Arco and Pizzicato on the Cello

Hello, composer!

As a composer and cellist myself, I’ve discovered the best ways to use the bow and play pizzicato and I’m excited to share them with you today. If you have questions about the bow or pizzicato, keep reading, as you just might find the answers you’re looking for!

ARCO

The bow is extremely versatile. The following are considered standard kinds of articulations:

1.     legato, which is basically where everything's super connected

2.     staccato is when everything is super short

3.     tenuto is somewhere in between

4.     jeté or ricochet simply just means creating a bouncing effect where the bow skitters across the string(s)

5.     spiccato is when you play a vertical, bouncing short note, similar to staccato, except that there's a little bit more air to it

6.     tremolo, which are just very fast alternations of downbow and upbow

These are all accepted and expected uses of the bow. This doesn't change from how you think about writing for other strings. Pretty much every string player is able to do all of these different nuanced uses of the bow.

In terms of notation, slurs indicate that notes are grouped into a continuous bow. The directions of the bows are called downbow, when you start from, what's called the frog of the bow, or upbow, when you start from the tip.

excerpt from Bach’s Prelude from Suite No. 1 in G Major for cello solo

Downbows are typically stronger and require less force to get bigger sounds than up bows. If I want to get that same volume on an upbow, you need to really dig into the string, and the player will actually position their arm like they’re digging with a shovel. On an upbow, they would have to raise their arm and “dig” into the string to get the same volume as what you could get on a loud downbow, and that may not even reach the actual decibel level of a down bow because with a downbow, you have gravity on your side.

So you can imagine how notes are slurred together, and it's different from other instruments, like the piano, for example, where slurs are more related to phrasing. While that's true for strings, to a certain extent, there is a limit to the number of notes that you can physically slur.

 Obviously, tempo and rhythmic subdivisions will vary this limit, but that is something to take that into account. As an overexaggeration, you wouldn't be able to put 100 notes under one bow, unless they're all very fast and also super quiet, because then you can slur quite a lot of notes, but if it's at a loud dynamic level, then I may only be able to do 10 or 15 fast notes in one bow. Be open to suggestions, if certain things might be better with an altered bowing.

PIZZICATO

Pizzicato is when you pluck the strings. Generally, string players pluck with one finger, and the reason is because they have to switch back and forth with the bow. In other words, the bow is typically tucked underneath four fingers inside the palm, where the index finger is free to pluck. This is the most secure way to hold the bow so it doesn’t fall down. It is very difficult to pluck with more than one finger while holding the bow.

 If the player doesn’t need to use the bow for an extended period of time, they may actually be able to change to two-finger plucking patterns, but if they have the bow in their hand, that's going to really, limit what they can do rhythmically because they can only pluck so fast. It’s sort of like single-tonguing for wind players, they can only single-tongue so fast. Some are faster than others, but generally speaking it is not a very fast plucking speed. Try it out with your own finger, and if you have a guitar or other string instrument with some tension, see how fast you can pluck with one hand while holding a long stick. You can use that to gauge how fast to compose plucking rhythms.

Another thing is that I probably wouldn't do the maximum speed for an extended period of time because you'll tire the performer out. When you play fast one-finger pizzicato, the arm tends to tense up to play faster, so unless there are frequent rests and short bursts of fast pizzicato, I would limit the passages, and always consult with the performer.

You could also you could also have arpeggiated plucks if you want to create the illusion of faster plucks. Maurice Ravel does this in his the second movement of his Sonata for Violin and Cello. He creates this relay between the two parts with fast arpeggiated plucks, alternating between the violin and the cello.

excerpt from Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, movement II

If you have multiple instruments, you can create the illusion of very fast plucking patterns.

As you can see in the Ravel example, you can either arpeggiate ascending from the lowest string to the highest or from the highest to the lowest while forming chords. Using open strings is recommended in this case, and I’ll talk about idiomatic chords on the cello in a future blog post. The only thing to keep in mind is that you cannot do continuous arpeggiations like on a piano, there have to be longer note values that allow the player to reset to arpeggiate. That’s why the Ravel example works so well.

You can also pluck with the fingernails, but it's a little bit slower. I would just use that with a little bit of caution and intention because the player needs time to set the fingernail underneath the string, since string players generally don’t have long fingernails because they get in the way and become uncomfortable when playing the instrument.

The main consideration if you're switching back and forth with the bow and pizzicato, is to give the player time. Usually, it's about a beat or two, which is generally speaking enough time. You can work with the performer to sort of shorten that time, if they pivot the hand without tucking the bow under the other fingers. Other instances of this pop up in the Ravel piece I mentioned earlier. It is challenging but practice-able.

Hope that helped! If you want to learn more about composing for the cello, check out the video I made 👇🏻

Happy composing!

If you’re serious about composing, you can click here to sign up for a FREE live composition masterclass and get feedback directly on your music: