One way to refine your technique is to produce a diverse and entrancing palette of tone colors, using them tastefully in your repertoire. Tone color is the quality of sound you produce with the right-hand strokes on each of the strings. The presence or absence of specific harmonics above the fundamental note determines each tone color. On the classical guitar, tone color is an infinitely expressive resource. You can produce many colors, even some that sound like other instruments by the varied ways in which you strike the strings.
Highly significant with respect to tone color and other interpretative elements is to establish a normal mode of expression. That means, for most music, that you must establish one basic tone color, using others occasionally - only as contrasts. If you change the color every other bar, or even every other phrase, you will have nothing but contrast, a chaotic mess which makes the color variations meaningless.
Most guitarists are aware of the varied tone colors that they can produce by striking the strings at measured distances from the bridge. There are also color variations that can be produced by playing the same passage on different strings. Colors that a guitarist can produce merely by moving the right hand include a nasal sound close to the bridge, a brass sound, produced midway between the bridge and the soundhole, a metallic textural quality typical of the guitar at the edge of the soundhole nearest the bridge; and a mellow, harp-like tone from the edge of the soundhole nearest the fingerboard. The normal sonority of the guitar will vary from musician to musician, but it is a property that the player should cultivate, for the rewards garnered from rich tone colors are well worth the time spent.
Furthermore, the colors one can produce by playing the same notes on different strings can vary strikingly, due to the differences in the thickness and the material of the strings. The color of the open strings and the stopped strings in lower positions tends to be bright and clear, while that of stopped strings (except the first) in upper positions tends to be softer and richer. Of course, there is a keen difference between nylon and metal wound strings. Nylon strings produce a sound which is lighter and thinner, while metal strings possess a heavier, richer tone quality. New metal strings, however, have a brilliant sound.
Moving your right hand just little bit will produce several distinct tone colors. Even changing the angle with which you attack the strings will produce strikingly dissimilar results. For most players, a straight-on stroke produces a sharp, metallic tone, while a more angled stroke produces a softer, mellower sound. Of course, you can discover infinitely many shades in between. In addition to these, you can create a distinctively muted tone color by playing with the flesh of the thumb.
Often, a score will indicate the colors desired by the composer. Learn words such as ponticello (at the bridge), tasto (at the fingerboard), and dolce (sweetly-usually near or over the soundhole), so that you can quickly discern the composer’s intent, gaining insight into how to maximize the artistic power of the music.
By experimenting with the tonal power of the guitar, you will begin to master the qualities that allows your instrument to explore all the musical textures that it can possibly produce, in order to have the fullest expressive range your ability allows. Let your imagination take flight, and enjoy the best your guitar has to offer!
Feel free to visit LA Guitar Academy's website for professional guitar lessons in the Los Angeles area, or go to LAGA Online's home page to take online guitar lessons from the LAGA Faculty.
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