Practicing dynamics

liponguitas · #1 03-04-2010, 10:30 AM

Hello to you all!

I would like to know what exercices, tricks, tips you do to develop your dynamics habillity. I'm talking about emphasing, accentuation of the right notes, of "crescendos" and "decrescendos".

Also, Do you put your amplifier at a high volume so that you can have a higher range of volumes?

I think guitar players should try to sound a bit sax players in this issue.

So i usually listen to sax solos transcribe them and imitate their accentuations and dynamics. When i practice scales i try to work them with swing feeling and making "crescendos" and "decrescendos".

However my solo lines sound a little "horizontal"...

Sorry for my bad English.

Thanks

derek · #2 03-04-2010, 11:00 AM

I have intentionally developed a light right hand for this very reason. Also, I was taught to start sparse with a solo and build. Can start sparse and loud moving to faster and quieter, or visa versa. I do work on that sort of stuff somewhat, but don't really have specific exercises I use. I am just mindful of not playing with the same dynamics all the time.

SteveCarter · #3 03-04-2010, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liponguitas

Hello to you all!

I would like to know what exercices, tricks, tips you do to develop your dynamics habillity. I'm talking about emphasing, accentuation of the right notes, of "crescendos" and "decrescendos".

Also, Do you put your amplifier at a high volume so that you can have a higher range of volumes?

I think guitar players should try to sound a bit sax players in this issue.

So i usually listen to sax solos transcribe them and imitate their accentuations and dynamics. When i practice scales i try to work them with swing feeling and making "crescendos" and "decrescendos".

However my solo lines sound a little "horizontal"...

Sorry for my bad English.

Thanks

I discuss this topic in an entry in my Player's Journal that I call "Distortion and Correction. You can read it here:
http://koka.phpwebhosting.com/~scarterfrogs/player_journal_2003.html#DistortionAndCorrection

Steve

SteveCarter · #4 03-05-2010, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by liponguitas

I would like to know what exercices, tricks, tips you do to develop your dynamics habillity. I'm talking about emphasing, accentuation of the right notes, of "crescendos" and "decrescendos".

Also, Do you put your amplifier at a high volume so that you can have a higher range of volumes?

As Derek pointed out in his post, playing with a light right hand is important. You should be able to produce a wide dynamic range both unamplified and amplified.

I refer to it as "playing on a setting of 3." You know that if your amp volume is set on 3, you've got plenty of headroom -- plenty of power left. Most of the time your right hand should be "playing on a setting of 3" -- that is, playing in the lower third of your dynamic range.

Try this: play ten notes, say, C D E F G A B C D E. Make each note a little louder than the previous note. This is just a simple crescendo, but I want you to concentrate not on the overall change in volume, but on the note-to-note change in volume. Make sure the change in volume is consistent. Now play it again, this time noticing the overall change in volume. Now you have a sense of your dynamic range. (Over time, you might want to work on widening this dynamic range, but that's a different topic.)
Play it the crescendo one more time, making a mental note of the sound, and how your hands feel, on the third note. This is your "setting of 3," your low-medium dynamic range. Try taking a simple jazz phrase and playing it three times: soft, medium, loud. Think of it as "settings" 3, 6, and 10.

Most of the time, you want to play with your hands at a "setting of 3," so you always have plenty of headroom.

Steve

derek · #5 03-05-2010, 12:05 PM

Interesting analogy Steve. Makes total sense. I have a couple of students who have heavy hands. Maybe "playing on 3" will help them to lighten up.

peterk1 · #6 03-05-2010, 12:15 PM

I'm doing some exercises on dynamics with my teacher right now.

One of them is pretty cool....if you want to emulate sax/trumpet players you're going to have to start swinging your eighths. There's a rhythmic element to swing that everyone knows about, but there's also a dynamic element that not everyone knows about.

The off-beat eighth notes actually have an accent and the eighth note that's played right on the beat is suppressed.

Horn players do it very naturally, but it's not so easy to do on guitar.

If you want to hear what it should sound like, play the minor pentatonic that everyone knows....pick the first note on each string with an up-stroke, but hammer-on to all the notes played with the 3rd and 4th finger. If you're using a metronome, start the scale on the "and" of the 4th beat, so you're picking on the off beats and hammering-on on the beats.

Once you've got that down, try to get the same sort of sound without the hammer-ons, picking every note with alternate picking.

It's a good work-out for general dynamics as well because you're doing very quick alternating between loud and muted notes. Builds up the necessary sensitivity in the right hand.

On Sugar Hill · #7 03-05-2010, 10:55 PM

I've had problems with this in my playing. I'm still definetely working on it. I'm a Jazz guitar major at CSULB, and we had juries were the faculty hears you play and gives you advice. One thing the guy mentinoed to me was to have more dynamic range. He said my lines were lacking dynamic contrast, especially when it came to the shapes of lines. If you have an ascending line, you probably want the highest note to be the loudest.

My problem is that my solos are too often in the midrange. I'm trying to conciously avoid this, but it's tough when you have a habit. One thing I've been doing is forcing myself to play louder, and more confidently. This is so when I have a loud line, it sounds notably louder than my other lines. Do the same with your quiet lines too. Also, if you transcribe a good ii V I line, learn to play it in multiple dynamic ways.

liponguitas · #8 03-08-2010, 03:42 AM

Thank you all.

Definitively the problem is that I always play with a heavy right and.
Maybe because I played for many years in fingerstyle classic guitar and I had to take as much sound as I could from the guitar.

I already began to work in playing with ligth right hand (with the amplifier in the maximum volume but playing with a very low volume), and the playing is surprisely better (faster, more fluent). I will work in your sugestions during this week and if I have some doubt I will post it.

Thank you very much once more

princeplanet · #9 05-07-2010, 01:38 PM

practice unamplified, and, regardless of whether you like GJ or not, listen to Django, the most dynamic jazz guitarist ever. Probably due to his 2 fingered power, as well as the many years on a heavy actioned acoustic. Even when he went electric post '46 (my fave years) he still retained the dynamic control. Sure, he played loud a lot, but on his ballads he could be feather light. Still remarkable after all there years...

Tony Santodonato · #10 05-07-2010, 04:21 PM

If you were playing classical and had to "take as much sound as I could from the guitar" then you were playing heavy handed. The classical guitar is so sweet and it seems you were using no dynamics.Every instrument has it's voice and you have to play within it. If you are playing with other louder instruments,then you have to consider microphones and PA or amp.When I play electric, I turn my amp too loud and completely control my dynamics with touch.