Getting That Up Bow Staccato

I got a very brief note in my inbox yesterday, a gal pleading for help with her up bow staccato. Seems she’s got a yearning to play ‘Liebesfreud’ and the darn bow just keeps trying to whack her in the forehead.

I’m joking, she didn’t exactly say that.

What she did say, though, is that her bow bounces too high, causing her to lose control.

Now, just from this statement alone I know that Leigh has not spent time with me on Kreutzer #4. Don’t even have to look in my records.

Nor has she gone through the Allegro Players course or my Paganini for Violin Virtuosity, all of which would have addressed the issue she’s having.

Yet I am going to forgive Leigh ALL of that and give her a tip or two that just might lead exactly where she wants to go.

First of all, an up bow staccato – or spiccato, for that matter – arises out of a martele stroke – in Italian, Marcato. And this stroke itself arises from detache.

Detache is generated by the forearm, almost exclusively so; and the Horizontal movement of the forearm involved is controlled by the bicep and triceps muscles, nothing more.

String crossings, on the other hand, are accomplished by discreet movements of the upper arm, controlled by the elevator muscles in one’s upper torso.

Further, the WEIGHT on the string comes from either the natural weight of the arm, or, in the case of forte or fortissimo, a combination of arm weight and those same elevator muscles just mentioned.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve said nothing about the Muscles of the hand or forearm, and I won’t. They are completely neutral in this.

I will say, however, that the wrist must be pliant to the extent it flexes forward to allow the straight travel of the bow as it moves toward the frog.

So to sum it up, an up bow staccato is produced by discreet movements of the forearm – ala martele – up bow, in a pure, horizontal plane.

ALMOST end of story.

The final element is Control. And I don’t mean the ‘Control’ agent 86 would call for help in the TV series from the ‘60s, ‘Get Smart’.

No, I’m talking about the control one has over the specific firing of the bicep muscle, and elevator muscles at string changes.

This is something that must be trained, and in an orderly, relaxed way. The order comes from verbalizing each and every beat as it is arrived at, first SLOWLY, and gradually faster; the relaxation from belly-breathing all the while.

The third and final element of control has to do with VISUALIZING all the above just prior to doing it. This is the key to the ‘deliberate action’ I wrote about yesterday, in fact.

Now, in case this sounds like a lot, consider again what I’m actually saying. Up bow staccato is about the specific, relaxed control over the firing of a couple of muscles.

As father Guido Sarducci would say, ‘It’s a piece of a cake’.

All the best, Clayton Haslop