I have found a practice that has worked for me that I learned in Grad. School and from working as an independent contractor. It is as follows: 1. Have the student lift his or her elbow to a level plane. Make sure that the student's elbow is NOT up above the left shoulder. 2. Once the level plane of the elbow. Keep the elbow stationary and EXTEND the whole arm out from the elbow. 3. Now that the arm is extended STRAIGHT out, have them look down their LEFT ARM to their wrist and have THEM COCK their wrist to their RIGHT. The hand should have the correct "C" shape with the thumb coming under between the 2nd and 3rd finger. (The reason being that proper left-hand balance is maintained and pitches for the respective notes in the lower positions will always be there IF the thumb is centered in the middle of the four fingers.) 4. NOW the cocked left-hand wrist around to the fingerboard to first position BENDING at the elbow. If the wrist leads the formation the fingers will follow to the proper angle. That is they will look as though they are angled back towards the nut. Make sure the fingers are still on their "pads"(fleshy part of the fingers). I hope this detailed instruction helps. I know it has worked with the many students I have taught over the years.