Teaching collé

Collé is a short bow stroke with a ‘sticky’ beginning (the French word ‘collé’ means ‘stuck’), described by the great violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian as a pizzicato with the bow. Working on this stroke with young students can lead to a real breakthrough in the quality of their sound, as they learn to move their fingers in a way that produces a clear, articulated quality somewhere between a martelé and a staccato. To do this, they have to listen to the violin and respond to what it is telling them: do they need to change their contact point, the amount of bow hair, arm weight and finger pressure they are using, the part of the bow they are in, the bow speed? By thinking in this way they will learn how to address anything in their sound that they do not want, so that they can improve their overall bow control not only in collé but in all types of bow stroke.

EXERCISES

To begin work on collé, the first exercises that I give my students are designed to free up a stiff right hand:

Hold the bow or a pencil in the right hand Extend the fingers and thumb (figure 1)

Now curl the fingers and thumb (figure 2)

Move between the two positions smoothly several times, keeping the hand as relaxed as possible

I developed the next exercise for two of my students who are blind. Using the instrument body as a guide has helped them to isolate the muscles they need to use for collé. I have found this to be such an effective way to help students understand how to move the fingers, and to separate that movement from the wrist, elbow and arm, that now I give it to everyone. I ask them to:

rest the base knuckle of the thumb on top of the violin, above the lower bout. Line the tip of the thumb up with the top of the f-hole (figure 3). In this position they will only be able to move the fingers

FIGURE 1 An extended hand

FIGURE 2 Acurled hand FIGURE

MARCOS SANTOS

3 Rest the hand on the instrument to work on finger motion alone

extend and contract the fingers to play small down and up bows on the E string at the frog, with crisp, clear articulation experiment with the amount of bow hair they use and where they bow between the fingerboard and the bridge. Listen to how this affects their sound

Once students have developed their finger motion a little bit, I introduce half bows on open strings. I ask them to:

play a slow half bow from the frog, with curled fingers.

Use arm weight to grab the string with the bow hair, for a well-articulated click to begin the note think of this as like striking a match in slow motion: feel the resistance of the bow against the string, then suspend the weight of the arm to release and lift away again use arm weight to reconnect with the string at the middle of the bow. Extend the fingers to play a slow-motion collé back to the heel apply these ideas to scales and studies such as exercises 1, 2 and 3

Students can add new elements to this work as they improve: a faster bow motion, different bowings, and collé from the middle to the tip and back. Eventually they should be able to use this sequence of weight, release and lift to play quick collé strokes consecutively, as though repeatedly striking a match.

IN THEIR PRACTICE

Young students shouldn’t work on collé for more than five or ten per cent of a practice session, especially if the stroke is new to them. As they work, they should always listen to what the violin is telling them and learn how to solve and respond quickly to any sounds that they don’t like. Are they using too much pressure? Are they playing too close to the bridge, or too close to the fingerboard? They should think, listen and explore, as though they are conducting a lab experiment.

I ask my students to change their routine each day: if they start with scales one day, they could begin with repertoire on another. I also tell them to practise slowly and be creative. The more variables they try, the more they will gain perspective.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

I incorporate collé into my students’ studies from when they are around Suzuki Book 3 level, when they know the basics of shifting and can differentiate good from bad when it comes to intonation and sound. To begin with many do not know how to create the sound that they want, so I act as their guide, listening to them and teaching them how to fix any problems by themselves. I use all of Ševčík’s 40 Variations op.3 in slow motion to work on collé, because they’re short, easy to memorise and serve as good support material for scales and repertoire. I also revisit collé with older students, to help improve their bow control and overall sound.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING