Sul Ponticello-

An Italian term meaning “Play near the bridge”. The bridge is the natural, unstained wood on the instrument shown here that holds the strings up over the sound holes and away from the finger board. When playing the violin, viola, cello, or bass stringed instruments the musician uses a bow to pull the string to create vibrations, differing from a stringed instrument that is plucked or strummed. The bow of an orchestral stringed instrument makes different sounds according to the placement on the string, ranging from closer to the finger board or closer to the bridge. A string musician has many options to create color in the tone of the string as it vibrates and resonates in the cavity of the instrument. Bow placement is one of those options. Other options are the weight or speed of the bow, how much of the bow is used in a musical passage, and even how much hair of the bow is used to produce the beautiful and varied sounds.