The “Finger Stroke” and Its Variations

Our explanation of the “finger stroke” is based on the scherzo movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 127.

The brilliant movement demands so much fleet-footed agility in its p and pp passages that it truly takes no special intelligence to understand how important it is to avoid any unnecessary movement at those moments. We inevitably have to use a “finger stroke,” a type of bowstroke executed solely by the fingers.

While minimal wrist movements (such as quasi-reflexive supination and pronation) may also be involved, this doesn’t change the need to avoid hand and arm activity as much as possible. However, this only applies to the p and pp passages. When we need louder dynamics, we can use more hand and arm movement as needed, though even here the movement should not be overly vigorous.

Let us examine some characteristic passages where we would use this movement. In this theme, the stroke in the first three bars should be done exclusively with the fingers.

In the following four-measure excerpt, we have to initiate the fp with a vigorous arm stroke and move the bow to the point (approximately in the the middle of the bow) where we can easily use the fingers for the stroke again.

The difficulty here comes from having to execute a string crossing simultaneously. This should be managed only with the hand and fingers. The third measure is not always performed with perfect rhythm! Players who find this difficult should first practice just the first five notes as an isolated group, going very slowly until they can execute them flawlessly. Then we add one note, then two more, then two again, and finally increase the tempo. This way, we gradually overcome the difficulties.

The following ff passages should be treated very differently from the preceding ones:

Here, the arm provides the impulse, moving the bow back and forth in the lower half very energetically on the eighth notes. During the sixteenth-note rests, the arm and bow remain still, allowing the next sixteenth note to be played with just hand and fingers.

The same rules should also be observed when playing the scherzo and last movement of Schubert’s String Quartet in D minor.^[1] The use of pure finger strokes also allows for the perfect execution of challenges such as the following passage from the scherzo of Beethoven’s Sonata in A major.

Besides rhythmic precision, the execution of this theme demands lightness and grace. We usually hear the small motive in square parentheses played in a way that sounds blurred or clumsy. The finger stroke protects against such failings!