SPICCATO

Spiccato is controversial and difficult, but there are approaches that can help you develop your spiccato and have a sense of control and confidence about your ability to be consistent, and ways to understand how much of your struggle with the stroke is due to your technique or your equipment.

All spiccato strokes should have a beautiful sound and feel grounded. If you feel like you are lifting your bow to create the stroke you will not be able to sustain the spiccato throughout a passage—your bow will float away into space, you will rush to keep it on the string, your sound will grow pinched and your stroke will shorten as you panic and squeeze. Squeezing is the enemy of spiccato and rushing is the enemy of taste.

There are two ways to start your spiccato: From-The-String and Not-From-The-String. Develop your from-the-string stroke first; it gives you greater control over the start of the stroke. Most orchestral spiccato starts from the string in order to have a clear start to the sound at the exact time that lines up with the rest of the section/orchestra, and most spiccato happens in the middle of other strokes which are already happening on the string. Additionally, many students struggle with keeping the stroke in the string as they allow it to bounce. Approaching spiccato as a stroke that is grounded in the string is a fruitful way to develop a stroke that is sustainable. Since most spiccato passagework needs to be practiced for the left hand, too, and often must be slowed down, it is helpful to think of the stroke from the string at slower tempos. ALL SPICCATO PASSAGES PRACTICED SLOWER THAN PERFORMANCE TEMPO SHOULD BE PRACTICED ON THE STRING.

An on-the-string stroke that allows the stick to bounce and sometimes allows the hair to bounce is a terrific utility spiccato stroke to have available; it is worth including in your daily warmup so you keep the nuances of your gear in facile access at all times.

Let your spiccato live in the string. N.B. This is exactly the opposite of Ivan Galamian’s advice on spiccato (p 75 of Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching), but it is at least somewhat in line with Mr. G’s brilliant student and now master teacher Mr. V—Robert Vernon. Perhaps this is a difference between violin and viola playing, or a difference between orchestral and soloistic technique, or just two different ways to look at the same reality. If you find yourself successful with Spiccato and you think of it from the air, go ahead and succeed with that concept. But if you have been thinking of it that way and felt you were banging your head against a wall, consider this alternate approach.

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SPICCATO:

A junky bow will make your job much harder, which is to say a nice bow will feel like it does the job for you (isn’t that good news!?!). Practice your spiccato on whatever gear you have, but open your thought to trying other instruments if you find this extremely laborious, out of context with your other viola and bow skills. I played on a bow with a knot in the wood for a long time and couldn’t figure out why it was so finnicky to manage. I didn’t know!

Slower spiccatos must be played lower in the bow than faster spiccatos.

Always learn spiccato passages at slower tempos on the string. When you practice slowly, leave the bow in a detache stroke on the string and as you get close to the final tempo allow the stick to bounce. You will begin with a longer stroke than you will end up with, which means as you get faster the stroke will be a little shorter. Don’t try to force the bow to bounce. Imagine the beautiful sound you want to hear and find it with your instruments—move your bow away from the bridge, perhaps, or closer to the frog, or angled differently. A very tiny change of contact point, stick angle, hair angle, place in the bow, and grip style makes a very big difference.

Practice your spiccato more frequently if you struggle with it; practicing regularly is helpful for maintaining your spiccato once you’ve put in the work to find a really gorgeous one.

Cathy Basrak created an excellent short tutorial on Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Scherzo for the Boston Symphony. She is a wonderful musician with excellent technique!