Title: Acoustic Guitar Practice and Acousticity:

Establishing Modalities of Creative Practice.

Volume 1: Thesis

Rod Sinclair: submittedin fulfillment of the degreeof

PhD.

Newcastle University, December 2007

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ------206 53423 0 ------ABSTRACT

The contemporaryacoustic guitar has developed from its origins in the 'Spanish' guitar to become a global instrument and the musical voice of a wide range of styles.

The very 'acousticity' of the instrumentpositions it as a binary oppositeto the electricguitar ano as a signifier for the organicand the naturalworld, artistryand maturity,eclecticism and the esoteric.In this concept-rootedsubmission, the acousticand guitaristicnature of the instrumentis consideredin relationto a range of social, cultural and artistic concerns,and composition is used primarily to test a thesis, wherein a portfolio of original compositions, presentedas recordings and understoodas phonograms,comment upon and reflect uponmodes of performativity: instrument specific performance, introspection, virtuosity, mediation by technology and performance subjectivities.

p.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledgethe supportand inspirationoffered by Dr JamesBirkett, Dr

Ian Biddle, Dr Will Edmondes,Tim Brookes,Mick Wright, MauriceSummerfield and particularly Maureen Scott and Gerry Richardson.

I am indebtedto the following musiciansfor their musicalcontributions:

Andy Champion: double bass,Freeze: vocals, Stuart Hardy: violin, Neil Harland: double bass,Dave Hignet: flugel horn, Roger Hempsall: percussion,Jim Hornsby:

Dobro guitar,Andy Lawrenson:violin, GarryLinsley: saxophoneand flute, Jamie

McCredie: guitar, Gerry Richardson: Hammond Organ, Adam Sinclair: drum kit, and Paul Smith: drum kit and percussion.

p. 2 INTRODUCTION

Ask a contemporary guitar player to describethe acoustic guitar and their responseis likely to consistof a seriesof adjectiveswhich describethe physicalnature of the instrument;interrogate them furtherabout acoustic guitar practice and the namesof particularperformers often appearin an attemptto describeby associationthe nature of acousticguitar styles.This is not unusualand I-recognisein my own development as a guitar player that prior to carrying out this research,I would also find it difficult to respond in a meaningful way. Of course as guitar players we all know what an acousticguitar is, how it feelsto play andhow it sounds,but what is acoustic practice? What is meant by the term acoustic? What is the nature of contemporary practice and how has it evolved? Many books have been written on particular histories of the guitar but they don't clearly succeedin articulating the inherent acousticnature of the guitar, its sound,its musicalstyle and performance characteristics.This researchtherefore, has developed out of a desireto attemptto answerthese questions in a focussedand detailed way by engagingin a broadrange of performanceand compositionalpractice. The researchis presentedin two sections,a written dissertationwhich examinesthe multifariousarticulations of style andpractice that havecoalesced to inform contemporarypractice, and a recorded portfolio that engagescomposition, performance and recordingin the realisation.of real musical events. Combined, the two approachesprovide a comprehensive picture,textual and aural,of the natureof contemporarypractice. The written researchengages with a discourseof eclecticismand the esotericthat reflectsthe guitarsglobal distribution,its appropriationinto localizedpractice and its adaption to technologicalchange, and the recordedportfolio providesa body of compositions

p.3 that placethe instrumentwithin variouscreative modalities - combinedthey aim to createa deeper,more clearly articulated understanding of the musicof the acoustic guitar.

p.4 CONTENTS

1. THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR: AN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL

PERSPECTIVE.

1.1 History and culture context: an overview.

1.2 Historiographic themes.

2. DIGITISATION AND ACOUSTICITY.

2.1 Digitisation.

2.2 Acousticity.

2.3 Digital Recording and its impact on the practices of the acoustic

performer.

2.4 Digitisation and practice.

3. ACOUSTIC PRACTICE.

3.1 Contemporary practice: an historical and cultural overview.

3.2 Pedagogy.

3.3 Notationalsystems.

3.4 Acoustic guitar/ Electric guitar.

3.5 Performancestyle: virtuosity andrepertoire.

4 PERSONALCREATIVE PRACTICE

4.1 Formativedevelopment.

4.2 Currentpractice.

4.3 Acoustic Guitar Practice.

4.4 Compositionalpractice.

p.5 4.5 Modalities of creative practice.

5 The recordedportfolio andcommentaries.

6 Summary.

Tunings.

8 Glossary.

9 References.

10 CD Contents

II Appendices

p. 6 1. THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR: AN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL

PERSPECTIVE.

1.1 History and Culture Context: an overview

This chapter will consider the nature of the primary cultural movements that are concurrentwith the emergenceof the modem acousticguitar, those of modernism and postmodernism, and to interrogate the extent to which these discoursescan be seen to be evident in the development of acoustic-guitar practice. Whilst it is not intendedto debatethe characteristicsof the broadercultural conditions, it is an essentialpart of this processto clarify the over-archingconcerns of postmodemism and modernism.While this will be initially limited to an elaborationof the general principles, an unavoidablereductionism, a more subtle and nuancedinterrogation will take placewhen consideringhistoriographic themes and contemporarypractice

in chapters#3, #4 and #5.

The emergenceof the modem form of the acoustic guitar, the Americanl guitar (which is later discussedin detail) is concurrentwith a movementtowards

science, rationalism, and industrial isation; a period of modernity, modemisation and the cultural responseof modernism:

I The instrumentis referredto asAmerican, to differentiatebetween the Spanish guitar (and its derivatives)and the steel-strungcontemporary instrument. This is discussedin more detail later.

p.7 The modemmovement in the artstransformed consciousness and artistic form

just asthe energiesof modernity- scientific,technological, philosophical,

political - transformedforever the nature,the speed,the sensationof human

life. 2

Modernismwas driven by an attemptto rationalisethe immediaciesof a rapidly modernisingand changingworld. This emphasison the rational and the scientific privileged the avant-gardeover tradition, repudiatingthe past and establishinga drive towards a continuousforward movement.The desire for rationality would encouragethe establishment of singular universalising artistic theories, over-arching philosophies(metanarratives) and a superimposedcultural hierarchy:the elite (the modernist) who pursued the new and the popularists who produced music for consumption. Postmodemism emerged as a reaction to and development from modernism, at differing rates, in differing times, practices and locations. Lloyd

Spencerconsiders that, 'Modernism and postmodernismare intimately interrelated responsesto the crises of modernity,13 and the two 'movements' are not disassociatedentities as the impulseof both is to solve the problemsof modernity.

Joakim Tillman in 'Postmodemismand Art Music in the GermanDebate, ' whilst consideringthe ideasexpressed by Danuser,asks the following question:

2 Bradbury,Malcolm. & McFarlane,James, (eds. ), Modernism,A Guideto EuropeanLiterature 1890-1930(London: Penguin, 1991), 23.

3 Spencer,Lloyd, 'Glossary' in Sim, Stuart (ed.), The RoutledgeCompanion to Postmodernism(Routledge: London and New York, 2005),272.

p. 8 regardsthe relation of postmodernismto modernism:is it a continuanceof

modernism,a discontinuousopposite of modernism,or somethingelse? 4

Danuser questions whether the prefix 'post' implies a continuation of sorts, or a

rejection of modernism. If modernism is viewed as a particular responseto

modernity,then postmodernismcould be seenas a continuingbut differentresponse.

To view postmodernismas a substantialposition, it cannotsimply exist as a passive

rejection of modernism,to be worthy of considerationit must possessits own

internal dynamic, with its own insistences. Bradbury and McFarlane consider that:

Modernism was an art of an age of growing cultural relativism and growing

communications;what hasfollowed it, the art of the Postmodern,is in a sense

simply a yet more multi-varied replay, often in highly parodic form, of that rise

in relativism and cultural pluralism.5

If modernismis perceivedas a heightened,more radical, more utopian form of the

'modem', seducedby a final vision of universaltruths, postmodemismcould be

seento havegiven up the hopeof any finality. If a dominantnarrative of modernism

is the pursuit of rationality, singularityand the establishmentof universalaesthetic

values,then a dominantdiscourse in postmodernismis a recognitionof plurality and

diversity; a condition driven by the rapid development of communication

technologiesand the resultantease of accessto a diverserange of cultural practices.

Any attempt at understanding postmodernism however, must remain provisional

becauseof its ongoing nature and the 'fogging' produced by living in a period of

4 Tillman, Joakim, 'Postmodernismand Art Music in the German Debate' in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph (eds.), PostmodernMusic and Postmodern Thought (New York and London:Routledge, 2002), 77.

P.9 postmodernity,as the disadvantageof not possessinga detachedlong view makes the ascribingof characteristicsproblematic.

When considering the concerns of these two positions, it could be argued that a third position emerges,that of anti-modernism,a residual categoryin which to place practices that can be seen as a rejection of both modernism and postmodernism.Anti-modernism, in this sense,becomes an effective term for describingpractices that pursuea romanticnotion of the past and a return to a pre- modernityfree of any inflection or residueof a rationalisedor industrialisedworld.

However, the plurality of postmodernism also encouragesthe re use of historical signifiers,but herethe intent is different,where the anti-modernistseeks to recreate historical styles, the postmodernistjuxtaposes historical and contemporary referents to create dynamic juxtapositions, or playful, ironic, musical amalgams. What does delineatethe concernsof the anti-modernistand the postmodernistis the way in which thesetraditions are appropriated.Where the anti-modernistmay seeka purity

-a synonym for tradition - in performancestyle and instrumentation,the postmodernistfreely appropriatesand reuseshistoric styles, with an often-ironic sensibility, as pasticheand collage.To highlight an exampleof an anti-modernist practice,The Jazz Guitar Duo (JamesBirkett and Rod Sinclair), were awardedan early music-touringaward by the Arts Council of England,to tour and perform a repertoire of earlyjazz guitar pieces. The award, the first ever for the performanceof jazz, was the result of an application that succeededin articulating a convincing argument,that some historical forms of jazz are sufficiently significant as to be classifiedunder the termsof the Arts Council criteria as early music. The recreation

5 Bradbury,Malcolm & McFarlane,James, (eds. ), ModernismA Guideto European Literature 1890-1930(London: Penguin, 1991), 14.

10 of early popularor art music doesn'treflect the progressiveprinciples of modernism,

or the inclusive plurality of postmodemism,but could be convincinglydescribed as

anti-modernistin its intention to recreatemusic from a particular historic period.

Although the project was recordedand distributed using contemporaryrecording

technology and performed on contemporary instruments in a time of postmodernity,

it couldn't satisfactorily be described as postmodern as the intention of the

performerswas to recreatean historicalpractice; any influenceof contemporarylife

on the product is the result of a technological pragmatism, a simple meansto an end.

In contrast, guitarist Bill Frisell, who mixes elements of contemporary jazz with

ethnic musics,and banjo player Bela Fleck, who meldsthe stylesand techniquesof

bluegrass banjo with synthesised sounds and contemporary instruments, could be 6 considered as actively seeking to juxtapose historical and cultural referents. Others

expressa playful, ironic sensibility, as in the work of John Zorn who assembles

disparatemusical fragmentsin overt juxtapositionsto createexaggerated musical

amalgamsand a self-consciousreplaying of historical styles.7 Where modernism

favouredthe avant-gardeover historicalreferents and postmodernismviews history

as an eternal present,anti-modernism. reflects a yearningfor a return to romantic

notionsof a goldenage. Kramer claims that a further distinctionarises in that:

Frisell, Bill, TheIntercontinentals (USA: Nonesuch,7559-79661-2,2003).

Bdla Fleck and the Flecktones,Flight of the CosmicHippo (USA: Warner Brothers,WB 9 26562-2,1991). 7 Zom, John,'You Will Be Shot', NakedCity (USA: NonesuchRecords, 79238, 1990).

P.1 1 anti-modemist yearning for the golden ages of classicism and romanticism

perpetuatesthe elitism of art music, while postmodernismclaims to be anti

elitist. 8

This reactionaryromanticism and rejection of modernity may favour the classical traditions, and in this sensecould be seento be elitist, but it could also include

6roots'music, folk, blues, early jazz, country and bluegrass.Both postmodernism and anti-modernismvalue the popular, but anti-modernismvalues those popular practices that signify authenticity and tradition. Anti-modernism therefore, is useful as a category in which to place cultural practices that consciously signify a romanticisedpre-industrial society but do not necessarilyperpetuate elitism. The overt use of technology may also be a signifier of this division: where postmodernism and modernism embrace technology, anti-modernist practice will often attempt to circumvent contemporary technology and modernity, by returning to traditional methods of performance.Therefore anti-modernismcreates a useful category,alongside modernism and postmodernism,in which to considera rangeof contemporarypractices and this will be discussedin more detail in section3.1.

1.2 Historiographic Themes

The historical development of the instrument will be considered with a consciousnessof the postmoderndebates surrounding the practice of history, particularly, what Keith Jenkins refers to as 'the fact-value problematic', where empiricism and empirical fact is interpretedthrough speculativethinking and the

8 Kramer, Jonathan,D., 'The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism'in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph, (eds.), PostmodernMusic and Postmodern Thought (New York andLondon: Routledge, 2002), 15.

12 value that we place upon the fact.9 The construction of an historical narrative can, inadvertently, rely upon speculative processes and a re-interpretation of fact in relation to the availableevidence, for example,prior to the adventof commercial recording, our knowledge of acoustic-guitar-practicc and particularly specific performancecharacteristics can only be drawn from textual sources:descriptions in books, reviews, and music transcriptions,and surviving instruments.As audio

recordingprovides the first sonic evidenceof specific performancecharacteristics,

one may be lured into consideringearly recordingsas documentaryevidence of

performance practice and to then create a musical past by drawing a history

backwards from these recordings. With the exception of 'field' recordings, such as ý thoseproduced by Johnand Alan Lomax,which were intendedto providea national

archive and aural history, what may not be considered, is the mediating affect of the

recording processand the way in which the recorded artefact is, in itself, the result of

a process of selective filtering by an emerging commercial recording industry who

were attempting to establish markets for this new media."

It is also advisableto maintain an awarenessof the 'the structuringrole of

history,' in which Keith Jenkinsobserves that the role of the historian often relies

upon subjectivity and speculation:

9 Jenkins, Keith, (ed.), The Postmodern History Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), 7. 10 Father and son musicologists John Lomax (1867-1948) and Alan Lomax (1915- 2002), collected field recordings of American folk music for the Library of Congress' Archive of American Music.

p. 13 they work with traces/sourceswhich, by the use of evidential investigation, are

mobilized into narrativeaccounts rather than just failing into shapeunder the

weight of the shearaccumulation of "the facts.""

What facts exist and what is the documentaryevidence from which we draw our conclusionsand constructnarrative accounts? As a recordedaural history has only existed since the development of effective recording technology and the production of the first commercial recordings (discussedin more detail later), our aural perceptionof earlier performersis basedon narrative accounts,such as the one written by W. C.Handy when describing hearing a black performer playing 'slide guitar' on Tutwiler railway station, Mississippi, in 1903:

he presseda knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised by the

Hawaiian bars. The 12 guitarists who used steel effect was unforgettable...

Whilst his account is evocative, it serves as a pointer to later recorded sounds: it is the recorded sound to which we refer and from which an aural impression can be constructed.A documentedhistory of the instruments,performers and music,relies upon secondary sources of information gleaned from books, newspapers, photographsand catalogues.Textual sourcesconsisting of manuscripts,popular songsheets and transcriptionsfor the guitar do exist, for example,Stefan Grossman possessesparlour guitar music from the 19th century and Maurice Summerfieldowns a large library of guitar publicationsfrom the late 18th century." Theseobviously onlY representmusic from the notatedtraditions (or later transcriptionsof recorded

11 Jenkins,Keith, (ed.), ThePostmodern History Reader(London and New York: Routledge,1997), 10. 12Handy, William, C., Father of the Blues(Canada: Collier Books, 1970),74

14 performances)and are often simplified, melodically, rhythmically and harmonically, and importantly, do not describe any performance characteristics. Some collections of early instrumentsdo exist, for example, in the musical instrumentsection of

London's Victoria and Albert museum, the Smithsonian Institute (Washington) and in the handsof private collectorssuch as GeorgeGruhn (the proprietor of Gruhn guitars) but because of their age, are usually unplayable.14 How this incomplete sourceof informationis interpreteddepends upon the significanceplaced upon the

"facts." Again Jenkins comments:'To give significanceto the facts an extemal theory of significance is always needed.' 15Therefore an awarenessof the value and significance that we attach to 'facts'- empirical information - needs to be carefully considered. In this case a theory of significance may be drawn from the primary social and cultural movements extant during the periods in which the contemporary instrument emerged: Modernism and Postmodernism. For example, the effect of an increasingly industrialised society on the manufacture of guitars will be consideredwithin a contextof modemityand modernism.

With these factors in mind the development of the contemporary acoustic guitarwill be consideredin relationto specifickey themes,that seekto elucidatethe social,cultural, technological, economic and artistic conditionsthat haveshaped the instrumentsdevelopment:

0 The Guitar: A Global Instrument.

0 Cultural Integration.

13 StefanGrossman makes this claim in the email dated4h November2006 (Appendix#1). Maurice Surnmerfieldis the proprietorof Ashley Marks Publishing, the largest importer of guitar music in the UK. 14Gruhn Guitars, 400, Broadway, Nashville, TennesseeTN37203, USA.

p. 15 0 The Arnericanisation of the Guitar.

0 American Guitar Music.

0 The Effect of Technologyon Guitar Practice.

0 Digitisation and Acousticity.

- The Guitar: a global instrument

The contemporaryAmericanised acoustic guitar is a descendantof the 'Spanish' guitar,an instrumentthat reachedits pinnacleof developmentin Spainaround the middle of the eighteenth century. The 'Torres' guitar, designed by Antonio Torres

(1817-1892) 'the Stradivarius of the guitar', drew upon the best of what had gone beforeto producewhat would becomethe modem'Spanish' guitar, andthe standard design from which later guitars would be derived.16 The historical narrative of the guitar is one of a nomadic instrument, bound up with the diasporic movement of peoplesand the colonisation of nations, it was carried to the new colonies,the

Americas,Hawaii, the Polynesianislands, Africa and the Indian subcontinent,by

Spanish and Portuguese sailors. The resultant diversity of performance styles and repertoire reflect this distribution across geographicallydistanced social/ethnic groups and integration into regionally specific music practices. The musical flexibility of the guitar facilitatedan easyadaptation to the practiceof local cultures, its transportability,accommodation of differenttuning-systems and functionaluse as a rhythmic, melodic and percussiveinstrument, makes it uniquely flexible in absorbing the demands of local systems of music. Bob Brozman (slide guitar

15 Jenkins,Keith, (ed.), ThePostmodern History Reader (Londonand New York: Routledge,1997), 10. 16Grunfeld, Frederic V., TheArt and Timesof the Guitar - An Illustrated History (New York: Da CapoPress, Incorporated, 1974), 282.

16 virtuoso and ethnomusicologist) suggeststhat the guitars global influence is due to its:

diatonicapplications (specifically, the useof chords)in the West,and the non-

diatonic ideas (specifically, an orientation towards modes and drones) of

indigenousmusic from aroundthe world' and its 'multiple musicalfunctions

(monophonic, polyphonic, homophonic, drone-plus-melody, instrumental

versusaccompanimental). 17

This universality,is reflected in the diversity of repertoireand performancestyles that have absorbedboth global and local influences, Kevin Dawe in Guitar Cultures suggeststhat the 'guitar exists in cultural spacenuanced by the convergenceof both local and global forces.' 18and that:

form, tonal textures and associatedplaying techniques are the product of its

appropriation and use in a variety of locally specific musical contexts.19

Examples of this 'glocalisation 20can be found in the commonality of slide guitar techniquesin Hawaiian slide guitar, the bottleneckblues of the Mississippi Delta and Indian slide guitar music.21A precisehistory of slide playing is difficult to

17Smith, Christopher J., 'Celtic Guitar' in Coelho, Victor A., (ed.), The Cambridge

Com anion to the Guitar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2003), 33. 18 Bennet, Andy and Dawe, Kevin, (eds.), Guitar Cultures (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2001), 2. 19Ibid, 1. 20 Derived from the term 'glocal' used to describethe mixing of the global and local. 21 Examples of Indian slide playing can be found on Kabra, Brij, Bushan, The Call of the Valley (HMV ECSD 23 82,1968) re- releasedon (EMI/Hemisphere, 7243-8- 32867-2-0,1995). Hawaiian slide playing on Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters, (Dancing Cat Records, 380382,1995) and Delta blues on House, Son, Son House- The Original Delta Blues (Sony, 65515,1998).

p. 17 delineate,but slide playing traditions have beencommon in India sincebefore the

7th Century with the 'North Indian vichitra vina and the South Indian gottuvadyamx22 and trade routes between India, Hawaii and America have long been established,therefore the possibility of cross-fertilisationsof music instrumentsand techniquesis highly likely. Although the musics have some commonalityand the instrumentsare derived from imported'Spanish' guitars - althoughfitted with steel strings (a trait of Portuguese guitars) - the performance style is substantially different and reflects the music culture of the locality: in Hawaii the Spanish guitar was brought into the country by Mexican herdsmanand adaptedto localisedsong forms, tuned to an open major, seventh or sixth chord and played flat on the knee; in the Southern states of America bottleneck blues was played on an Americanised version of the Spanish guitar, which was held in standard position, tuned to an open

G or D major chord and used to play minor pentatonicscales - this reflected

African tonal traditions and the slide could mimic the micro-tonalvocal inflections of blues singing; in India the Spanish guitar, as the favoured instrument of

Portugueseand Spanishsailors, was importedinto Goa and other newly converted

'Christian' communitiesin the 16'hand 17'hcenturies, and herealthough the design is not standardised- many differing string combinationsand tunings exist - the

instrumentis played flat, as in the Hawaiian tradition, and it has been adaptedto

Hindustani classical music where it echoes the sound of other micro-tonal

instrumentssuch as the Indian Sitar and Sarod.23 All howeverhave evolved from the

22Clayton, Martin, 'The manylives of the Indian Guitar', in Bennet,Andrew and Dawe,Kevin (eds.), Guitar Cultures(Oxford, New York: Berg,2001), 187. 23 In all cases,the slide guitartraditions use guitars fitted with steel-strings;gut stringsdo not resonatewhen played with a slide.

P. 18 Spanish guitar and been adapted to accommodatea broad range of musical performancetechniques and the performance styles of many cultures.

- Cultural Integration

The socio-culturalcontext of music is intrinsic to an appreciationof the practiceof indigenousmusics, for example,to considerthe performancesof many early blues artistesdetached from a socialcontext - the music of a displacedpeople in a highly differentiated society - would reveal a music that is harmonically and melodically naYve,and often crudelyexecuted on inferior instruments.What is easilyoverlooked are the complexity and nuances of rhythm and pitch, and a highly developed performance idiolect. To acquire a deeper understanding of the music, and its performers, other factors need to be considered, particularly the social role of the bluesperformer and the hegemonicrelationship to the dominantsociety. Mississippi

Fred Mc Dowell (1904-72) for example, is renowned for starting songs slowly and increasingthe tempo as the songprogresses. He also employsan unusualrhythmic device, placing the bass note accentson the syncopatedoff-beats (beatstwo and four); an unusualtechnique for this style of music as the accentsare usuallyplaced on beats I and 3. Knowing that he often perfonnedon solo-guitarat dances,one assumesthat the tempovariation andrhythmic pulseare not accidentaland aremore

likely to be conscious perfonnance traits that were engineeredto produce a forward momentumand increasedexcitement. 24 The very sound of the instrument also reflects the 'homemade'nature of his music as his 'slide' sound is raucousand

brittle and may be the result of him having startedplaying with a polishedbone

24McDowell, Mississippi,F., John Henry (USA: RounderRecords, CSROUN2138/0116612138 2 1,1995).

