Pizzicato

String instruments rubbed

Technique

The pizzicato consists in playing the cords with the fingers of the right hand instead of using the bow. It is noted pizz. on the level of the notes concerned, and one specifies the resumption of the bow by arco .

It is more rarely about the left hand; however, it is a technique which Niccolò Paganini used much and popularized. In this case, one notes small a + above each note concerned. It also should be taken care to compensate the left hand, if one plays with the fourth finger: the instrumentalist must then use for a note the bow, then to take again the pizz left hand. Very much used in chromatic descents, this technique thus requires a great coordination:

to briefly play bow the note of the fourth finger,
to grip the cord of the fourth finger to make hear the note of the third finger,
to grip the cord of the third finger to make hear the note of the second finger,
and so on to the open string.

There exists also a technique called “pizzicato in Bartók” or “pizz Bartók” (used by Béla Bartók), which approaches the slap to low.

To note that so in classical music, the pizzicato is not a technique used mainly, in Jazz, the Contrebasse is very much used thus.

Famous uses

Several works use only the pizzicato: the second movement of the Simple Symphony for string orchestra of Benjamin Britten, “Playful Pizzicato”; Pizzicato Hammer of Johann Strauss wire and Josef Strauss; the third movement of the Symphonie n° 4 of Tchaïkovski carries like subtitles Pizzacato ostinato , and the cords of the orchestra play there only thus; Plink, Plank, Plunk, for string orchestra, of Leroy Anderson, whose title makes fun of the sound of the pizzicato…

Guitar

In the case of the guitar, they are in fact choked sounds, in general by posing the base of the right palm of the hand (sometimes the auricular one) close to the Chevalet to choke the cords. This technique is sometimes indicated by TOKEN ENTRY (of English palm muting).

Simple: Pizzicato

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