Master violin spiccato at any speed
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- Опубліковано 24 вер 2016
- Hi, I'm Nathan Cole of natesviolin.com and today we're going to look at the relationship between height and speed in the staccato bow stroke.
All right, so that's just a little demo of going from very slow to very fast spiccato. And I do that by changing the height of the stroke.
Now, in order to master spiccato you have to have all of those speeds ready at a moment's notice
so that you can use them whenever they come up in pieces. And that can be frustrating, I know, to a lot of violinists because either you feel like you only have one good speed for your spiccato; or perhaps you've just gotten so tied up and frustrated with the whole thing, that you forget you even have one good speed!
Now the fact is that just about anyone can play a spiccato if they're letting the bow fall onto the string like this. Now that may not be the world's best sound, but the bow is just falling onto the string. It's rebounding, really. The fact is that the bow is designed to bounce, and like every other object on Earth it's really designed to fall. So thank you to gravity! Let's actually demystify spiccato a little bit, and let's compare it to something we see all the time: the bouncing of a ball.
So you saw that as the ball bounced slower, the bounces also got faster. I know that's not going to be a surprise to anybody who's ever seen the ball bounce before! But that really is the simple rule to understand: the relationship to understand with the spiccato stroke. The speed, or the tempo, of the spiccato is going to determine how high your bounce is. Faster tempo, lower bounce. So let's go back to that opening demo that i did and take a closer look:
So you saw that just as with the bouncing ball, the bow bounced lower as the spiccato got faster. And that's not true just for us as violinists! Let's take a trip far, far away... to the Hollywood Bowl where we're going to visit with the Principal Timpanist of the LA Phil, Joe Pereira, and he's going to show us that the exact same thing is true for percussion as well. So, away to the Hollywood Bowl we go!
All right, thank you Joe Pereira! I love when someone else makes my point for me, and on a different instrument! So how can you start to master spiccato in all the different speeds?
1. Get a metronome or perhaps an app on a smartphone. Keep it off for now.
2. Find one comfortable speed for spiccato, where your bow is just rebounding.
3. Turn on the metronome to find what speed that corresponds to, and write that number down. That’s your default.
(If you’re having trouble finding any good speed, check your contact point)
4. Turn off the metronome and try a slightly lower bounce than your default.
5. Turn the metronome back on and write down the new (faster) speed that corresponds to the lower bounce.
6. Repeat with both lower and higher bounces so that you have a range of speeds written down.
7. Pick one of those speeds, turn on the metronome, and practice starting your spiccato exactly at that speed.
One more tip: if you're having a hard time changing these speeds, for some folks it's helpful to think of spiccato as simply a normal detaché stroke above the string.
Now one final word: this height and speed thing, its relative, right? It's not absolute. Different players, different bows, and different types of spiccato sound... they all use different heights. So the exact height for you is not going to be the exact height for someone else. And as I said, the type of spiccato sound can change those variables too. For example, more aggressive spiccato is just going to be higher. It's going to be a higher bounce. But for any kind of spiccato sound, the height is always going to be relative to the speed.
Next, go to natesviolin.com. You can even click the little information link in this video! Download my practice guide because that will show you how to pick up all kinds of new skills and incorporate them in your practicing... and have them stick from day to day. So as always, see you next time at natesviolin.com!
People like Nathan gives me great hope in humanity because he shares his heart as a result of sharing his music and thanks to Joe Pereira. He was so cool.
Absolute best video on spiccato that I've come across! Thank you so much!
Thank you for the simplest and logical explanation
Thanks for these videos Nathan. I'm a bassist and I think these vids are a must watch for all string players. I try my best to "parrot" your sound and incorporate your exercises into my scale routine and I've gotten great results.
Thanks David! I'm always happy when other instruments can put this to use. Somehow bassists are always the first to find my videos. I like the way you think outside your instrument!
This video was super helpful, thank you!
This video has been very helpful as I build speed learning the spiccato parts of Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro. Thank you!!
Thank you Nathan! Enjoying your videos and teachings!
great job explaining this perfectly:)
beautiful
سپاس از شما..بسیار بهره بردم از این آموزش شما
Thanks. Very good
Muito bom esse estudo
you are awsome!!
Extremely helpful!! Thank you so much!!
Nathan muito bom Spicato
This is awesome! But I hope you could have included more of your wrist movement in the video.. thank you for this lesson, though!
8:45 best moment :D Great teaching!
Haha, I had to look up what you were talking about! It's true, even some of my "great ideas" take practice. :)
That first demo reminded me of the movie Dunkirk a bit...
remarkable!
bravo
What are the différence between spiccato and sautille
This is different depending on what teacher you ask. Some say they are the same at different speeds. I learned that, in spiccato, every stroke is controlled, and in sautille, the work is done by the bow without controlling the individual bounces. Both can be done at many speeds. Spiccato gets trickier at faster speeds and sautille gets trickier at slower speeds.
I'm glad you used the last movement of the Tchaikovsky concerto to illustrate what you were talking about. This is because I feel that at this speed the hair of the bow should stay on the string but the stick bounces. This is not the same thing at all. I notice that your fast spiccato often sounds rather chippy and this may be because the hair should not be leaving the string when the speed is fast - only the stick should be bouncing. I'm interested in you view on this.
Not sure about "chippy" although these strokes will sound different at different distances (i.e. this microphone is 6 inches away) but certainly there are strokes where the stick bounces while the hair doesn't leave. However, I would consider last movement of Tchaikovsky quite assertive and virtuosic, just the kind of thing that benefits from great articulation. The Schumann Scherzo, or Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream would be closer to the string, or perhaps without the hair leaving the string.
The relationship between height and speed is good within each type of spiccato sound. You can get loud and round by playing with lots of bow closer to the string, or loud and aggressive with less bow further from the string!
Thanks for your swift reply. Interestingly enough, I find that practising the passage off the string when at a slow tempo is more helpful than practising it on the string - even if the up-to-speed tempo uses a slightly different bow technique (one allows the stick to 'bounce' while not getting the hair to leave the string).
How would you practice to break the upper limit of the spiccato speed? I really would prefer Paganini 5th caprice to be much faster than what I do, but as much as I try I can't find a way to get a lot faster without getting incredibly tense
Try playing each note with 8 strokes per note, then decrease to 4, 2 and then as printed.
@@karinkelleher great exercise for the left hand but I was more concerned about the right hand. My spiccato cant get faster than what it is rn
@@diegeigergarnele7975 Actually, I was thinking of this as a good exercise for the right hand. The stroke stays steady without concern about what the left hand has to do. As you play the repeated notes, it gives you time to focus on the string crossings coming up, always looking ahead, leaning in the direction of the next string crossing, giving you time to make them smooth and building them into your technique.
really hope you could give a tutorial about how to tremolo at any part of the bow... also when it is measured, but just really fast. (pretty sure that's not called tremolo anymore when it is measured, but you know what I mean...) thanks!
So basically how to play fast detache (on the string)?
Nathan Milstein
My bow arm hurts doing extended spicato. Does it take time to get used to?
What do you mean high bounce and low bounce ?
How high the bow bounce and the opposite for low
Hi Nathan! I need a hint, when i have a normal note after spiccato, I cannot stop the bow from bouncing on it, unless the note starts close to the frog. Is there a trick to switch from spiccato notes to normal notes?
A couple things come to mind, although that can be a tricky transition: first, you can immediately roll the stick away from you. This takes away the bow's ability to bounce so much. You can also change contact point, and/or speed up the bow. These can also help. Do you have an example of such a place?
the exact phrase from Tchaikovsky concert you played in the end of the video for example. That transition from E to A on 10:16
Hi Nathan! I know I'm bit late but how can I spiccato faster than 90 bpm (16th notes)? Up until the sautillé speed (for me, that's around 120 bpm), I just can't play it faster, bow just falls down to string and doesn't bounce. Also, I find it quite difficult to play in different dynamics, I would be very pleased if you have any tips. Thanks in advance!
Try using just two fingers, your thumb and pointer finger on the bow. Don't move your arm, just your wrist.
@juliejules7780 thanks so much, i'll try that 🙏
An example of overly complicating thing... one can master this concept in 60 seconds...one thing
lot more important is where about on the bow to strike the strings - the rest - the speed will follow...