Hi Mr. Neher, I am having a difficult time getting a good sounding, crisp spicatto. Do you have any tips or pratice routines to improve this.
I also just finished watching hora stacatto on youtube performed by heifetz.
Is flying spiccato, and ricochet bowing possible on bass, as demonstrated by heifetz?

Hi Mr. Neher, I am having a difficult time getting a good sounding, crisp spicatto. Do you have any tips or pratice routines to improve this.
I also just finished watching hora stacatto on youtube performed by heifetz.
Is flying spiccato, and ricochet bowing possible on bass, as demonstrated by heifetz?

HI!
Yes flying spiccato is certainly possible, with either French or German bow. Like any technique, if you have a musical demand for the stroke, then it makes learning it appropriate and necessary. What piece are you playing that needs this technique? Check out Rabbath or Gerd Reineke or Jeff Bradetich for some really interesting uses of this stroke. Crispness in spiccato is sort of what the stroke is about so, yes, you want it to be crisp. It is NOT a really quick stroke for it has to attack the string from above (a bounce or jump... the word means this). So I practice it by landing from way above on the string, let it bounce and "re-bound" in the opposite direction, again hitting the string and rising. This bounce of very short in length down-bow,up-bow, using a lot of weight dropped into the string gets me the crispiness. Then I speed up and lower the height of the bounce until it is "reasonable" and quick enough for, say, Mozart 40th Symphony, or Haydn 88. Throughout always accepting no less than clear articulation on each note. Now for flying spicc. and "Sautille" a very fast stroke that actually starts from on the string and while holding the bow very relaxed letting the bow bounce is a different stroke. Usually I feel like sautille comes from oon the string then allowed to bounce, whereas spiccat is a from above the string bounce and rebound. Any of this make sense?
Now, how you hold your bow is really critical, in my opinion, to the immediate weight transfer on each of these sspiccato bounces, so.. there are many holds out there and, I recently found out - one is called Neopolitan - but the main thing is stay relaxed, allow the weight to hit and rebound the string. For me my hand must ride above the stick, other bassists feel they want to drop their hand below the stick on this stroke. German bow is again different... So get a teacher to watch what your doing!
Best to you!!!
PN

some ricochet bowing popped up in cappricio italiaen
what music would you suggest to work on flying spiccato

Cappriccio Italien is a great start, then of course there is William Tell Overture, Rabbath-Voyage, most Bottesini has some somewhere, Mozart-Hafner has very fast spiccato/sautille, Medelssohn-MidSummerNights, SYm 4, etc. Also Schubert? Seek and ye shall find!
Best!
PN

Cappriccio Italien is a great start, then of course there is William Tell Overture, Rabbath-Voyage, most Bottesini has some somewhere, Mozart-Hafner has very fast spiccato/sautille, Medelssohn-MidSummerNights, SYm 4, etc. Also Schubert? Seek and ye shall find!
Best!
PN

Just to clarify, in Cappriccio Italien, are y'all talking about the part that starts at bar 180 (Allegro moderato, 120 bpm), labelled "springbogen"?

And I'm confused about some of the terminology here... is "ricochet" and "flying spiccato" the same thing?

In Gary Karr's video, he demonstrates spiccato on-the-string. What is the correct parlance for that variety (or is it the plain-vanilla spiccato?).

I'm working on Cappriccio for an upcoming concert; what are the suggested fingerings for the thirty-second note runs that start at bar 156 (especially the one that starts on a "B" in bar 164)?


Thanks,

Martin V.