P.19 before moving to a glass (bottleneck) slide. Another example could be the performer Woody Guthrie (1912-67), whose plaintive vocal style was supportedby a simple guitar accompaniment, using open-string chords, which is redolent of the 25 earlier guitar style of the 'cowboy' singer-guitarist Gene Autry. When detached from the historical context of the American depression,the music would lose all historicalresonance and diminish the value of the accompanyingguitar style to that of the primitive and naive musician. However, when locating the performance style within its socio-cultural context, the American depression,the consciously simplistic accompanying guitar style could be read as a signifier of the ordinary, the cultural imagery of the drifter, and a reflection of the lyrical content, the plight of the nation's poor, and a counterbalanceto the plaintive vocal style. In both examples a mechanistic view of the musical practice would disfavour the idiosyncratic styles of the performersand fail to recognisethis as centralto the musicalexperience. Derek

Scott, in consideringmusical style as a discursivecode, intrinsically linked to the creationof meaning,considers that musicstyle is:

establishedas conventionsthrough social practiceand can be relatedto social

changes. Musical meaningsare not labels arbitrarily thrust upon abstract

soundS,26

Scott argues that musical style is directly related to social practice, therefore,

vernacular music reflects the material practice of the performers: the sound of the

'bottleneck' guitar mimics the microtonal nuancesof African vocal music; the

percussiveattack of the plucking fingers, or fingerpicks,results from a needby a

25Guthrie, Woody, Library of CongressRecordings (USA: RounderRecords, CDROUN1041/011661104 2 9,1989).

p. 20 performer to generate as much volume as possible - an important consideration when playing for large groups of people or whilst busking outdoors.

The diversity of the guitar and its integration into culturally specific music practicesis recognisedin postmodernism'sinsistence of pluralist values, situated knowledgeand cultural context; a view that recognises 'the values of specific culturesand their differences,' and a confirmationof the statureand value of music which owes its existence to highly differentiated culturally located practices. 27

Vernacular and ethnic music, having been marginalised or neglected by a modernist perspectivewhich was centredon a North American and Europeanaxis and which favoured an internationalist style based on Western musical forms, can be rehabilitated and re-valued through a postmodern perspective of plurality and diversity. This recognition of social context allows an examination of the inherent cultural differences in the performance of music, especially those of race, ethnicity and gender.A reclassificationand valuing of thesemusics has taken place, aided by the increasingavailability of previouslydeleted music recordingsand the work of ethnomusicologists.28 A recent conferenceheld at Leeds Metropolitan University,

The Soundsof the Guitar: A Global Crossroads,serves as a good exampleof the

newfoundlegitimacy and elevationin statusof vernacularmusic. Papers delivered at

this conference covered a wide range of examples of guitar practice from many

26 Scott,Derek B., Tostmodemismand Music' in Sim, Stuart(ed. ), TheRoutledge Companionto Postmodernism(London and New York: Routledge,2005), 127. 27 lbid 123. 28 FunkyJunk, specialize in the reissueof recordingsof guitar music,many of which havebeen deleted from generaldistribution. www. funkyjunk. com

p.21 culturally diverse locations including, the early jazz guitar styles of Eddie Lang, 29 African guitar, the Cuban Tres and rock guitar.

- The Americanisation of the Guitar

The only guitarthat evolvedinto its presentform in Europeis the Spanish

classicaland the steel-stringguitar is still very muchan American

instrument.30

The contemporaryguitar is the product of Europeanand Spanish guitar making traditions that came together in nineteenth-centuryAmerica. Both the 'Spanish'

guitar and derivatives of the German guitar tradition were present in America at this

time: the former having been imported into Latin America and the USA by Spanish

colonisersand sailors, and the latterbrought by immigrantguitar makerssuch as

ChristianFrederick Martin from Vienna,who in 1833set up a workshopto

manufactureparlour guitars, the style of which was derived from the German guitar.

However,it was in Americathat the design,manufacture, distribution, musical voice

andcultural identity of the contemporaryacoustic guitar would emerge,through an

interactionbetween the Europeanguitar making traditions and a particularsocial,

culturaland political economy:an 'Americanization'.The historicalnarrative of the

American acoustic guitar is intertwined with an emerging modemity, increasesin

29 The Soundsof the Guitar: A Global Crossroads,University of Leeds, UK. November 26-27h 2004. 30 Gruhn, George, 'American Guitar: The Evolution of the Flat-Top Steel-String Guitar' in Menn, Don (ed), in Guitar Player Magazine IJuly 1981 (USA: GPI Publications, 1981), 150.

p. 22 globaltravel andtrade, rapid industrialisation and the developmentof recording, broadcastingand amplification technologies.

The transition from 'Spanish' guitar to the contemporary acoustic guitar, took place during the latter part of the 19thcentury, in a society that was characterisedby a highly differentiated social structure and in an environment of rapid industrialisation and commercial growth. The evolution from an agrarianto an industrial society produced the conditions in which the 'Spanish' guitar could be appropriated, adapted and ultimately 'Americanized'. In part the dominance of

American guitars throughout the 20th century is due to this early industrial isation; the rise in popularity of the instrument during the last two decades of the 19th century being coincident with the emergenceof a cash economy, the establishment of a means of distribution and the development of nascent markets. The new 'mass produced'guitar, given impetusby its relative cheapness,versatility and portability, was distributedacross the nation, through cataloguesand retail outlets,to satisfya demandfor consumergoods that had beencreated by the new casheconomy. This industrialisation, marketing and distribution,allied with the cultural commonalityof stringed instrumenttraditions amongstAmerica's immigrant populations,created the groundon which the guitarwould takea prime placein Americanmusic.

The infrastructure to support the industrial isation of guitar manufacture was already in place as craftsmen were already making parlour guitars, Spanish guitars, mandolins,ukuleles and banjos. Many of these musical instrumentmakers were immigrantsfrom Europewho, having escapedsocial upheavaland political unrest settledin the USA, broughtwith them highly developedskills. A particularlygood exampleof which are Orville Gibson,the Dopyerabrothers, and ChristianFrederick

Martin. Orville Gibson (b.1856), of Italian extraction, opened up a shop in

p.23 Chateaugay,New York, promptedby a demandfor the popularItalian mandolin,to manufactureand sell mandolins, and in 1902, after attracting the support of financial investors, he gave his name to the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

influential - Gibson went on to become one of the world's largest and most guitar

companies.The DopyeraBrothers, from Slovakia,set up the Dobro guitar company

in Chicago, Illinois, around 1928 and began manufacturing instrumentswhich

combined the old world skills of craftsmanship, with the technological

advancements of the new world. Their guitars represented a direct attempt to

modernisethe acousticguitar: they were decoratedwith Art Deco motifs and the

bodies of the guitar were made from brass or steel, which was sometimesfinished in

chrome, and employed a revolutionary internal resonator, made from spun

aluminium, that substantially increased the volume of the strings. Christian

FrederickMartin from Marknekirchenin Gen-nany,a descendantof a long line of

guitar makers, emigrated to the USA to flee the restrictive practices of the Violin

MakersGuild and setup a guitarworkshop and storein New York City in 1833.31

Whilst the Spanishguitar andTorres design became the standardmodel for classical

and flamencoguitars, the Americanmodel that emergedin the latter part of the I 9th

century,has becamethe global templatefor contemporaryguitar construction. The

differences in design, the impact of industrialised processesof manufacture,the later

fitting of steel-strings and pick-up systems,have largely been establishedwithin the

USA.

Americandesign and constructiontechniques have had an internationaleffect

on instrument manufacture- certainly in the western world. Several guitar

31 The violinmakers'guild was in disputewith the cabinetmakersguild (to which Martin belonged),to limit the makingof musicalinstruments to their own members.

p. 24 companies,including Hagstrom. in Sweden,Hofher, Framus,Hoyer, Hopf and Klira

in Germany and later Yamaha in Japan, started to mass-produce guitars in the

American style. Some guitar companies did produce significantly different

instruments,for example, the Maccaferri-Selmar company (Paris), using designs by

Italian classicalguitar player Mario Maccaferri,produced an instrumentwhich was

particularlyresonant, loud and possesseda cutting quality that would project in any

ensemble and became the favoured instrument of Belgian gypsy guitarist Django 32 Reinhardt. All of the given examples however, excepting Yamaha and Hagstrom,

have capitulated to an American dominance. As an example of this hegemony, or

just simple economic dominance, the Levin guitar company founded in Sweden in

the early 1900s by H. C.Levin, a luthier who trained at the American Martin Guitar

I Co., was 'bought out' by Martin who wanted to secure their supply of tone woods

and, as they had started to become very good guitar makers, to remove their

competition. The dominance in world markets of the Americanised guitar is a result

of the comingtogether in mid-nineteenth-centuryAmerica of many skilled luthiers,

the early industrialisation of the processesof guitar making and the nascentmarkets

for the instrumentwithin a broad rangeof immigrant groups who alreadyplayed

stringed instruments.The most successfulnon-American guitar manufacturers

produce guitars to fulfil specialist needs: Stefan Sobell (England) and Lowden

Guitars (Northern Ireland) produce guitars that use a different internal bracing

systemand constructiontechniques to achievea different resonantresponse - one

32 In CharlesAlexander's Masters ofJazz Guitar (p.26) and in Charles,Delaunay's Django Reinhardt, Reinhardt appearsin several photographs playing a Maccafferi guitar.

p.25 which is popularwith playerswho use 'dropped' opentunings, for exampleplayers of Celtic music.

American made guitars continue to dominate global markets, not only in monetary value and scale of distribution, but significantly, in cultural value. John Storey, referringto the ideasof Marx, commentsthat:

whereaspeople tend to consumecommodities of capitalismon the basisof 33 their use-value. Commodities are valued for their symbolic significance.

The American guitar has come to signify a cultural embodiment of American music, the effect of which will be examinedlater. A continueddominance of American produced or styled guitars prevails and whilst in some casesthis may be a reflection of a qualitative difference, it is also symptomatic of the perceived authenticity and status as a cultural icon of the American guitar. A status that is reflected in the almostfetishistic dominance of Americanguitars in revivalist traditions;it is rareto seea professional country music guitarist playing anything but an American guitar.

American - Guitar Music -a product of racial/ethnic integration

It is a commonlyheld view, that in mid-nineteenth-centuryAmerica, the guitar was

usedto play EuropeanClassical music and Parlour songs and that it was:

little morethan a parlor (sic) instrumentwith which ladieswith pretensionsto

breeding could play light and pleasantMUSiC. 134

Tim Brookesquestions 'the canardthat in the nineteenthcentury the guitar was a

ladies parlour instrument', adding that nineteenth-centuryAmerica saw the guitar

33 Storey,John, Cultural Theoryand Popular Culture (New York: Harvester- Wheatsheaf,1993), 198.

p. 26 spreadacross America and that 'Farmers(and farmers'wives and daughters)played 35 guitars at square dances. Miners, cowboys, soldiers, whalers on whale ships, and

Mark Twain, who ownedan instrumentand carriedit on his travels,shared a passion

for it. The guitar appearsto have been widely establishedacross the popular musical

life of the United States of America and significantly, it became increasingly

important in the styles of music that would shape the musical landscapeof

twentieth-century American music: country, blues, folk, popular song andjazz.

