PLAYING TIPS

[Bar 1-7] The opening bars are often played somewhat freely in tempo with the fermatas (pauses) creating a sense of drama between bursts of notes. Play the short scale runs with rest stroke for projection. At bar 4 the triplets are played more in tempo. Play them neat and punchy and again with rest stroke.

[Bar 8-10] Now we hit the descending triplet arpeggios, which are played across three strings, free stroke. In bar 11, you’ll find a ‘campanella’ (little bell) fingering approach where a scale passage is played with multiple notes across adjacent strings. This allows the notes to ring over into each other and give a very resonant sound. I have played the trill at the end of the bar across two strings with a tremolo fingering in the picking hand: p a m i p a m i p.