Ask Augustin 40 - Pizzicato
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- In this episode I talk about Pizzicato. It's easy to neglect pizzicato because we don't encounter plucking in every piece, and it often seems fairly straight-forward, with only a few notes and chords occasionally needing to be plucked. But if you think about it, it is almost like playing a different instrument, and worth spending a bit of time on.
Plucked notes don't project nearly as well as notes played with the bow, because the sound fades away very quickly. Therefore in order to be heard they have to be played quite strongly (stronger, it might seem, than the bowed notes) when playing in a large space, or when playing a piece for violin and orchestra.
In order to get a clearly defined sound with a longer resonating "tail", it's essential to press down firmly enough with the left hand. My basic pizzicato motion is to make my right index finger into a hook and pluck in a circular motion. The bigger the circle and forceful the motion, the louder the pizzicato gets. You can change the lowest point of the circle, and make it more into a squished oval shape to voice chords differently. The note will ring longer if the string can vibrate back and forth undisturbed after your finger releases it - because of this, the angle of the plucking changes the sound (and length of resonance) a lot.
Vibrating pizzicato notes does not make them ring longer, but it can make them ring more beautifully, more warmly. It's essential that the vibrato isn't too wide, or it might shorten the length of the resonance, by interfering with the back-and-forth vibration of the string after it's released. If you experiment with the angle of the finger, thinking both about how you touch and pull the string, and how you release it, you can find the clearest, longest-ringing sound.
Sometimes there is almost no time to switch to pizzicato and back to arco - I demonstrate an example of this from the last movement of the Sibelius concerto, when the pizzicato note becomes part of my transition from up-bow to down-bow.
Voicing of pizzicato chords is very difficult - one of the best places to practice this is the second movement of the fourth Ysaÿe sonata (Sarabande)! A 4-note "ostinato" figuration repeats in every bar throughout the movement, and this line is sometimes at the bottom, middle or top of the plucked chords, and should be heard as a slightly emphasized continuous line, so we don't suddenly hear a chord where the note from the ostinato line is much softer. This means that each chord has to be voiced, by changing the motion of the plucking finger to change which string gets grabbed with the most intensity, and the speed at which the chords are broken, and even the angle at which the finger is plucking.
There is a way of plucking that places the thumb of the right hand as an anchor against the fingerboard, which makes it easier to be accurate - the drawback is that it takes more time to transition back to arco, and it is harder to pluck at loud dynamics.
We use pizzicato rarely, but when you do encounter a passage like the opening Ysaÿe Sarabande, you will need all the variety of articulations, colors, length and range of volume in your "pizzicato toolbox". Happy plucking!
I've been plucking my violin strings until today...but now I've gained never-before insights from Augustin on how to "Pizz" it beautifully for the 1st time. Augustin just played the most beautiful and cleanest Pizzicato that I've ever witnessed. So Soothing!
If the concert soloist thing ever gets boring, I think you’d make a GREAT teacher.
does flexing ever get boring tho :D
I'd love to have him as my teacher. Sadly in the Philippines people dont even have access to good local teachers... so there's that.
And no one wants to do public service, because everybody treats people in the arts as thrash (unless you have privilege and connections). In the arta you have to be influential to make it.
I'm Started learning the English to understand you violin🎻 lessons. Thanks!!!!
WOW, great demo 2:30 of Ysaye Sonata #4
Thank you Master!!!👏👏👏❤🎻❤
Da
Thanks Agustin. I've just discovered you and your work. Today, TVUNAM in Mexico trasmitted the Brahms violin concerto 2019. You played with La orquesta de Minería, and Carlos Miguel Prieto as conductor. I enjoyed it a lot and hope you too. My children play the violin and your channel will be a blessing. Un abrazo desde México.
Im always having trouble with practicing Thirds and Sixths. It would be great to have an Ask Augustin on this!
It’s such an enjoyment to listen to the peaceful passages you played in the ysaye sonata. It brights up the day, thank you！
Muchísimas gracias por estos consejos... eres un gran ejemplo para nosotros de disciplina,superación y perseverancia 😘
É incrível, master class tão bom como esse, com tantas visualizações e tão poucos likes, ajudem aí né pessoal.
Muchas gracias por los consejos tan interesantes sobre el pizzicato! Para mí es un sonido que puede tener mucha magia... la cuarta sonata de Ysaye, por ejemplo, tiene ese momento mágico en la Sarabanda...me encanta👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💜🎶💜🎻
Can you also do a video of left hand pizzicato? I don't get how people do it so fast.😅
Me too😍
Thank you maestro!
Thank you 👍！In light of the current battle of bass and violin, pizzicato 40hrs a day!
Ling Ling🤫
Thank you, can you do another session on left hand pizz please?
ur the greatest violinist in the world 🌹🌹🌹
what about left hand pizzicato?
Wondering if, in the Ysaÿe 4 example, 3:51, starting the bowed passage immediately after the pizzicato on the downbow (as the arm is already in position) would not save some precious time. I'm sure you tried it; doesn't it make any difference?
Thank you for the information. 😍😍😍
Thank you sir!
Could you please do a tutorial in very fast pizzicato? I simply cannot do it fast enough to play some pieces, such as Elite Syncopations by Joplin. Would really appreciate some tips!
Thank you very much!!! 😃
Excellent stuff! I was also told to do right hand pizz in the Sibelius, but I have seen both Vengerov and Janine Jansen do left hand pizz instead on the open strings, perhaps as a nod to the third movment in the Beethoven concerto (which many also play left hand pizz in). What are your thoughts about that?
yes, that works too, and is a bit "safer" - there isn't too much time for either solution. The problem is, even the strongest left hand pizz is not as loud as doing it with the right hand (because the left hand will need to get ready for the next octave run as well, so not easy to use maximum strength). For a recording/video of a concert, the left hand pizz will be just fine, because the microphones are close and you can hear everything anyway and the balance is adjusted by an engineer. But I found that for the audience in the back of the hall, the right hand pizz can be heard if it's really loud, while the left hand pizz can't have quite the same strength.
Frumusețe interioară❤
Sigur, Marin. Esti de accord.
The cool thing about him is that he is very humble and down-to-earth as opposed to some of these guys who just think they are just God's gift to violin playing. Even some who are not famous, but they studied with the big guys like Gingold, Galamian, et al. And their attitude is, "well pay me my $300 per hour and I'll tell you the secret." Uh thanks, I'll pass. Yes some charge that much money. Greed. Come on UA-cam and Ask Augustin!!!!
Here because of the pizz part in Prokofiev 1😂