The cultural melange precipitated by mass migration into North America

brought together peoples from Latin and Central America, Polynesia, Europe, Asia

and Africa. Racial and cultural differentiation, the enforced mixing created by

immigration and the slave trade, the coalescing of ethnic groups and the collision of

differing musical cultures would precipitate the formation of a multiplicity of hybrid

music styles;the cumulativeeffect of which becomesevident in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries. David Evans suggest that it is significant that the most

substantialmusical developments took placewhere African traditions and European

stylesmerged:

The exceptionalcases where more distinctive guitar styleswere developedcan

almostalways be explainedas influencesfrom black-originatedstyles - the

mix of the music of the African slave and European traditions such a ragtime

34Green, Douglas, 'The Guitar in early CountryMusic', in Guitar PlayerMagazine (eds.), Guitar Player Book. (GrovePress, Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),28 1. 35Brookes, Tim, Guitar An AmericanLife (New York: GrovePress, 2005), 4 1.

p.27 and blues guitar around the beginning of the twentieth century, Hawaiian

guitar in the 1910sand 1920sand jazz guitar in the 1930sand 1940s.36

Whilst thesedates are useful as indicatorsof generalisedmovements, the guitars pattern of developmentis often multifarious and interconnectedand it becomes problematicto attempt to locate discrete and distinct histories. Each immigrant populationbrought with them their favoured instrument and music practice: the bania, a skin-covered gourd instrument from West Africa and a forerunner of the banjo; the Spanish and flamenco guitar from Spain; the mandolin and mandolin orchestras from Italy; the ukulele and Hawaiian slide guitar from Hawaii and the fiddle and bagpipe traditions from the 'Celtic' countries. The guitar was:

one of many stringed instruments, and combinations of one kind or

another - including banjo orchestras,mandolin orchestras,Hawaiian groups,

Mexican mariachi groups, minstrel groups, and 'Gypsy' bandS,37 it could be thereforeeasily integratedinto a diverseand expansiverange of music traditions.

The early formative guitar styles of blues, jazz and country music, clearly demonstratethe blending of different styles: in blues and country guitar traditions

'bottleneck' guitar or 'steel guitar' were most probably influencedby, respectively, the primitive didley bow and Polynesian/Hawaiian slide guitar.38 They share the

36 Evans,David, 'The Guitar in the Blues Music of the Deep South' in Bennett. Andy, and Dawe, Kevin, (eds.), Guitar Cultures (Oxford, New York: Berg, 2001), 13. 37 Boone, Graeme M., 'The Guitar in Jazz' in Coelho, Victor A., (ed.), The CamhridgeCompanion to the Guitar (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2003),67.

p. 28 capability to produce glissandos and microtonal slurs, imitating the vocal stylistic swoopsof both musical styles, but differ in perfon-nancestyle and musical language.

The bluesguitar is often playedsolo, held in a standardupright position, and used primarily to play minor pentatonic scales and simple fretted chords, whereas, the countryslide guitar is usuallyplayed as part of an ensemble,performed flat anduses, primarily, major tonalities. The guitar duos of Lonnie Johnsonand Eddie Lang brought together blues and early jazz, on the track 'Blue Guitars' (1927), Johnson plays an improvisation on his nine-string guitar over a 12 bar accompaniment providedby Lang and whilst the improvisationof Johnsonand the form is redolent of early blues, Lang provides a sophisticated accompaniment which includes a

bass line, interjections, walking chordal chordal inversions and contrapuntal lines - an accompaniment more akin to early jazz and one which demonstrates his knowledgeof the western harmonic system.39 Fingerpicking styles that use the thumb to play a bass line and one or more fingers to pick out chordal notes and melodiesare commonin both countryand blues guitar but were originally found in bluesmusic; country finger picking legendSam McGee recalls learningthe guitar

from two black railroadworkers, and Palmer Moore in TheRoots of ThumbPicking

38 An instrumentcreated by stretchinga pieceof wire betweentwo fixed points, alonga pieceof wood or fixed betweena cabinwall andthe floor, then raisedon a bridgeformed from nails or a brick, the instrumentwas then playedby sliding a metalor glassobject along its lengthto producea sliding note. 39Re releasedon Lang,Eddie, 'Blue Guitars',Eddie Lang: Guitar Virtuoso(USA, Yazoo 1059,1989).

p.29 zrefersto the Afro-Americanorigins of this style, 'which unfortunatelycame to be 40 known as nigger pickin'. The degreeto which differences in guitar style served to defineone group in relation to anothershouldn't be ignored,and it is of interestto note the predominance of particular immigrant groups within specific musical idiomsand to reflect on the causallinks:

by the time the TwentiethCentury was a decadeor two old, two thirds (oo the

East Coast of arch-top jazz guitars and nine-tenths ofjazz guitarists, it seemed

were ltaliarýl

This link between the Italian immigrant community and jazz guitar is noteworthy and leadsto speculation about the musical characterof the Italian stringed instrument traditions, particularly, any commonalities of practice. The popularity of the Italian mandolintradition . is evidencedin the existenceof mandolinorchestras andinstrument manufacturers established as mandolinmakers. The Martin website statesthat:

During the 1890s,with the massiveimmigration of Italiansinto the United

States,the mandolin(an instrumentof Italian origin) becameincreasingly

42 popular.

" Green, Douglas, 'The Guitar in early Country Music', in Guitar Player Magazine (eds.), Guitar Player Book. (Grove Press,Guitar Player Books, 1983), 28 1.

And Moore, Palmer, 'The Roots of Thumb Picking', The Ohio Fingerstyle Club. http://ofgz. bizland.com. therootsofthumbpicking. htm (03.22.2007). 41Brookes, Tim, Guitar An American Life (New York: Grove Press,2005), 44. 42 Martin Guitar Co. History'. Chapter 5: Testing a Young Man's Character, http://www. martinguitar. com/history/chap7.html (20 Aug. 2004).

p. 30 As there is considerableevidence of the popularity of the mandolin amongstthe

Italian immigrantcommunity, it would be reasonableto assumethat the first musical experienceof many Italian-American guitar players would be through listening to or performingon the mandolin,also, as the virtoustic plectrum techniquesassociated with the mandolinare also commonto the plectrumbanjo and earlyjazz guitar,this shouldn'tpass without comment.43 Eddie Lang (real nameSal Massarow),the son of an Italian immigrant and instrument maker, is widely regarded as the first great jazz guitar player. He revolutionised the instrument with a musical sensibility born from having studied the classical guitar, and a prodigious technique that demonstrated a consummate technical command of intricate picking techniques -

44 including cross-picking, tremolando and the execution of rapidly picked notes. All of these techniques are common to instruments which are played with a plectrum: the Italian guitar school,the mandolinand later the popularplectrum banjo, and it is well documented that many of the great early jazz guitar players, Fred Van Eppes

(father of George Van Epps), Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang played plectrum banj 45 .

43Orville Gibson(of Italian descent)formed the GibsonMandolin-Guitar manufacturingCompany (Kalamazoo, Michigan) in 1902,but had been manufacturingmandolins and guitarssince about 1896.Gibson also promotedthe mandolinorchestra. Wheeler, Tom, AmericanGuitars-An Illustrated History (USA: HarperPerennial, 1990), 94-99. 44 Cross-pickingrequires the playerto accuratelypick non-adjacentstrings. 45 FredVan Eppescan be heardplaying plectrumbanjo on TheGreatest Guitarists You'veNever Heard Of, ThePioneers (1915-1934) volume I (Australia:Cumquat Records,GWCD-1001,1999).

A photographof DjangoReinhardt playing plectrum banjo is printed in Delaunay, Charles,Django Reinhardt(New York: Da CapoPress, 196 1).

p.31 Blues, a reflection of the acculturationof African slavesin an environment dominated by their white, largely European, masters,provides a good example of the hybridisation of African and European musical influences. The emancipation of the slavesand the availability of cheapinstruments saw a burgeoningmarket for mass- producedguitars. Nineteenth-centuryaccounts of the developmentof folk music don't mentionthe guitar until around 1890,then suddenlybetween 1890 and 1910

'the guitar is everywhere in the rural South'; Evans ascribes this phenomenato an,

'age of industrialism, manufacturing, invention, and growing consumerism in

American life'. 46Having arrived in the South the guitar offered a readily available and versatile stringed instrument that could be readily appropriated by the Afro-

American community. The relative newness of the instrument and lack of cultural stereotypesis probably significant:

For blacks in particularthe guitar also lacked any residualassociations with

slavery, minstrel music and its demeaningstereotypes, or even with the

South.47

The playing techniques, musical form and structure, express significant elements of

African musical traditions superimposedon the American guitar and function expressivelyas a vehicle for the idiosyncraticmusical voice of the African slave.

The bluestradition that absorbedthe guitar andthese outside musical and

cultural influences was firmly basedin a pre-existing African American

musicalculture with manystylistic characteristics,structural elements, and

46 Evans,David, 'The Guitar in the Blues Music of the Deep South' in Bennett. Andy, and Dawe, Kevin, (eds.), Guitar Cultures (Oxford, New York: Berg, 2001), 13. 47 lbid, 13.

p. 32 musicalinstruments stemming ultimately from the African musicaland

cultural background of southern blacks, 48

The micro-tonaland percussivecharacteristics of African music are exhibitedin the playing of early rural-blues guitarists such as Son House, who used a bottleneck to producesliding notesand micro tonal alterationsin pitch, and the percussivenature of the guitar body to producerhythmic slaps.49 The fixed semi-tonalintervals of the guitar were overcome by either, pushing the string across the polished frets (string bends), or sliding a piece of metal, bone or glass up and down the length of the string (slide) to produce micro-tonal changes in pitch, and in the case of slide, elaborateglissandos. The hollow construction of the guitar body has an almost drum like quality and reacts to percussivetapping and slaps on the body. 50

From an early incorporation into the blues, particular areas of the country developedtheir own stylistic variations;the Mississippi Delta areasproduced many slide guitar exponents, Missippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson and Son House, whilst the Piedmontarea - locatedbetween the Appalachianmountains to the west, the Atlantic coastto the east,Washington, D. C. to the north and Atlanta city to the south- produceda group of guitar playerswho played a style basedon ragtime.

The main exponentsof this style, Blind Willie MeTell, Blind Blake, Blind Boy

Fuller, The Reverend Gary Davis, and Barbecue Bob, developed complex finger picking techniques, where the melody and harmony were picked with the fingers, and the thumb executedpowerful bass lines, often reminiscent of the left-hand

48 lbid, 11. 49House, Son, 'Death Letter', Son House-The Original Delta Blues (Sony, 65515, 1998). 50 The use of percussive slapping techniques is common to several guitar styles and is discussedin section3.

p.33 techniqueof ragtimepianists. 'Southern Rag' recordedby Blind Blake in the 1920s is a good example of this technique.51 The Piedmont style more clearly reflects an integration of African music and the songsterrepertoires of the white communities, than the Mississippi Delta blues, and this probably reflects the demographic differencesbetween both regionsas the Piedmontarea was more racially integrated thanthe South.

