![]() Trying to do fast pizzicatos with only one finger is like trying to run fast with only one leg: a hopping race. Most of these “tricks” involve using more than one finger. Guitarists have many tricks to help them choreograph (play) fast plucked passages. Guitarists (and bass players) would probably laugh at us cellists when they see how often we get tangled up in knots while struggling to play fast pizzicato passages with only one finger. Those lucky ones will have less need to maintain the thumb-fingerboard contact. Some people have a better sense of where their body parts are (kinesthetic sense) than others. For a very practical “study” in fast pizzicatos, we can download the cello part from and play along with a recording.Īs with so many elements of cello playing (and life), for each different situation, we need to balance the contrasting needs for “ security and reliability” on the one hand with “freedom and expressiveness” on the other. The third movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony is all fast pizzicato. Try the Brahms Symphony excerpt in this way also, as well as the following page of fast pizzicato repertoire excerpts. This frees up our right hand somewhat, allowing both hand and wrist a greater range of movement. To avoid this, we could release the thumb and choose instead to have the right forearm touching the edge of the cello’s belly as an alternative means to achieve this necessary function of positional sense and stability. Having the thumb glued to the edge of the fingerboard in faster pizzicato passages reduces our right-hand’s range of movement considerably. Whenever we have enough time before and/or after the notes, we can once again release the thumb and allow the arm/hand to move freely and expressively as in the following examples from Shostakovich’s Piano Trio Op 67 where the curved arrow represents the follow-through that we can do when we have time before the next pizz:ĪN ALTERNATIVE TO THE FIXED-THUMB ANCHOR POINT This is why we only use this technique in faster pizzicatos, where the need for technical security, control and stability is primordial. It feels mechanical, dry and restricted as we can have neither a beautiful approach to string nor a beautiful follow-through after the note. WHEN TO GLUE THE THUMB AND WHEN TO RELEASE IT?ĭoing pizzicatos while having the thumb glued to the fingerboard edge is less visually interesting (expressive) than when the hand and arm are free to move. Without this “contact point”, it is hard to sense (feel) exactly where the right hand and fingers are in relation to the strings. If we just let the arm float in the air (without this thumb contact), then we have no secure spatial reference. As mentioned above, this is especially useful in faster pizzicatos because here, by definition, we don’t have the time to prepare the finger-string contact before each pluck. In other words, even though we may not use the thumb to pluck the strings in fast passages, it can nevertheless be vitally important in their smooth execution, thanks to this stabilising and security-giving contact with the fingerboard. This gives us simultaneously a fixed spatial reference as well as a stable anchor point. Likewise, in faster pizzicato passages it can be very helpful, for our right hand’s positional security, to maintain the thumb in permanent contact with the right edge of the fingerboard. Try the following fast pizzicato passage:Ī tightrope walker never loses contact with the high-wire. THE USE OF THE THUMB AS A STABILISER AND POSITIONAL REFERENCE However, in faster pizzicato passages in which by definition we don’t have time to make this preparatory contact, our right hand can easily become “lost in space” and we may therefore find ourselves plucking the wrong string, or two strings at once, especially in passages with many changes of strings. In other words, if we have time to comfortably touch/find the string with our plucking finger before we pluck it, then this contact is perfectly sufficient to give us (right hand) positional security. For isolated pizzicato notes, or in slower pizzicato passages, it is our preparatory contact of the plucking finger with the string that gives us our positional security. Trying to pluck the strings from a free-floating right-arm is a recipe for insecurity. THE IMPORTANCE OF A STABLE POINT OF CONTACT REFERENCE/ANCHOR FOR THE RIGHT HAND/ARM ![]() The use of occasional left-hand pizzicatos interspersed amongst the right-hand pizzicatos to aid the right-hand is looked at further down this page. In faster pizzicatos however, by definition, our problems are quite different and mostly concern speed, coordination and accuracy (plucking the correct string at the correct time). In slow pizzicatos we are concerned with the sound quality of each individual note. ![]()
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