Left Hand Techniques:

 

String Crossing - moving from one string to another while playing, a coordination between left hand and bow arm levels.

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Shifting - moving your whole hand up or down the fingerboard to change positions, shift with the old finger on the new position

 

Trill - rapid alternation of two tones either a whole or a half tone apart

 

Vibrato - a fluctuation of pitch to warm the tone of a note, achieved by oscillating the left hand. Vibrato can originate in the fingers, hand, and arm, or a combination of all three

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Right Hand Techniques:

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Collé - "pinched" bowing at the frog done with fingers only; often assigned by teachers to help students cultivate finger flexibility while still balancing the weight of the bow

 

Col legno - striking the strings with the wood of the bow instead of the hair. To avoid messing up their expensive bows, sometimes professional musicians use a spare bow or even a pencil when music calls for col legno

 

Détaché - detached, with separate bow strokes, but not staccato (or short)

 

Glissando -  to glide or slide the fingers along the string, usually to create a special effect.

 

Jeté - French for "thrown," a bouncing bow stroke that involves two to six ricochets in a row

 

Legato - smooth, connected bow stroke

 

Martelé - "martellato" in Italian means "hammered." A detached and strongly accented bow stroke

 

Pizzicato - an indication for string players to pluck, rather than bow, the string

 

Ponticello - the bridge of the violin. "Sul ponticello" is a direction to play very near the bridge, which creates a nasal sound

 

Portato - as opposed to up-bow or down-bow staccato, in which each note marked with a bow stop -- each note in a "portato" bowing is re-articulated very gently, with the bow continuing to move between notes

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Ricochet - a bouncing bow stroke in which the bow is dropped or thrown on the string and allowed to rebound and bounce again, several times

 

Sautillé - very fast spiccato, done usually with the hand

 

Spiccato - bouncing bow stroke, bow comes off the string

 

Staccato - a short note, which can be produced with several kinds of bow strokes, including spiccato, sautille, martele, jete, ricochet, up-bow and down-bow staccato and more, bow starts on the string

 

Tremolo -  extremely rapid repetition of a note, usually accomplished by playing at the tip and using a hand motion

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