The guitar appearedcomparatively late in the history of country music, whose roots are centuries long, and predates commercial recording by no more than two decades.Its introduction is credited to black players and the effect of blues fingerpicking styles on country guitar picking has been discussed earlier. Douglas

Green comments on the influence of black blues performers on country-guitar styles:

Many performers, in fact, adopted an extremely bluesy style: Jimmie Rodgers,

the Mississippi Blue Yodeler, of course comes to mind, but Cliff Carlisle, for

example, played extremely bluesy tunes on his acoustic steel guitar... 52

Comparedto bluesthe guitar took on a role of accompanimentand only cameinto

its own when influential performerssuch as Maybelle Carter developeda variation

in picking style, known as 'Carter picking', which was more elaborateand became

increasinglypopular -the style is characterisedby picked bassand melodynotes on

the lower strings interspersedwith syncopatedchords. The formative country styles

would later influence a new generation of 'country pickers', including Chet Atkins

and Merle Travis, who developedelaborate and complex picking styles. In the

Southwestthe influencecame from a different source:

5'Blake, Blind, 'SouthernRag', TheBest ofBlind Blake (Yazoo,2058,2000). 52 Green,Douglas, 'The Guitar in early CountryMusic', in Guitar PlayerMagazine (eds.), Guitar Player Book. (GrovePress, Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),281.

p. 34 Spanishsettlers, who broughtwith them guitars,transferred their love of this

instrumentto the bordervaqueros (cowboys), who in turn influencedboth with

the instrumentand with the music-cowboysnorth of the border.53

Mexicancowboys introduced both black andwhite cowboysto their populartwelve- stringguitar; an instrumentwhich retainedthe tradition commonin earlierEuropean guitar music of arrangingstrings in double-coursesto increasethe volume of the instrument.

The influence of Hawaiian and Polynesian guitar styles, particularly the slide guitar and the use of open tunings, emergedafter the U. S. took control of Hawaii in

1898. Before long, touring vaudeville troupes brought the music, the ukulele, and the Hawaiian guitar to the United States,stimulating a boom in the popularity of the ukulele: in the 1920s the Martin Co., which was already set up to manufacture guitars, turned to the production of ukuleles and 'Christian Frederick Martin III estimatesthat the companyturned out nearly twice as many ukuleles as guitars during the 20s. 54Although David Evanssuggests that Hawaiian guitar styles first influencedAmerican guitar music in the 1910s,there is evidence,in the account describedby W.C. Handy in his autobiographicalFather of the Blues,to suggestthat slide guitar techniqueswere being integratedas early as 1903. Any attempt to however to identify discrete developmental pathways of instrumental style and to isolate each strain of this tradition is probably unwise, but it is evident, that 'slide' guitar style was assimilatedearly into blues and its assimilationinto countrymusic is likely be both blues to a combinationof and Hawaiian influence- this can be

53 Ibid, 281. 546 Martin Guitar Co. History', Chapter7: Riding the UkuleleBoom http://www. martinguitar. com/history/chap7. html (20 Aug.2004).

p.35 supportedby the fact that slide guitar in countrymusic is playedflat as in Hawaiian styles. In country music, Frankie Marvin, Cliff Carlisle and Dorsey Dixon became great experimenters and the slide guitar was featured on many of Jimmie Rodgers' recordingsduring the period (1927-1933).55

The guitar, during the latter yearsof the 19th and the first decadesof the 20'h century,had beenadapted to a wide variety of styles,blues, country, popularsong and to some extent jazz, but in differing ways and to differing degrees. The instrument, which was particularly suited to a solo or accompanying role to other stringedinstruments and the voice, was lesssuited to ensemblesthat includedbrass, woodwind, piano and percussion, as in the case of jazz, where its inherently low volume level restricted its use. By the time radio broadcasting (1920) and recording

(1925) had developed into a functioning medium, the Americanised guitar was well established,both in designand musical role, but it was the new technologiesthat would provide new musical settingsin which the relatively quiet intimate soundof the instrumentcould be introducedto new audiences.

- The Effect of Technology on Guitar Practice

Recording and Broadcasting.

The effectsof modernity,industrial isation, the birth of a consumereconomy and

most potently the creation of effective systemsof recording, reproduction, broadcast

anddistribution, precipitated a renaissancein guitar music and radically affectedthe

waysin which the instrumentwas to develop.Tim Brookessuggests that:

55Rodgers, Jimmie, TheSinging Brakeman (Bear Family BCD 15540,1992).

p. 36 Everythingimportant that happenedto the guitar actuallyhappened between

1928and 1941,and the guitarwent from beinga nineteenth-century 56 instrument to a modern instrument in just fourteen years.

The beginning of this period of radical transition, 1928, is synchronouswith the developmentof advancedsystems of broadcastingand recording,and the latterdate,

1941,the period in which the solid-bodiedelectric guitar found a new voicewhich transcendedits acousticcharacter.

Although acoustic recording had been taking place since around 1890 it was not until 1925 that records produced by the modem system of electrical recording becamecommercially available. Where acoustic recording relied upon the volume and power produced as musicians gatheredaround and played loudly into a recording hom, the sensitivity of electrical recording could capture a relatively quiet

signaland produce a moresophisticated, detailed, recording. In earlyjazz, the loud

stridentsound of the banjodominated the rhythm sectionand althoughguitars can

sometimesbe seenin photographsof early ensembles,as in a photographof Buddy

Bolden'sOrchestra taken in 1895,it is the banjothat dominatesearly recordings.57

The delicatenuances of the guitar hadup to this time determinedits role as an

instrumentfor solo performanceor part of a small ensembleof other string

instruments,but with improvementsin recordingtechnologies and developmentsin

instrument design the guitar beganto transcend its functional use as an

accompanyinginstrument and move from a utilitarian to a symbolic and artistic role.

Kittler talks of the illusion createdby recording,where the most intimatewhisper

56Brookes, Tim, Guitar An AmericanLife (New York: Grove Press,2005), 135. 57Dale, Rodney, The WorldofJazz (Oxford: PhaidonPress Ltd., 1980),20-21.

p.37 appearsto be presentin the ear,a hallucination,and simulation,made possible by the intimacy of the recorded sound:

The soundof "music in my eae,can only exist oncemouthpieces and

microphonesare capable of recordingany whisper.As if therewere no

distancebetween the recordedvoice and listeningears, 58

Recordingwas able to capturethe delicacyand intimacyof the acousticguitar and relocateit in a closer,more intimate,relationship to the listener.In radio broadcasting:

A guitar or two in a tiny studio was ideal for radio. To the listener, it was like

hearing a private performance in one's own living room. The guitar's

greateststrength, its intimacy, was finally able to come to terms with the

59 vastnessof America.

It wasthis 'vastness'of Americathat would producea largerange of diversemusic, that couldnow be transmittedacross large geographic, social and ethnic frontiers andhad the potentialto producesubstantial markets for the newly recordedproducts andplayback systems. For the first time, performers,rather than composers,whose work wasdistributed as sheetmusic, could be heardwherever the equipmentwas available.This marksa significantdevelopment in that performancestyle, idiolect, individualmusical voice and interpretationcould achieveprecedence over the notated composition. The first radio broadcastin the USA took place 1920 and:

58 Kittler, Friedrich A., Gramophone,Film, Typewriter (California: Stanford UniversityPress, 1999), 37. 59 Brookes, Tim, Guitar An American Life (New York: Grove Press,2005), 88.

p. 38 In 1922the AmericanSociety of Composersand Publishers (ASCAP) and

the Music Publishers' Protective Association (MPPA) made it illegal to

broadcastrecordS.60

As all performanceswere therefore live, this createdtwo sourcesof income for musicians:recordings for sale- not for broadcast,and live radio performance.As the broadcastingmedium favoured the delicaterestrained volume of the guitar,as it waseasier to broadcastthan a larger,louder ensemble, the guitar becameextremely popular. Also, radio broadcasting emergedat the sametime as the Hawaiian guitar boom, a time when the guitar was at a peak of popularity.

In the field of blues, Sylvester Weaver recorded the first solo-blues guitar recording, 'Guitar Blues' on November 23rd 1923, followed in 1926 by Blind

Lemon Jefferson Blind Blake 61In had begun and . country music recording earlier but it was not until 1922that the first hillbilly recordswere recorded; the record companieshaving found out that the music sold as well as:

othernon-legitimate music, blues, sold as well as or betterthan the operasand 62 showtunes they were so fond of recording.

The two-guitar format becameextremely popular, particularly in countryand blues, which was alreadyrooted in the tradition of the guitar. Severalrecords with a two- guitar line up were recorded, for example 'Frisco Town' with Memphis Minnie and

Kansas Joe McCoy, where the fonner sang and both played guitar, and others

60Brookes, Tim, Guitar An AmericanLife (New York: GrovePress, 2005), 85. 61Weaver, Sylvester, Complete Recorded Works Vol. 1 (1923-27)(Document Records,DOCD-5 112,1992). 62Green, Douglas, 'The Guitar in Early CountryMusic' in Guitar PlayerMagazine, (eds.), TheGuitar Player Book (GrovePress Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),281.

p.39 including Big Bill Broonzy and Frank Brasswell, Charley Patton and Willie Brown,

Frank Stokesand Dan Sane,and Willie Walker and Sam Brookes.63

It is however,in the field ofjazz guitarthat developmentsin modern technologieshad the most significanteffect, as earlyjazz guitar developedin tandem with instrumentdesign and electrical recording technology. Essential to this developmentwere the highlightingproperties offered by the recordingmedium, wherethe instrumentalistcould be movedcloser to the recordingmicrophone, in relationto other instruments,and it wasthis that madepossible the full rangeof melodic,rhythmic and percussivepossibilities. The microphone,functioning as a moveable 'ear', could be creatively placed in the performance spaceto capture a particular balanceof instruments, and it this mechanical changethat had a profound 64 effect on the role of the instrument. The functional and compositional possibilities of the 'American' guitar, having been previously restricted by its volume, developed a new sonic freedom; the guitar could be the primary focus in any ensembleand therefore suitable as an instrument for serious composition.

It was in the form of the jazz guitar duo that the compositional and arranging possibilities of the instrument could be fully exploited. Where previously the performance role in guitar duos was divided between rhythm and accompaniment,

63 Minnie, Memphisand McCoy, KansasJoe, 'Frisco Town' Queenof Country Blues,(UK: JSP,7716,2003). 64 In the recordingof Perfectby EddieLang (1927),the guitar is highlightedby placingit closerto the microphonethan the accompanyingpiano. Re releasedon Lang,Eddie, 'Perfect'Eddie Lang Guitar Virtuoso(USA, Yazoo 1059,1989).The Quintettedu Hot Club de Franceare illustratein a photographtaken in Parisin 1939 in the MastersofJazz guitar (p 26) carefullypositioned around a recording microphonewith the main melodicinstruments, guitar and violin positionedcloser to the microphone.

p. 40 the earlyjazz duets featureda more advancedlevel of arrangement,with melodic and rhythmic interplay divided between the performers. One of the prime exponents of jazz guitar, Eddie Lang, recordedguitar duets with the Afro-American blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson. Lang brought a European musical sensibility, having undergonea classical musical training, and a virtoustic plectrum technique, developedthrough playing plectrumbanjo, and Johnson, an expertisein bluesguitar.

