Strings

Suggested

Ranges

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Suggested

Ranges

Performance Techniques

There are several performance techniques that are shared by all the members of the string section. The four most common and useful of these playing techniques are bowing, pizzicato, bowed tremolo and trill.

Bowing

When we think of stringed instruments, bowing produces the sound we are most familiar with. Bowing brings a rich, smooth tonal quality to the music.

When we want a set of notes to be played with one bow stroke, we place a slur mark over or under them in the score:

Those notes will have a continuous, legato feel to them. The next set of notes after that slur mark is bowed in the opposite direction. If we use no slur marks, then each note is individually bowed in a different bowing direction. This creates a less legato feel where every note is emphasized.

A combination of bowed legato notes and individually bowed shorter notes creates a richer phrasing of the music.