# Pizzicato (Italian, "pinched")

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/pizzicato
Also known as: pizz.

**Pizzicato is plucking the string with a finger instead of bowing it, abbreviated pizz. in the score and cancelled by the marking arco.**

The standard orchestral pizzicato uses the index finger of the right hand, plucking sideways across the string rather than pulling it away from the fingerboard, with the thumb braced against the corner of the fingerboard for leverage. Pulling upward produces the snapped, percussive sound properly called Bartók pizzicato, which is notated with its own circled symbol and should never appear by accident.

Pizzicato decays quickly, so it is an articulation rather than a sustain: composers use it for rhythmic drive, for a lightened texture under a wind melody, or for the dry punctuation that opens the third movement of countless symphonies. Left-hand pizzicato, marked with a small cross above the note, plucks with a left-hand finger and lets a player bow and pluck almost simultaneously.

On the double bass, pizzicato is the default in jazz and much popular music, played with the side of the index finger for a rounder, longer-sustaining tone than the orchestral technique produces.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/pizzicato