Although the guitar duet was not a new concept - Roy Harvey, Leonard Copeland and JessJohnson had teamed up in the late 1920's to perform duets which drew on turn-of-the-centuryparlour-guitar styles, as well as bluestechniques borrowed from black musicians - it was the new sophisticated arrangements and virtuosic performanceof Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson that projected acoustic-guitar music 65 to new heights. Eddie Lang, having trained in the European tradition, was renownedfor his ability to lay down basslines and chordal runs in the style of the

stride piano and Lang and Johnson pieces often featured Lang playing an

accompanyingrole and Johnsonplaying melody and improvisedlines on his nine-

string guitar.66 Teaming up two guitars offered the composers and performers many

musicalopportunities, Lieberson comments, 'there are unlimited possibilitiesin the

combinationof single-string leads, chord solos, finger picking, and flat-picking

65Harvey, Roy, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order: Volume2 1928- 1929 (Document Records, DOCD-8051,1999. 66 The twelve-string guitar was probably introduced to blues performers of the South by Mexican cowboys; twelve string instruments being popular in traditional Mexican it music, and was common practice to remove three of the strings - the bottom octave strings on the three strings - to produce a nine string instrument. This made it easier to play accompanying bass lines with the thumb on the bottom three strings.

p.41 67 styles. , As both instruments could produce, single-string lines, chords and a rhythmic percussive pulse, numerous possibilities were created for composition and arranging. Carmen Mastren and Albert Harris (English guitar player) wrote duets published in 1942, but not recorded, which combined double stops and triads to create four and five-part harmonies. 'The guitarists play syncopations in imitation of band arrangements and create three and four part harmonies not possible on a single instrument, 68

The arrangementswere often highly evolved, exhibiting sectional composition and elaborate modulation, and required virtoustic performance ability. They broke with the conventions of the classical guitar duet in that many recordings combined modem compositional forms with improvised sections and some were pre dominantly improvised 69 The duets, in landscape, . terms of composition, sonic performance style, consumption and distribution, were a true reflection of an engagementwith the modemworld and could be seenas a modernistresponse to a changingenvironment. It was modernitythat shapedthe very natureof the music, the instrumentswere mass-produced,featured new designs,fitted with heavy-gauge steel-stringsand recorded and distributedusing the latesttechnology. 70

67Lieberson, Richard, 'Guitar Duos', in Guitar PlayerMagazine (eds. ), Guitar PlayerBook (GrovePress, Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),262. 68 lbid, 262. 69 'Bull Frog Moan', by EddieLang andLonnie Johnson, contain elements of compositionand improvisation.Giants Of The.4coustic Jazz Guitar, VoL2The GreatDuets (Australia: CQCD-2752,1999). 70 Contemporaryinstruments are usually fitted with a setof stringsthat rangefrom 0-012-0-054'hofan inch, the stringsused by EddieLang rangedfrom, 0.015-0-075th of an inch: 20% thicker. www.acousticguitar. com/article/172/172,7431, GEARFEATURE-IASP (2.4.07)

p. 42 The earlyjazz guitarduos adopted the arch-topped,cello-guitar, a transitional instrument from banjo to the electric guitar: transitional becauseit would be this styleof guit4rthat would be later fitted with the first electricguitar pick-up and ultimatelydevelop into the solid-bodiedelectric guitar. Although the arch-topdid not havethe full acousticresonance of a flat-top guitar, its designhighlighted middle,rather than the lower andupper frequencies, making it the perfectinstrument for 'cutting' throughthe harmonicallydense rhythm sectionof dancebands and the complex tonalities of guitar duets. Eddie Lang played a Gibson L5, a new design which commencedproduction in 1923and featuredT sound-holes(I ike a cello) ratherthan a roundsound-hole, on which the stringslie acrossthe bridgeand are attachedto a tailpiece which exerts a downward thrust onto the soundboard-

unlike the flat-top, where the strings are fixed behind the bridge pulling the

soundboardupwards. The guitarswere fitted with steel-strings,which, although

availablein the late Wh century,were not fitted to factory-producedinstruments till

1922.Steel strings were louderthan gut strings,had a more evenmusical response,

andproduced a soundthat was capableof cuttingthrough other musical textures and

ideallysuited to the new recordingenvironment.

Despitethe late start- the end of the 1920sand beginningof the 1930s-a

flourish of recordingswere produced,and to satisfy the demand for new guitar

music simplified transcriptions and a tutor book (written by Eddie Lang) were

published.71 The popularityof the guitar duo led to the formation of more duosand

the releaseof more recordings,the most significant being by Carl Kress and Dick

McDonough, who reached new degrees of sophistication with material that

71Lang, Eddie. (ed. DaveBerend) Modem Advanced Guitar Method(New York: RobbinsMusic Corporation,1935).

p.43 containedrubato sections,modulations, ballad interludesand tempo changes,that were structurally, harmonically, and rhythmically complex. John Cali and Tony

Gottuso releasedsix duet-recordingsand Carl Kress and Mottola duets, which continuedinto the 1940's,sometimes added clarinet, bass and drums.

The relianceupon and affect of the broadcastmedium is evident in the fact that the dVformat, which was very popularduring the 1920s,1930s and 1940s,was neverperformed live until the adventof the electric guitar. It is significantthat this creative outpouring of material existed only within the realm of recording and broadcasting and that the first 'live' performances did not take place until 1961 when Kress formed a duo with George Bames and they became among the first to adopt the electric guitar:72

Up until Barnes and Kress, jazz guitar duos had performed only on recordings

and radio. Barnesand Kresswent out into the clubs and concerthalls, playing

to enthusiasticaudiences. 73

It is significant that the guitar duo was restrictedin its performancerole until the

developmentof the electric guitar pick up and that a return to acousticperformance

of jazz guitar duo and trios did not take placeuntil the adventof the acousticguitar

pick-up,the piezotransducer.

The Intemational Effect of Recording and Broadcasting

72Barnes, George and Kress, Carl, GuitarsAnyone? (Audiophile Records,ACD-87, 2004).

73Lieberson, Richard, 'Guitar Duosin Guitar Player Magazine (eds.), The Guitar PlayerBook (GrovePress Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),262.

p. 44 The birth of the commercialrecord industry had a profoundeffect outsideof the

USA asrecorded music filtered acrossthe world. In Europeit broughtthe soundof

'American' musicto indigenousperformers and as recordingsbegan to flow in both directions,the patternof influenceand development of style becamecircular. The virtuosticperformance of DjangoReinhardt (1910-53), formerly a plectrumbanjo andviolin player,who was steepedin a tradition of Frenchpopular and Gypsy music,was influencedby Americanjazz andblues and particularlyby guitar player

Eddie Lang (1902-33); his teaming up with violinist Stefan Grappeli has strong parallels with the combination of Eddie Lang and violinist Joe Venuti.

Delauney writes that in Paris, in the early 1930s,jazz was considered a cacophony, discordant and reserved for Negroes, but the effect of Django Reinhardt's quintet wasto absorbjazz into their own particularsound:

With the arrival of the quintetand the reassuringpresence of string

instruments,jazz becamea more delicate music, one that could be more easily

assimilatedby outsiders,74

The commonalityof stringedinstruments in Frenchmusic (Django'squintet was

comprisedof two guitars,violin anddouble bass) and guitar-basedjazz from

Americaseemed to form a bridgebetween the two musicsand suit Frenchmusical tastes.In a circular motion, Django'ssuffusion ofjazz with the exoticismof gypsy

passion,crossed the Atlantic to influence American guitar players; creating a cycle

of musicalinfluence between American and Europeanmusic and onethat is still

activeand thriving: Birelli Lagrene(born into a Belgiangypsy family and steepedin the Djangotradition) performsEuropean gypsy influenced music, American jazz

standardsand jazz funk, andHoward Alden (Americanborn) amongstothers plays

74Delaunay, Charles, Django Reinhardt(New York: Da CapoPress, 1961), 71.

p.45 75 in a gypsy guitar style. Similarly in Latin America, the guitar having been brought by Spanishand Portugese colonists and imbibedthe existing musicalfolk and dance cultures,was influencedby the musicof the USA and Europe.Brazilian guitarists,

OscarAleman (1937-2000) played in a swing guitar style similar to Django

Reinhardtand Baden Powell (1909-1980)absorbed jazz influencesinto traditional dancestyles, the Sambaand Bossa Nova. 76 Thesemusical hybrids would themselvesbe exportedto the USA; for example,in 1962bossa nova had a lasting effect on the American jazz scene:

a group of Brazilian musicians,including Laurindo Almeida (1917-95),Bola

Sete (1928-87), Jodo Gilberto (b. 1931) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-94),

blended their native musical traditions with the soft-spoken, relaxed

sophistication of cool jam in the later 195OS77

The effect of the bossa-novaguitar style had a lasting effect on American guitar

playing and introduced the nylon strung 'classical' guitar into jazz. American

guitaristCharlie Byrd (1925-1999),already a classicalguitar player,used the nylon-

strung guitar, with its musical referents of Spain and flamenco, in his own hybrid

75 Alden, Howard, 'I'll SeeYou In My Dreams' Sweet and Lowdown (Sony, SK89019,2000). Lagrene, Bireli, My Favourite Django (France: Dreyfus FDM 36574-2,1995). 76Aleman, Oscar, Swing Guitar Masterpieces (USA: Acoustic Disc, ACD-29, 1998). Powell, Baden,Afro Sambas.(USA: JSL, 008,1990). 77 Boone, Graeme M., 'The Guitar in Jazz' in Coelho, Victor A., (ed.), The

Cambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2003), 77.

p. 46 style of Latin Jazz.78 The nylon-string acoustic guitar had repositioned itself in relation to the classicalguitar to add anothercontemporary voice to the family of acoustic guitars.

The development of recording and broadcasting encouraged a cross-

fertilisationof musicalstyle and practice,something that hasalways taken place, but

as it was reliant upon the movementand interminglingof people,this happenedat a

muchslower pace. As masscommunication technology has expanded, the speedand

intensity of transmission has increased. In my own work, I am constantly making

referenceto the music of other culturesand eras,to the extent that the boundaries

and distinctions are, for myself, increasingly becoming blurred and less defined -a

reflection of the postmodern experience.

The Electric Guitar

itself. 79 Electricity is a vocabularyin

Beforethe adventof the electric guitar pick-up (late 1930s),the guitar player,with

the exceptionof the greatvirtuosos, primarily functionedas a memberof the rhythm

section. Initially the new electromagneticpick-up was attached to acoustic

instruments,but this quickly gave way to the solid-bodiedelectric guitar, a truly

experimental, progressiveand modem instrument and one that signified a break with

80 No longer defining the past. was the natural acousticresonance of the guitar the

78 Byrd, Charlie, Brazilian Byrd (USA: Legacy, 52973,1994). Originally releasedin 1964. 79Carr, Ian, 'Jazz Britannia' (BBC2,29th July 2005). 80 The electro-magnetic pick up converts the vibration of a steel-string into an electricalcurrent that canthen be amplified.The body of the guitar affectsthe way

p.47 characterof its sound,the electric instrumentoffered a new musicalvocabulary and sonic palette.

DouglasGreen places the first use of the pick-up in 1935,when Bob Dunn of

Milton Brown And His Musical Brownies,electrified his Hawaiianguitar by usinga crudehome made pick up.81 The electrification of the standardguitar cameclose behindwith Muryel Campbellof The Light Crust Doughboys,Eddie Shamblinwith

Bob Will's Texas Playboys in 1939 and Charlie Christian who 'was setting the jazz

world alight 1.82In 1937, the electric Hawaiian guitar was being offered in the

Gibson catalogue and shortly before 1940, Gibson marketed the ES 150 single pick-

up guitar - this would becameknown as the Charlie Christian model.

