Physical Improvisation for Spiccato (Excerpt from Mendelssohn) | EP. 1 - Technique-Based Improv

The first type of improvisation that we're going to talk about today is called physical improvisation, and we can use this improvisation to develop a clear awareness of how we can use our body and instrument to create a certain character called for in the music. The role of improvisation in this exercise is not necessarily to make things more complicated, but instead to break down a complex technical challenge into manageable steps by focusing on improvising one element at the time. I'm going to show you an exercise called drop and rebound, and for this exercise you will learn how you can use improvisation to use your arm as well as the weight of your bow to create a natural bounce for a spiccato. Let's start with our bodies. When you're playing spiccato, do you feel tense in any part of your body? Usually my shoulder and my wrist. Okay, our first step is actually going to be learn how to release the physical tension, and here is something you can do. So find a friend and then simply drop your arm on top of my head. I'm just supporting this arm at the elbow level, and then from here you can kind of have a feeling of this is the weight of your arm that you're dealing with when you're playing. So we want to use that to our advantage. The idea of spiccato is really interesting because if we think about the way we use our bow, usually people think as creating a u-shape. So it's anywhere between a v-shape and a u-shape. So the u is more rounded and v is a little bit more edgy, a little bit harsher sound, but it's still somewhere between that. So to do that, let's think about the physical elements that go into playing spiccato. So we have our entire arm, right? So our arm, our forearm, our palm, and fingers. So to start, we can work on isolating each muscle group, and then to explore the options of what we have here. So let's first try to just drop our arm, kind of moving like a pendulum, and draw a u-shape with the arm, and then make sure that your entire arm is nice and relaxed. Okay, next, we can try it with just our forearm, like this, kind of like a conduction motion, but make sure that you're not holding any tension, like in anywhere of your body, whether it's your shoulder or your elbow. Great. This is how it feels like when it's completely relaxed. And now let's move on to our palm. We can move in a few different ways. We can just drop the palms, just like we're tapping the back of the hand, or we can draw a kind of u-shape like this, and then let's move our fingers, grabbing motion. Great. So now let's do it with our instrument. I want you to start by putting your bow on your screen, and then I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to put my hand below the elbow, so drop your arm weight, okay, and now I want you to raise your bow a little bit, and then let it drop. Just at one point, just let it drop. Very good. So this is the dropping motion, and now we want a little bit of rebound, right? So let's start with our entire arm, and we will do this up and down. Can you try to play in the middle two strings? A little faster maybe? Your arm completely relaxed. Very nice. Now let's focus on the forearm. So in real life, we're not going to only use one of the muscle groups, it's going to be we're using a different combination, maybe a different ratio of how much we're using our arm, our forearm, palm and fingers. So why don't we try to explore the range of motion with each individual muscle group? So we started from the bigger muscle last time, so why don't you start with the fingers? Only use your fingers, but try to improvise like a range of motion. So can you try to create different dynamics maybe, but only activating your fingers? Great, and then I'll move your palm. So perhaps we can try a little bit slower, but play the 16th notes, and then figure out a combination that works best for you. Okay, so now let's try to make it a little faster. Can you play the group of six for each? And then really experiment with different things. What do you think? I think maybe the motion should be a little bit smaller, if you were to use like a percentage, right? Probably 70% wrist, 10% forearm. Okay, so that is a good start, but again we are playing at this kind of a slow tempo, and things are going to change when we play at a different tempo, but the key here is to really take the time to explore what kind of muscle combination that works the best for you. The second type of physical improvisation is about how we can use the variables we have here, and also our bow, to achieve a certain stress level. In terms of Mendelssohn, can you share with me one or two adjectives about the character of it? I would say it's light, and it's fairly soft. Okay, so we want to keep this in mind when we are doing our exploration. What are some elements that we can change our instrument to change the character of the model? We can play closer or farther. Okay, so maybe let's try that first, focusing only on changing between the distance. Now you can move toward the point where you think it's good. So where is that? About a third of the way. Great, what is another thing that we can change? Change the place that you're playing on the bow. Okay, why don't we try that still at this tempo? Find a point that gives you the most control. Okay, so where is that point? It's a little below halfway. Right, okay, so depending on the speed of this notato, it usually is between the third and the middle point. So depending on how fast you're playing, you can find a point right here. And then what is another aspect that you can change? Okay, and what does that change? How much of the hair is connected to the string? And also I would say maybe it changed the character, the tone of the play. So why don't you try a little bit of that as well? So what is it? Probably tilt at like a 30 degree angle towards the score. Okay, all right, so let's try to apply it in the piece, maybe just the beginning of it. Very nice. Okay, so here is a process that you can go through when you are finding your sonata. And oftentimes, when we go back to the music, still something doesn't work. But you can kind of go back to the process and then figure out what's the element that you can change here.