Flying Staccato

What it is

Flying staccato is a series of short, articulated notes played in a single bow direction, with the bow leaving the string slightly between each one. The bow continues travelling in the same direction throughout, and the player controls each note individually. More of this kind of thing is in the bowing section.

The Italian staccato volante means "flying staccato" and the two terms are used interchangeably.

It sits between two other strokes. Like ricochet, it produces multiple notes in one bow direction. Unlike ricochet, each note is deliberately placed rather than left to momentum.

How it differs from ricochet

The distinction is control.

In ricochet, the player makes one action, a drop, and receives several notes from the bow's own bouncing. The individual notes are not separately controlled.

In flying staccato, the player controls each note. The bow lifts slightly and re-engages for each one, with the hand and fingers managing the articulation while the arm continues in one direction.

The practical difference is that flying staccato can produce any number of notes and can vary their spacing and dynamic, while ricochet produces whatever the stick gives.

Flying staccato is generally slower than ricochet as a result, because deliberate control takes more time than momentum.

How it is produced

The bow travels in one direction, most often up-bow, at a steady speed.

For each note, the fingers and wrist produce a small pinch-and-release, similar in principle to martele but much smaller and faster. The bow lifts very slightly off the string between notes, or reduces contact enough that the note is separated.

The arm's role is to keep the bow moving steadily. The hand's role is to articulate. Separating these two functions is the technical core of the stroke.

Because each note uses a little bow and the bow only travels in one direction, there is a hard limit on how many notes fit in one stroke. Planning bow distribution is essential.

Up-bow and down-bow

Up-bow flying staccato is the more common and generally the easier, because the bow moves from tip toward frog, gaining natural weight, which assists the articulation.

Down-bow flying staccato exists and appears in repertoire, but it is harder. The bow is losing weight as it travels and the player must supply more.

What goes wrong

Losing the separation. The notes blur into a slurred passage because the lift is insufficient or absent. The result is legato with slight bumps rather than flying staccato.

Running out of bow. A common practical failure. The passage needs twelve notes in one bow and the player uses too much on the first six.

Tension. As with all articulated strokes, a tight hand prevents the small lift-and-engage motion and the stroke becomes laboured.

Unevenness. Some notes are longer or louder than others because the hand motion is not consistent. This is very audible in a stroke whose entire character is precision.

Confusing it with ricochet. A player who lets the bow bounce rather than controlling each note produces something that sounds close but is rhythmically unreliable.

How it is notated

A slur containing staccato dots, the same marking used for ricochet and for slurred staccato.

Some editions add the word staccato or specify volante. Many do not, and the player decides from tempo and character. Our metronome is free and useful here.

At slower tempos, slurred dots usually mean controlled flying staccato. At very fast tempos, they usually mean ricochet, because control at that speed is not possible.

Where you meet it

Virtuoso solo repertoire, particularly showpieces and concertos of the nineteenth century. It is a display stroke.

It appears in some orchestral writing but is less common there, because it is difficult to unify across a section.

Students meet it at the advanced level, after martele and spiccato are secure, since it depends on the finger control both develop.

How it is taught

We start with martele in the upper half, because the pinch-and-release is the same motion at a larger scale.

Then the same motion made much smaller and faster, with the arm continuing to move rather than stopping.

Then the lift, which is small enough that some students cannot feel it at first and need to see it.

Then bow distribution, then tempo.

It is one of the strokes that arrives slowly. Students should expect months rather than weeks.

Bow distribution in detail

Flying staccato passages are usually written with a specific number of notes in one bow, and running out is the most common practical failure.

The arithmetic is straightforward but has to be done. A passage of twelve notes in one up-bow, played in the upper half, means each note gets roughly one twelfth of that half. That is very little bow, which in turn means the articulation must be small.

Students who do not plan this use a comfortable amount of bow on the first few notes and then discover they have four notes left and two inches of bow.

Practising it

Start with fewer notes than written. A passage of twelve notes in one bow can be practised as four, then six, then eight, then twelve, so the bow economy develops gradually rather than being demanded immediately.

Practise it slowly with exaggerated separation first, so the lift is definitely happening, then reduce the separation to what the music needs.

Every new student starts by playing for us so we can see where bow technique like Flying Staccato actually sits in their technique. Private and group violin lessons in Buford, Duluth, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven. book a no-commitment evaluation lesson, or call 470-789-2422.