Tango violin techniques

I’ve been playing violin in a Piazzolla cover band, Tango Negro (myspace, 無名小站), for just over 2 years now and have had to learn a whole set of new (and unusual) techniques for the violin. For those not familiar with Piazzolla’s music, the violin and other instruments have been assigned to provide atmospheric sound effects and percussion. It is difficult to find English-language literature or resources on these techniques, but some do exist as listed below.

Jeremy Cohen

The first violinist of the Quartet San Francisco became a tango fan and eventually was a violinist in “Forever Tango”, a show featuring tango. It was during this time that he picked up tango violin techniques from the Argentinian violinists in the show.

His extremely helpful series of videos are offered on his website, violinjazz.com.

Introduction

Chicharra – the “cricket” or scraping sound

Latigo – the whip-like glissando

Arrestre – bow acceleration into the downbeat

Strapatta – percussive attack at the upper-half of the bow

Triplet Pizzicato – pizzicato into the downbeat

Articulating – tips on articulation for tango

These videos helped me so much, thank you Jeremy!

Tambor

However, there was one major technique missing: the tambor (or tambour). The tambor is the drum-like rap which is produced by putting the fingernail of one finger on your left hand right next to the G string and then using your right hand to pull the string into the fingernail.

There was a helpful discussion on Violinist.com (check the answer by Popovici Alexandru) that got me started. Based on that discussion and watching a video (now removed from Youtube) of Piazzolla’s violinist, Fernando Suarez Paz, I was able to get close to the sound, but not consistently or easily. Tonight, after some experimentation, I realized the error of my ways and how to produce the sound more consistently and of the same tone that I’d been hearing in the recordings.

1. Place the third or fourth finger of your left hand between the G and D strings at around where the E flat would be on the neck
2. Pluck the G string with your right hand, making sure you pull the string towards the D string
3. The important thing here is that you don’t pluck too far from where your left hand’s finger is placed. The sweet spot I’m getting is about 2 and a half inches up the neck. Your mileage may vary.

Hope that helps somebody out there!