To thank you for your fidelity, I would like to share with you exclusively the very first minutes of my method « The new swing jazz violin method »! I also would like to share with you the reasons I use this bowing technique, and how, as a classically trained musician, I had to adapt my bowing technique for jazz! I must confess that I was a little bit reluctant to change my technique entirely at first… But I gradually understood that this path was necessary to go further in jazz improvisation!!

To illustrate this, I will also tell you about the swing style of Stéphane Grappelli and Didier Lockwood, who are my greatest inspirations for jazz violin.

As a classically trained musician, my right-hand technique was the complete opposite to the one I use now for jazz. My arm initiated the movement, followed by the wrist and fingers, so that the bow strokes were as discreet as possible! As you will see in the video below, I had to reverse this tendency and make the fingersstart the movement! Now discover how to position your right hand and how to start the bow movement:

(Please activate subtitles by clicking on CC in the bottom right-hand corner)

(Please activate subtitles by clicking on CC in the bottom right-hand corner

Try to use the fingers of your right hand as much as possible. The movement of the bow must really start from the finger, without the arm initiating it! That’s why it’s a good idea to practice moving your fingers only so you can understand the movement, then add the arm only later.

Because in jazz, rhythmic precision is of paramount importance !! And to have this essential quality, the attack of the bow must be very precise and clear, like a consonant, and without a lot of bow speed. The contact of the index finger on the bow that will generate the attack.

It is not necessary to force the sound, to put force in the arm to obtain sound volume. Thanks to a precise attack and the weight of the bow on the string, the sound will be sufficient. In a great romantic concerto, you would use a large bow length, and a lot of weight from your right arm; but you are not going to swing that way! It also represents a handicap if you want to play fast and keep the swing. And don’t forget that we are in a jazz aesthetic, not performing the Sibelius violin concerto…

Let’s take two examples from the aesthetics of the jazz violin: Stéphane Grappelli and Didier Lockwood.

I recently had the opportunity to do an interview about Stéphane Grappelli with several of his relatives and also accompanying musicians in his own apartment. The testimony of Jean-Philippe Viret, his double bassist, was very interesting: he told us that when unplugged, Stéphane was not very loud on his violin. I’m not really surprised, in fact I suspected it! Stéphane Grappelli’s style has incredible elegance! Always graceful in his phrasing, his playing is light and airy. He also uses a lot of very violinistic elements such as the vibrato, the high notes on the E string and an incredible technique and velocity, which sometimes gives the impression that he is playing with a large volume like a classical violinist: but in fact, he is not! The testimony of Jean-Philippe Viret confirms this.

Our late Didier Lockwood also played with very little volume. He used to play very lightly, which resulted in a very flute sound in concert. He used amplification to develop a very subtle sound with lots of effects.

When I studied with him, he strongly emphasized on the use of the fingers to attack the notes, and also on the fact of playing with very little bow, and that throughout the year at all courses! At the time, it annoyed me sometimes, but eventually I understood how useful all this was. I was unable to play as fast as him because I always used too much bow length! By applying his tips, I understood that it is possible to keep swinging even when playing faster, and also have a light and airy swing in medium tempi.

If I explain all this, it is to show you that to start swinging at the beginning, it is better to sacrifice some volume with the force of the right arm, and practice swinging with little bow to really feel the lightness and have an airy quality. Later, you can add the length of the bow and the strength of the right arm, depending on the situation!

Personally, whenever I have had to « play hard », for example in situations like acoustic jams with a lot of people playing at the same time, I have felt that I was losing swing, as well as the ability to play faster. Indeed, playing very quickly while keeping the swing and having to play very loud is impossible! It’s good to know how to do it obviously, but what a pleasure it is to be able to find a more airy style by also using ghost notes, to have lightness and even more subtlety in the jazz tone…