Glides

Practicing long shifts can be frustrating. Sometimes it may seem as though some shifts will just never be reliable. Gliding is a practice method that is quite effective.

What I mean by gliding is basically sliding slowly through the whole distance of the shift. If there is a transfer from one finger to another, glide on the finger that you will arrive on (the new finger). The key here is the speed of the glide. The idea is to glide slowly enough that your ear can keep up. There should be zero chance that you will over-shoot the shift. If you miss, then your ear was not keeping up with the sound. In the initial practice of the shift, there is no pulse, no rhythm, just two notes. Of course, you must know what the destination note should sound like--if not, then solve that problem first--and then you simply hear the glide (or gliss or slide) all the way up to it. You will be constantly comparing the sound of the pitch you are hearing with the goal pitch and your brain will be doing some calculations about how far there is left to go. As you approach the destination note, you can even slow down as if pulling into a parking space. I use the analogy of skateboarding, in which my finger is gliding on the board, and my brain/ear has to stay balanced on top. If the skateboard shoots out ahead, I'm in trouble. I still might hit the shift, but probably not every time.
After you do this successfully a few times, you will probably be able to start speeding it up a bit, since whenever you repeat something the same way, it gets easier. However, if your hand gets ahead of your ear, you are going too fast. As with stop practice it will be important to coordinate the shift with a pulse (or a schedule as I like to say), but not necessarily a fast one. Also, keep in mind that you are still requiring your ear to regulate the movement. When there is a pulse to coordinate with, leave earlier in order to arrive on time.
I think that what happens as we do this kind of practice is that we get a second benefit which may be the most important one. With each repetition we land the shift without correction. We make only one movement. It may be slow, but it is one thing. As we are focused on the sound, we are also learning the feeling of the gesture. We may ultimately want to do the shift without hearing any slide at all for reasons of style and musical taste, so you may be thinking that our ear will not be able to help with that version of the shift (and therefore this kind of practice isn't applicable). I would suggest that it in fact is essential. After doing glide practice, the physical gesture will be very well learned. When making a shift without hearing any slide, you will rely on your expected feeling of the destination and your expected feeling of the movement that will get you there. These are both nailed down effectively through glide practice. The key is that you do it correctly every time because you have a reliable method (your ear).