rotate forward spinning clockwise if viewed from above , when I move my arm, causing my chest muscles to push the bottom end of the shoulder rest away.
For instance, I read that you should be able to hold your violin comfortably with just chin and collarbone, and reach over with your left hand to touch your right shoulder. If I do that, the violin rotates the scroll to the right, causing it to slip down my chest.
I currently have mounted the Flesch chin rest I believe, completely covers tailpiece, center mounted , and have been trying to use the Mach One shoulder rest.
That set-up is the most recent one given to me by the last violin shop. She said my overall violin hold was good, and swore this was the right combination for me. I later showed my own private teacher, who noticed the problems I described above, but who had no ideas what to do about it. She even said she'd have to go ask her own teacher for thoughts or suggestions.
