Term of the day: ghosting · Learning Jazz Violin

Term of the day: ghosting

Ghosting is where we hardly play the note.

Its like a breath.

Generally done at the tip of the bow and an easy way of understanding why is by looking at how guitar players strum.

When you watch guitarist playing a groove, in any style of music, the movements they make always seem a lot more rigorous that the rhythm that you hear coming out.

They are often playing constantly up and down, subdividing the bar and only accenting the notes or chords that they choose to.

Ghosting on the violin is our version of that. It helps us have motion to the lines we play.

It’s not that that every jazz violinists will always just play constant ghosted notes, but most jazz violinists will have some element of ghosted notes in their playing. It just differs how much depending on the style that they play in.

Check out my free course on jazz bowing in the classroom if you want to know more!

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