Bruce Molksy - bow and piccicato at same time?

Bob-Dubery

Hi all,

We saw the fab multi-instrumentalist Bruce Molsky at the Beverley Folk Festival (twice, as it turned out). He plays about 1/2 his show on fiddle and uses guitar and banjo for the rest.

Now I saw him done something that I have not seen or heard on violin/fiddle before. It may be not uncommon, though it was certainly new to me. He plays one note (presumably on the lowest string) with the bow, whilst on the three remaining strings he produces hammers and pulls - and this produces an effect something like using bow and piccicato simultaneously. He used this technique on two songs. The first one he was alternating between bow and fingers. The second time he played a simpled bowed phrase whilst hammering and pulling on the other strings.

Anybody seen something like this before?

SpeedStar

Yes it is used quite often, the bow is actually pushed down against more than one string. This makes it possible for a skilled violinist to play 2 melodies concurrently.

Bob-Dubery

SpeedStar wrote: Yes it is used quite often, the bow is actually pushed down against more than one string. This makes it possible for a skilled violinist to play 2 melodies concurrently.

Rats! There was me thinking that I might have seen the 8th wonder of the world.

Thanks. It's a technique I'd never seen before - not that I am a regular watcher of violinists. Is there a name for this technique?

AlanRatcliffe

@Bob - try get a copy of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (ideally the Perlman version) - some amazing stuff, given the limitations of the instrument. Paganini is often cited as being Malmsteen's main influence, but quite honestly, Yngwie only scratched the surface, taking the fast single note runs and ignoring the double-stops, dual harmonies and triads. At times it really does sound like two violinists to my relatively uneducated ear.