Pizzicato Strings

Pizzicato Strings.   Pizzicare in Italian means "to pluck" and so "Pizzicato" means "Plucked".  In music the term refers to the sound produced by plucking the strings of the members of the strings family, - the violin, the viola, the cello, and the double bass.  The sound is short and sharp (staccato in Italian), and makes a strong contrast with the smooth flowing tone produced with the bow.

In the computer General Midi system, pizzicato is one of the 128 GM instruments, and can be used at any pitch, to generate the pizzicato sound of the appropriate member of the string family, depending on the pitch of the note.  If you want the more forceful sound typically used by double bass players in jazz and dance bands, the the "Acoustic Bass" MIDI instrument may be preferable to the pizzicato played at a low pitch.