Charlie Christian, an early pioneer of the electric guitar, used the new

amplification to forge new ground as a soloist and to feature the guitar more

prominently.He took advantageof the sustain of the electric instrumentto play

legato phrases that mimicked the flowing lines of hom players, rather than the

staccato pickings style of the earlier acoustic players.83 Whereas earlier guitar

playershad employeda powerful down-strokepicking techniqueto producethe

volume necessaryto cut through other instruments,the increasedvolume produced

by the amplified guitar allowed the playerto use a lighter picking techniqueand to

producelegato phrases by hammeringthe guitar strings,with the fretting hand,onto

but the stringresonates addslittle elseto the amplified sound- particularlyin the caseof the solid-bodiedguitar. 81Green, Douglas, 'The Guitar in Early Country Music' Guitar Player Magazine (eds.), TheGuitar Player Book (GrovePress Guitar PlayerBooks, 1983),281. 82 lbid, 281. 83 Christian,Charlie, 'I FoundA New Baby', TheGenius of the Electric Guitar (LegacyRecordings, 65564,2002). Originally released1939.

p. 48 the fingerboard.84 However the electrification of the instrument was often used functionally as a method of amplifying acoustic-guitar techniques without any alteration of the playing style and the contrast is quite noticeable when comparing the performancesof Charlie Christian who adapted his technique to the new instrument,and Django Reinhardtwho applied his powerful techniqueto the new instrumentswithout any noticeablecompromise. The techniquesemployed and the soundproduced by Christianis definedby the sonicand performancepossibilities of the electric instrument, whilst the sound produce by Reinhardt, who plays electric guitar with the same picking technique with which he played acoustic guitar, is less satisfactoryand lacking in the finesse and nuance of his acoustic work. 85

With the development, in 1941, of the electric solid-bodied guitar, the transformationof the guitar from a nineteenth-centuryto a modem instrumentwas now complete. The guitar player, previously limited in role by the inherent volume of the instrument,was primed to becomethe power force of popular music in the

20th centuryand to function as a signifier of modernism,technology and a popular music revolution. The amplification of the guitar allowed the fore fronting of the instrument,and its greatpioneers, Charlie Christian,Joe Pass,Wes Montgomeryet al., elevatedthe guitar player from an often perfunctoryrole as a memberof the rhythm section, to a new dominant musical position. 86This new found expressivity

84 Recordings of Charlie Christian playing acoustic guitar are rare and the playing soundspedestrian compared to his later electric guitar playing. The Greatest GuitaristsYou've Never HeardOf, TheElectric Guitar TakesFlight (1932-1945) volume3 (Australia:Cumquat Records, GWCD-1003,1999). 85Reinhardt, Django, 'Django's Blues' Jazzin Paris: Django Reinhardt-Django's Blues(France: Universal Music, 059,2001). 86Montgomery, Wes, So Much Guitar (USA: Jazzland,RLP 342,1961).

p.49 allowedthe guitaristto, participatein all musicalensembles, expand the tonal palette of the instrument, and to supplant a broader musical language onto the guitar - modemjazz guitar playersincreasingly looked to saxophonistsand pianoplayers for their musical vocabulary rather than to the earlier guitar players.

As well as developing the solid-bodied electric-guitar, Les Paul was experimentingwith multi-track recording, made possible by the commercial production of magnetic tape recorders, and producing recordings, which featured a single guitarist recorded on multiple tracks, to create a guitar ensemble- in effect a

band 87 The the the modem string . popularity of multi-tracked guitar spawned formation of multiple-guitar ensembles and, importantly, marked another transitional point - the complete integration of the guitarist with recording technology. This integration of practice with technology, a combining of the role of artist andtechnician, allowed the guitaristto function as a lone producerof music,a role that has resonances with contemporary digital-recording practice and is discussedin moredetail in section2.

Paradoxically,the developmentof the electric guitar pick-up is centralto the twentieth-centuryevolution of the acousticguitar; in the ageof the electricguitar the acoustic instrument could easily have been relegatedto a lesser role, what did happen was that the instrument developeda new voice and a broad cultural resonance. The differences between the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar

becamemore than a meredistinction of volume and timbre, the very 'acousticity' of

the instrument-a conceptualsignifier and product of sonic qualities and cultural

values- positionedit as a binary oppositeto the electric guitar. If the electricguitar

87Paul, Les and Ford, Mary, How High TheMoon (USA: EssentialGold, 3511, 2004).

p. 50 signified modernitythen the acousticguitar signified tradition and authenticity;it functionedas a signifier for the organiccommunity, the natural world and an anti- modernism.Tim Brookessuggests that a greatpart of its popularitywas becauseit becameassociated with 'popular and financially viable myths' particularlythe myth of the cowboy as a signifier for the American life and the mythology of frontier 88 America. In the 1930sthe guitar playing 'singing cowboy' was such a popular figure of the Hollywood cinemathat the Harmonyguitar company(a subsidiaryof

Searsand Roebuck)brought out the ten dollar GeneAutry cowboy guitar and two

books89 The format for song . singingcowboy -a signifier the ordinaryman -was repeated with many performers: Eddie Dean, Rex Allen, Lan Slye (Roy Rogers),

Monte Hale, Tex Hill and Tex Ritter, and the guitar became established as a vehicle for expressing the troubles of the lonesome cowboy and in turn a signifier of individual personal expression.This expression of ideological purity was mobilised by the radical folk music tradition, where the guitar became a signifier of communality, continuing tradition and a musical vehicle for articulating the concernsof everyman and the ordinary. The musical significance of Woody Guthrie,

PeggySeeker, Ewan MacColl and later Bob Dylan and JoanBaez were intrinsically boundwith the cultural connotationsof the acousticguitar. Woody Guthriefamously had the slogan 'this machinekills fascists' emblazonedacross his guitar and Bob

Dylan was accusedof being a 'Judas' by a memberof the audiencewhen he first playedan electric guitar on stageat the Newport Folk Festival in 1965and later a

88 Brookes, Tim. GuitarAn American Life (New York: Grove Press,2005), 144. 89 Such was the popularity of the cowboy songsthat they are still reissued.An examplebeing a collectionGene Autry sheetmusic in a compendium:Various composers,Cowboy Classics, 62 ClassicSaddle Songs (USA: Hal Leonard Publications,2005).

p.51 similar experience occurred in the British Isles.90 In blues, jazz and country music, the acoustic guitar signified a continuity with tradition and by seemingly being

untaintedby the commercialworld and its technologicalproducts, the articulated

connotationsof purity and honesty- paradoxicallyan historical distortion as the

acousticguitar was equally a productof industrialisation and consumerism.Whilst

the electric guitar was fully absorbedinto rock and roll music, some blues and

popular music, within some musical traditions, notably jazz, the solid-bodied

electric guitar (the antithesis of the acoustic instrument) was not quickly accepted

andthe hybrid semi-acousticinstrument maintained prominence.

In popular music the acoustic guitar became part of the rhythm section, providing a

percussivetextual layer to the sound of rock and roll music as in Eddie

Cochran's 'C'mon Everybody' or as an accompanimentto a ballad as in Elvis 91 Presley's 'Love Me Tender'. So potent is the image of the acoustic guitar that

many performers, including Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard, would appear with an

acousticguitar slung around their necks, sometimesto be played, but primarily

functioning as the intimate tool of the confessionalsinger and a statementof

symbolicopposition to the electric instrument.The guitar functionedas a symbolic

link that groundedearly rock and roll music within country music traditions and

probablymore importantly,for non-Americanperformers, within America itself.

As the new electric-guitar didn't have to be pointed at a microphone it allowed

a new freedomin performancestyle, the performercould move aroundmore easily

90Manchester Free Trade Hall, England, 1966. Newport Jazz Festival, USA, 1965. 91Cochran, Eddie, 'C'mon Everybody', Cmon Everybody (London RE-U 1214, 1959).

Presley,Elvis, 'Love Me Tender'Elvis, TheEssential Collection (USA: BMG 74321228712,1994)originally releasedin 1956.

p. 52 and interactmore closely with the audienceand other performers.Freed from the figureof eight shapeof the acousticguitar and considerationsof acousticresonance, the electric guitar, for examplethose made by Fender,Gibson and Rickenbacker,

developedabstract shapes and took advantageof new high-tech finishes,cellulose

andmetallic paints and gold or chromedmetal finishes.Electric guitarshad not only

developeda 'sonic hegemony'but could 'function as visual symbolsof power'.92

The result of this symbolic associationcan be seenin a fetishising of equipment,

wherethe value placedupon the guitar as a cultural symbol is evident in the avid

consumptionof guitar paraphernaliaand the enormousamount of artefactsavailable

to the electric-guitarplayer. A visual expressionof this consumptionis to someas

importantas the music; the seeminglyendless reissuing of 'classic' and 'signature'

seriesguitar modelsis evidencethat a largemarket exists for the guitar as a cultural

signifier. This also exists,but to a lesserextent, in the world of the acousticguitar

where a certain fetishism is apparentin the collection of old instruments,not

necessarilyfor their quality as instruments,but for their cultural value.

The schism createdby the electric guitar pick-up grew ever wider as the

electric guitar, functioning in new settings,developed a new sonic language-a

vocabularyof electricity- onewhich becauseof its easeof playing,volume and the

ability to manipulatethe sound,could absorbthe musicallanguage and performance

techniquesof other instruments,and manipulatethese elements to producea broad

rangeof musical texturesand dynamics.93 Meanwhile the musical languageof the

92 Weinstein,Deena, Conference paper, 'Rock's Guitar Gods'delivered at Soundsof the Guitar.An International Crossroads(Leeds Metropolitan University, 2004). 93 Jimi Hendrix highlightedthis vocabularyof electricity in his expressiveuse of soundmanipulation devices and engagementwith the recordingstudio. Hendrix, Jimi, TheBest Of (KBOX3270A, 2000).

p.53 acousticguitar was rooted in the past and its functional use bound by its acoustic qualities. This was however to change with the emergenceof a new generation of acoustic guitar players who would project the acoustic guitar into a new role, not as the inferior partner to the electric guitar but as an instrument of considerable vibrancyand a tool for innovativepractice.

In 1959 in the USA, John Faheyreleased The Transfigurationof Blind Joe

Death,an album of steel-stringguitar instrumentalswhich representedan irreverent and eccentric new approach to acoustic guitar music and in the UK Davy Graham was performing a complex finger picking arrangementof 'Cry Me a River' on Ken

Russell's BBC film Hound Dogs and Bach Addicts: The Guitar Craze.94 Davy

Graham was part of an newly emerging generation of guitarists which included Bert

Jansch, Martin Carthy and John Renbourn, who whilst rooted in folk and eclectic musictraditions, where experiencing American blues, jazz, country and rock music.

Davy Graham, a British bom guitarist of East Indian and British parentage, spearheadeda movementin Britain that would draw upon American, Celtic and

Middle Eastern influences. Harper suggestthat he 'single-handedlyintroduced

Britain to the conceptof the folk guitar instrumental'but more importantlyhe was,a consummateperformer, and one who consciouslymixed a broad rangeof idiomatic

95 elements. In attemptingto emulatethe Middle Easternoud he createda new guitar tuning - DADGAD - and this tuning would prove to have a far reaching effect on many guitar players, including, Pierre Bensusan (Algeria), Tony MacManus

94 Harper,Colin, Dazzling Stranger,Bert Janschand the British Folk and Blues Revival(London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 87. 95 Harper,Colin, Dazzling Stranger,Bert Janschand the British Folk andBlues Revival(London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 87.88.

p. 54 (Scotland) Martin Simpson (England)96 The and . use of open-tuning systems, althougha common feature of ethnic stringed instrumentsand early country and blues slide guitar, revitalisedthe acousticguitar by creatinga new musical palette and a distinct acoustic guitar practice. Graham also embracedthe recording environmentby producing tracks recordedwith acoustic guitar and drum kit, a uniquecombination, which is difficult to recreatelive becauseof the differencesin volume level betweenthe instruments.97 Graham's postmodern musical response in embracing eclecticism and technology influenced a new generation of British guitar players including, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, Michael Chapman and Jimmy Page

(Led Zeppelin); an influential cohort of musicians who were interested in forging new roles for the acoustic guitar. Whereas Jansch retained a natural acoustic sound,

Chapmanand Martyn embracedsound processingtechnology by experimenting with electromagneticpick-ups and 'echo chambers'to createrepeated sound loops, and

Pagemoved seamlesslybetween electric rock and acoustic guitar. The influence of theseplayers in combiningeclectic musical influences, embracing sound technology, usingopen tunings, and a pursuit innovatorypractice has had a substantialeffect on the work of contemporaryguitar players.Importantly, although traditional modesof performancecontinued, these new youngerperformers developed a specific identity for acousticguitar music, not as the un-amplifiedantecedent of the electric guitar, but a new vibrant guitar-centric practice.

