nail pizzicato

The strings may be plucked with the fingernail of the right hand. This results in a more forceful, penetrating, and articulate attack than when plucking with the finger pad. The string may be plucked in a downward motion, when the nail is long enough, or flicked upwards with the back of the nail.

Pizzicato (/ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtoʊ/, Italian: [pittsiˈkaːto]; translated as "pinched", and sometimes roughly as "plucked") is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument.

Pizzicato is an instruction for musicians playing stringed instruments, such as the violin. Often abbreviated to 'pizz' on a musical score, it indicates that musicians should use their fingers to pluck the strings, rather than play them using a bow.

Sometimes, however, you might see a violinist play with his or her fingers, plucking the strings, which creates a very different sound. This technique is called “pizzicato.” The sound is more percussive and shorter than the melodic and sustained notes that come from the bow stroke.

Arco is the opposite direction from pizzicato, which is the direction to pluck.

The German violinist Johann Wilde invented the nail violin around 1740.

The cello plays double stops accompanied by left-hand pizzicato on open strings. Without the bow the violin family could only be played pizzicato.

Place your fingers on the string firmly, hook your finger a bit besides the strings and move it sideways and upward at the same time as you release the string. First practice this with all fingers on all strings. After that try leave your fingers on the string while plucking and practice left hand pizzicato in scales.

“Left-hand pizzicato” refers to plucking the strings with any finger from the left hand. At the same time, this hand is also supporting the instrument and stopping the pitches on the strings.

It is not good enough to simply twang the strings. The result will be a note which sounds dead. To obtain a pizzicato note which will carry, the string must be firmly pulled with the fleshy part of the right hand in a direction to the right of the player at an angle of about 10 degrees to the fingerboard.

In a piano the string is not plucked with a quill, but struck with a felt-covered hammer. When the performer presses a piano key softly, the hammer will strike the string slowly, making a soft sound. If a performer presses a key hard, the hammer strikes the string quickly, resulting in a loud sound.

The <snap-pizzicato> element represents the snap pizzicato symbol. This is a circle with a line, where the line comes inside the circle. It is distinct from the <thumb-position> symbol, where the line does not come inside the circle.