Violin Basics: How to pizz?

And this is what we call pizzicato or pizz for short.

As you can see, to pizz we use the pad of a right hand finger to pull the string and then simply let it go.

I mean, it's really kind of simple.

But even though it's simple, there is a best place to pizz on the string.

That place is halfway between your left hand finger and the bridge.

From there you need to pull the string in the same direction as you would with the bow.

This will get you a really good tone for the pizz.

And then there's alternating left hand pizz with the bow hitting the string.

Sarasate used this idea in his piece called Zigeunerweisen or Gypsy Dances, which he wrote in 1878.

As well, there's a pizz which is named after the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok.

To do a Bartok pizz, you pull the string up with two fingers and release it like this.

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