Quality of sound and articulation: Right hand and left hand
- Adjust their right-hand technique as appropriate to reflect the character and style of the music, focusing on a consistent, refined tone quality across a large range of dynamics
- Play pizzicato with confidence, at a variety of tempi
Show learners how to play with different intensities of sound by varying bow weight/speed, e.g. for French or Russian styles. Discuss how they affect the interpretation. Ask learners to practise appropriate pieces.
Show learners how to play with different intensities of sound by varying bow weight/speed, e.g. for French or Russian styles. Discuss how they affect the interpretation. Ask learners to practise appropriate pieces.
Teach learners to play pieces with multiple stops, e.g. unaccompanied Bach. Encourage them to listen to the balance within a chord or between parts.
Show learners how to play pizzicato in a wide range of tempi and styles, e.g. chords, snap pizzicato, left-hand pizzicato.
Monti’s Czardas provides examples of different pizzicato techniques. The French Canadian fiddle tune The Hangman’s Reel, as played by Jean Carrignan or Aly Bain, demonstrate left-hand pizzicato, ricochet bowing, scordatura tuning, bourdon bowing, and much more.
Encourage learners to make independent choices about tone colours, shaping of phrases, etc. in order to create the required musical effect, e.g. choosing different positions in Faure’s Elegie or Elgar’s Chanson de Nuit.
Ensure learners play with freedom and security in all positions and shifts.
Continue to give learners exercises aimed at developing a secure and varied vibrato, i.e. developing different speeds of vibrato appropriate to a range of musical styles.
After listening together to suitable examples, ask learners to consider how articulation and legato phrasing are approached on different instruments, and what these consciously applied expressive qualities contribute to the overall effect of the music, e.g. making a dance movement seem more animated or a melodic piece more song-like. Explore ways for learners to recreate what they have heard in these examples in their own playing.
Listening to other instruments’ means of expression can broaden learners’ musical awareness. Some instruments have a more natural capacity for legato, i.e. through playing several notes in one bow or breath, and non-legato, i.e. through changing bow or tonguing between notes. Internalising different phrasing characteristics through vocal imitation is a good place to start, followed by playing short passages by ear.
With learners, choose an item of repertoire in which articulations, slurs and phrase marks are specified in the text, e.g. a 20th- or 21st-century piece. Ask them to internalise and apply these expressive qualities from the start of the learning process, using the appropriate techniques.
Next, select together an item of repertoire in which articulations, slurs and phrase marks are not specified, e.g. a baroque dance. From the start of the learning process, ask learners to incorporate these expressive qualities, using their knowledge and understanding of musical style, etc., and combining the appropriate techniques with an awareness of phrasing and structure.
Folk/roots fiddling styles can be defined by their bowing systems. Many have tried to notate them but it can become difficult to read. Like much of baroque era music the bowing is kept minimal so it is governed by common sense (to avoid awkward bowing) and purpose the music is intended for. Folk fiddle traditions, being still grounded in oral transmission, probably still mirror baroque practices. Learners should be encouraged to watch (online or live) role model players and define what it is they find appealing about how they play, then work with their teacher to adopt and adapt this in order to find their own voice and style of playing.
Explore the progression of this Learning Objective
Continue exploring the current Programme of Study
