![]() We will probably use this technique very many times in any piece of music, although it is less often necessary in studies because studies don’t usually have rests!! In a piece with non-stop legato and no rests we may only have one opportunity to use this technique: to find the starting note! This trick is especially useful for silently finding notes in the higher fingerboard regions because up there our positional sense is weaker. Normally the pluck is easier to do very softly (imperceptibly) than the whack. For the first and second fingers however, we have the choice – both the whack and the pluck (with a higher finger) are possible. For checking a note played by the thumb, we will be obliged to pluck it with a higher finger, whereas for checking the higher fingers we will have to do a “whack”. We can use either the “whack” or the “pluck” technique. When we are finding our left-hand position without the help of an audible glissando (this occurs usually after a silence/rest) then we will almost always check the correct pitch of our new finger with a very light LH pizz, before sounding it with the bow. This is undoubtedly the most common and important use of the LH pizzicato techniques. Let’s look now at some of the different situations in which these techniques can be used.ġ: TO CHECK A NOTE BEFORE PLAYING (SOUNDING) IT But they do have other more subtle uses also. ![]() The following example is an exception because Brahms, by placing a slur over groups of two pizzicato notes is clearly indicating that the second of each group is to be played using a LH pizzicato.īoth of these techniques could be considered “tricks” in the sense that we use them to simulate the sound of a normal right-hand pizzicato in situations where it is impossible or impractical to use the right hand. Left-hand “plucks” and “whacks” are surprisingly frequent and useful, but their use is rarely specified by the composer. Play the following note sequences only with the left hand: Normally it is the cellist who must write these symbols in their sheet music part because Left-Hand pizzicatos are a technical “trick of the trade” with which most composers are unfamiliar. While some composers know enough about the cello to indicate left-hand plucks with a “+” symbol, no sign seems to exist to indicate the “whack” which is why we have invented our own: the “snowflake” symbol (∗). This word is perfect for describing the sudden release of explosive energy involved in hitting the string in these “pizzicato”. To differentiate this technique from the “pluck”, we could call this one the “whack!”. Here, we make the note sound simply by doing a very energetic percussive left-hand finger articulation on it, which does in fact produce a sound rather like a “pizzicato”. the second type of LH pizzicato is not, strictly speaking, a pizzicato because we don’t actually pluck the string. ![]() These pizzicatos are often indicated with a “+” sign and this is a surprisingly important and frequently-used technique.
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