Ricochet

What it is

Ricochet is a stroke in which the bow is dropped onto the string and allowed to bounce several times in a single bow direction, under its own momentum. The player initiates one drop and receives two, three, four or more notes from it. The bowing section collects the related terms.

The French term jete, meaning "thrown", is used interchangeably and describes the action accurately. The bow is thrown at the string and the bounces follow.

It is the only common stroke where the player deliberately gives up control of the individual notes. The drop is controlled; the bounces are physics.

How it is produced

The bow is raised a small distance above the string, near the balance point or slightly above it.

It is then dropped and simultaneously drawn in one direction, usually down-bow. The stick contacts the string, rebounds, contacts again slightly further along the bow, rebounds again, and so on. Each successive bounce is slightly weaker than the last, as the energy from the drop dissipates.

The number of bounces is governed by the height of the drop, the speed of the horizontal motion, and how much the hand damps the stick. More height and less damping produce more bounces.

Controlling the number is the technical challenge. A player who needs exactly three notes must produce exactly three bounces, which requires calibrating drop height against bow speed reliably.

Down-bow and up-bow

Down-bow ricochet is the standard and by far the more common. Gravity assists, the bow is moving from a heavier part of the stick toward a lighter one, and the bounces are natural.

Up-bow ricochet is harder. The bow moves from light toward heavy, against the natural direction, and the bounces are more difficult to sustain. It appears in advanced repertoire and requires separate practice.

Some passages alternate, which is harder still because the two directions feel entirely different.

The decay problem

Because each bounce is weaker than the one before, an unmanaged ricochet produces a diminuendo across the group. Four notes come out loud, medium, quiet, very quiet.

Sometimes that is what the music wants. Often it is not, and the player must compensate by adding a small amount of arm weight through the group to keep the notes even.

This is the difference between a ricochet that sounds controlled and one that sounds like the bow got away from the player.

What goes wrong

Too many or too few bounces. The most practical problem. The passage needs three and the bow gives four. Fixing it means adjusting drop height and horizontal speed, and it requires slow deliberate calibration rather than hoping.

Uneven decay, described above.

A tense hand. As with all bouncing strokes, tension damps the stick and the bounces die immediately.

Landing in the wrong place. Ricochet needs the right part of the bow. Too near the frog and the stick is too heavy to bounce freely; too near the tip and there is not enough energy.

Inconsistency between attempts. The stroke works in practice and fails in performance, usually because the drop height was never actually measured, just approximated.

How it is notated

Usually as a slur containing staccato dots, indicating several notes in one bow direction, each articulated.

The word ricochet or jete may appear. Some editions mark it with a bracket or a specific instruction about the number of notes.

Because slurred staccato dots can also mean flying staccato, which is a controlled rather than a thrown stroke, the tempo and character decide which is intended. The metronome on this site is worth having open while you practise this.

Where you meet it

Virtuoso solo repertoire, particularly showpieces. It is a display technique and composers use it where display is the point.

It also appears in orchestral writing, less often, usually for a specific rhythmic figure that ricochet produces more cleanly than separate strokes would.

Students meet it at the advanced level, after spiccato and sautille are secure.

How it is taught

We start with the free drop, no horizontal motion at all. The student raises the bow, drops it, and counts the bounces. This teaches what the stick does without the complication of drawing it.

Then the horizontal motion is added, slowly, with the student aiming for a specific number of bounces rather than however many happen.

Then evenness, then tempo, then repertoire.

Ricochet is one of the strokes where practising in front of a mirror helps, because drop height is easier to see than to feel.

Ricochet and the bow

Like sautille, ricochet depends heavily on the bow. A stick with good camber rebounds cleanly and repeatably. A tired or poorly cambered bow gives inconsistent bounces regardless of technique.

Bow hair tension matters too. Slightly looser hair generally bounces more readily, which is why some players adjust their tension before a ricochet passage.

Practising it

Two exercises do most of the work.

The first is the free drop with counting: raise the bow to a fixed height, drop it, count the bounces, and repeat until the same height reliably gives the same number. This builds the calibration the technique depends on.

The second is playing the passage as separate bows first, at tempo, so the left hand and the rhythm are secure before the ricochet is introduced. Adding ricochet to a passage that is not otherwise learned means practising two problems at once.

Students come to us from Alpharetta, Duluth and Sandy Springs for private and group violin lessons. Bring a question about bow technique like Ricochet to your first lesson: book a no-commitment evaluation lesson or call 470-789-2422.