Teaching Spiccato to Beginning Cellists 

As I mention in my article on the first year of instruction, I believe it is important to introduce cello students to as many techniques as possible during their first two years. Many of these can be taught in their embryonic form. In other words, many of the advanced techniques can be taught in more basic ways or as action studies (movement exercises) that mimic the motions used in advanced technique.  

A basic controlled spiccato is one such technique that can be taught early in instruction.  

For those of you who would like to delve into more depth, I also have a video on advanced controlled spiccato.

Before going through the exercises and action studies, I usually like to demonstrate controlled spiccato to my students and explain why cellists needs to learn it.  I don't indicate that it is considered an advanced technique by many.  I don't give any hint that some think this bow stroke is too difficult for beginners.  I just proceed like everything is perfectly normal!

An advanced controlled spiccato is quite involved with many motions coordinating together (stay tuned for a video soon).  When teaching a more basic technique, I focus on just two main movements,

If the student puts these two motions together, they have a spiccato appropriate for a beginner.

First, I am not a big fan of teaching the vertical motion (the bounce) from the wrist or hand as an active motion.  Yes, the wrist or hand will move in spiccato but it's primarily a passive motion.  I prefer to feel the weight of the arm in controlled spiccato (we are cellists after all, not violinists!) and teaching the bounce from the wrist doesn't lend itself well to this sensation.

To feel the weight of the arm, I introduce the Jazz Slap action study without the bow in hand (see video).  The slapping of the hand on the fingerboard is accomplished through a rotation in the upper arm.  This will provide a sensation of arm weight in the spiccato. 

Notice, by saying the motion is initiated from the arm I am not saying the motion is a chicken wing or a large up and down motion of the entire arm.  Rather, it is a rotation of the upper arm that I am referring to (please see the video for a demonstration).

After the Jazz Slap, I have the student do the same motion holding the bow.  The bow will now bounce vertically off the string due to the natural spring of the bow hair.  Typically, this bouncing off the string is rather large at first so I will have the student make the bouncing smaller and closer to the string, which leads to the second motion

The horizontal motion is the up and down bows (it seems counterintuitive that "up" and "down" are horizontal!).  This is the easy part.  After the student is bouncing the bow close to the string vertically, I simply ask for up bows and down bows to be added to the bounce and I demonstrate.  Often the bouncing is still too high and I'll need to ask again for the bounce to be less but it is amazing how quickly the two motions can be put together.  

For the up bows and down bows in advanced playing, the cellist can utilize another rotation in the upper arm, a movement of the entire arm, or a combination of the two (stay tuned for another video on advanced controlled spiccato). For beginners, the motion usually defaults to a whole arm motion from the shoulder and that's perfectly acceptable.  The main point is that the students are getting a sensation of a bouncing bow technique.

It's fairly easy to find tunes that work using controlled spiccato.  In Suzuki Book I, for instance, Twinkle, Twinkle can be played with spiccato, as can Perpetual Motion.  All the teacher has to do is keep an eye open for opportunities.  In doing so, your students will be ahead of the curve by gaining early experience with spiccato.

Give it a try.  See what you think!

S.D.G.