96Bensusan, Pierre, Intuite (FN2130-2,2001). McManus,Tony, TonyMcManus (Greentrax CDTRAX096,1995) Simpson,Martin, RighteousnessandHumidity (TSCD540,2003). 97 Graham,Davy, TheGuitar Player Plus - Davy Graham(See for Miles Records Ltd., SEECD351,1963).

p.55 The 'Piezo' Transducer

A Victory For The Acoustic Guitar.98

Pacode Lucia refersto 'a victory for the acousticguitar' in describinghis 1980tour with JohnMcLaughlin and Al Di Meola: a groundbreakingcombination of musical styleand virtuosity, but more importantly,an internationalperformance tour of a trio of acousticguitar players. The trio performedon acousticguitars, which were partiallyamplified using individual microphones,but with the exceptionof Pacode

Lucia, the signal was reinforced with built in acoustic pick-up systems.Where de

Lucia usedhis flamencoguitar, McLaughlin and Di Meola usedthe then modern

Ovationelectro-acoustic guitars -a hybrid guitar in which the back and sidesof the guitar body were constructedfrom a composite plastic. McLaughin and Di Meola, coming from a background of pre dominantly electric guitar performance, needed additionalamplification whereas de Lucia, groundedin a tradition of acousticguitar playing (flamenco), was comfortable with only a microphone. This may seemlike a smallpoint but seeingthem performfor the first time was remarkable,not only their musicand individual virtuosity, but the very fact that it was possibleto play acoustic

guitarmusic on largestages to largeaudiences. It is usefulto remember,that it was

not until 1961that earlierforms of the guitarduo (Barnesand Kress),emancipated

by the electric guitar pick-up, could perform live to a large audience;what was really

being observedwas the effect of the acoustic guitar pick up - the piezo 99 transducer.

98 Pacode Lucia, quotedin interviewwith Don Menn andTom Mulhern in Guitar PlayerMagazine (USA: GPI Publication,March 1981),70. 99 Both McLaughlinand De Miola's Ovationguitars were factoryequipped with piezotransducer pick-ups.

p. 56 Tillman in a study entitled The ResponseEffects Of Gidwr Pickup Position wid

Width,refers to the complexityof the acousticguitar soundin relationto the electric guitar:

On an acoustic guitar every componentof the string vibration is audible.

Longitudinal waves, transversewaves, along any axis, any direction, every

harmonic;they all eventuallyfind their way to being a force on the bridgeand

thus a contributing component of the sound of the instrument. On an electric

guitar only the displacement of the string at the pickup location is sensed,and

then only the displacementof transversewaves along the axis of pickup

sensitivity. 100

It is this complexity of resonance that makes successful amplification of the

instrument difficult. Amplifying the acoustic guitar with a microphone, which is the

preferredoption for many players,is besetwith problems,as the relatively quiet

acoustic-guitar requires high-levels of amplification to produce a volume suitable for

largestage performance. This is exacerbatedwhen there is backgroundnoise, or, the

guitar is in combinationwith louder instruments- as is very commonwith popular

forms of music. Whilst microphonescan producethe most accuratereproduction of

the acoustic instrument,they can also createa 'feedback loop', an uncontrolled

audio howl createdwhen the microphonestarts to amplify its own signal. The

electro-magnetic pick-up, designed for the electric guitar, offers a solution, as a

signal is picked up directly from the vibrating string, but it retains little of the

instrument'sacoustic properties and producesa sound that has more in common

100 DonaldJ, Tillman, 'ResponseEjfecis of Guittir PickupPosition cindW(Ith, Till. com, 2007, http://www. till. com/articles/PickupResponse/index.html (10th May 2007).

p.57 with the electric guitar and only works effectively with steel strings - acoustic guitars use phosphor-bronze or nylon strings. The piezo transducer differs functionallyfrom the electro-magneticpick-up or microphonein that it detectsthe vibrationof the acousticbody of the instrumentrather than just the movementof the stringsand convertsthis vibration into a small electricalsignal. The pick-up,which is fixed under the saddle or bridge of the guitar, picks up the vibration of the soundboardand the actual acoustic resonanceof the instrument. However, the resultant amplified sound has a reduced dynamic range and a synthetic sounding high frequency response- sometimesreferred to as a piezo 'quack'- never a truly acousticsound and more a hybridisationof acousticand electric qualities,hence the term electro-acoustic guitar. Some manufacturers, in an attempt to achieve a more natural acoustic sound, have developed pre-amplifiers and equalisation processorsto modify the pick-up signal and addressthis piezo 'quack', others such as B-Band have developed a transducer that uses a superior interface, and Fishman Co., are using digital technologyto trigger digital samplesof real instrumentsfrom a piezo signal.101 However, the pursuit of a natural electro-acousticsound is still elusive.

The piezo transducernevertheless offered a unification of the acousticsound of the

instrumentand its performancetraditions, with the extendedmusical language,

improvisationalopportunities, techniques, tonal-palette and volume of the electric

guitar: the piezo revolutionised the functionality of the instrument by placing it into

the sameperformance arena as the electricguitar.

The creationof a hybrid electro-acousticinstrument formed a bridge between

musical traditions that had been separatedby the electrification of the guitar. By

101B-Band. http: //www. b-band. com. The FishmanAura: FishmanTransducers Inc., USA. www.fishman. com

p. 58 aligning the performance qualities of the acoustic guitar with the functionality of electric instruments,the electro-acousticguitar, a truly hybrid design, offered the acousticresonances and performancequalities of the acousticinstrument with the sound manipulationtechniques and sonic palette of the electric guitar. As the acousticvolume of the guitar was of lesserimportance when amplified, electro- acousticinstruments could be fitted with lighter gaugestrings and the techniquesof the electricguitarist could be supplantedonto the acousticinstrument. Removing the need for the performer to produce as much volume as possible by using a heavy attacking technique with the plectrum or fingerpicks, allowed a re evaluation of acoustic guitarist technique and freeing the performer to play as softly or as loudly as 102 they wished. In addition, acoustic guitarists could play in an acoustic style, in any ensemble type and in any performance space. Consequently the hybrid electro- acoustic was embracedby both electric and acoustic guitar players and re- establishedacross a wide range of music practice.

Evidenceof the extentto which the piezo pick-up re definedareas of practice exists in recordings, where, separatedfrom the need to amplify the guitar

(conventionalstudio practicewould use only microphonesto record the 'natural' soundof the guitar) the guitar was often recordedusing the piezo pick-up and fed through sound modification devices,in the sameway as it would be treatedlive.

Several guitarists for example Adrian Legg recorded the album 'Techno Picker' using an electro-acousticOvation guitar which was processedto reproducethe live

'electro-acoustic'sound and in doing so the soundsand techniquesof the studio

102 JamesTaylor for exampleplays acoustic guitar with a very soft intimatepicking stylethat is only possiblewhen using effectiveamplification. Taylor, James,Classic Songs(CBS WEA 2292-41089-2,1987).

p.59 were supplantedback onto the live guitar.103 The freedom offered by the piezo transducerencouraged the reintroductionof the acousticguitar into avant-gardeand progressivemusical movements,as can be witnessedin the work of Robert Fripp, who having embracedthe electric guitar and its conceptuallydifferent spacein ensembles,transplanted new techniques and modernist musical concepts - improvisation,electro-acoustic formats, and experimentalperformance techniques

- ontothe instrument.

The piezo transducer became the defining voice of the acoustic guitar (and other acoustic instruments) during the last quarter of the 20th century, and formed a bridge between electric and acoustic guitar practice. At the start of the 21' century, although the piezo transducer is still the industry standard pick-up system, it is increasingly combined with built in graphic equalisers, pre-amplifiers and used in combinationwith internalmicrophones and electro-magneticpick-ups, however the goal of an untaintedamplified acousticsound has still not beenachieved.

2.0 DIGITISATION AND ACOUSTICITY

2.1 Digitisation

As discussedin the previouschapter, the evolutionof acoustic-guitarpractice can be

seento mirror the key technologicaldevelopments of the twentieth century: the

emergenceof broadcasting and recording technology, the electric guitar pick-up,

and the acoustic guitar pick-up - the piezo transducer. These technological

demarcationscan be effectively mapped against key changes in, repertoire,

performancestyle, the sonic quality of recordingsand the cultural location and

musical value of the instrument.A continuanceof this investigation therefore

103 Legg,Adrian, 'L'amour manque'Waitingfor a Dancer (Red HouseRecords, RHR99,800-695-4687,1997).

60 necessitatesa considerationof the interactionbetween contemporary practice and the primary communication technology extant at the start of the 21st century - digitisation.This chapterwill thereforeattempt to illuminate the effect of digital technology on acoustic guitar practice and interrogate the nature of acousticity as a conceptualsignifier - the productof sonicqualities and cultural values- and in so doing highlight the inter-relationshipbetween digitisation, contemporarypractice and acousticity.

Three figures dominate postmodern science: the hybrid, the network and

104 non-linearity.

Iain Hamilton Grant identifies three general characteristics of postmodern science that could be directly related to the specific affects of digitisation and digital technology on music practice: the hybridisation of styles and forms; the development of digital networkswhich encourageinteractivity and an inter-textualmerging of audio, visual and written forms; and the non-linearity and often fragmented

experience of digital practice. Our lives, in an increasingly technologically

dominatedworld, where we are bombardedwith multiple stimuli - sounds,text

and images,consists of fragmented,partial and incompleteexperiences: we hear

snippetsof music as we passa clothing shop;moving digital imagesand soundbites

fill our television screensand computerworkstations and websitestease, or irritate,

us with video and audio 'pop-ups'. Networks of communication technologies are

encroachingacross all facetsof life, in work and leisureplaces, systems of transport,

commercialoutlets, and public buildings - even the doctor's surgeryis likely to

104 Grant,Hamilton lain, 'Postmodernismand Scienceand Technology' in Sim, Stuart,(ed. ), TheRoutledge Companion to Postmodernism(London and New York: Rouledge,2005).

p.61 play 'soothing' backgroundmusic. The effect of this deluge of information has impactedon our lives in both public and private spheres,and urban and rural environments- people seeking refuge from the city are very likely to be carrying

MP3 players, digital-cameras, mobile-phones or a single device which can function as all three. In addition, there is an increasingconvergence of textual forms into singularunifying communicationsystems and the mergingof theseinto singlepieces of hardware:the Apple Whone,which mergescommunication - mobile phoneand internet, with audio, text and visual images, being a particularly good example.105

Michael Heim (quotedin Landow) refersto the way that the digitisation of books allows the readerto instantly accessfurther 'books, which in turn open out onto a vast sea of databasessysternizing all of human cognition. ' 106Parallels can easily be drawn with digitised music, where audio files, music samples, software and hardware,knowledge and experiencecan be accessedfrom any computerterminal and transmitted to any location. This convergence, integration and hybridisation of technologyis the resultof digitisation,the convertingof sound,vision andtext into a singularform -a digital code and it is digitisation that is increasinglybecoming in embedded the very processesof productionand creativepractice - even if this interactionis only in the form of accessinginformation and datastorage.

Digital technologyis integral to the working processof this research,where copious use has been made of word-processing, data-storage,notational/audio/midi- sequencingsoftware, internet music archivesand subject specific web-sites.The working methodologiesoffered by digital technology directly shapemy creative

105www. apple.com/iphone/ (10.5.07) 106Landow, George P., Hypertext 3.0 (USA: John Hopkins University Press,2006), 45.

p. 62 practiceand it would be a bold but justifiable statementto suggestthat digital technology affects the practice of all acoustic-guitar players, in fact those wishing

not to engagewith digital technologyneed to makea positive decision- an 'anti-

modernist'rejection of contemporarytechnology and a desireto disengagefrom the

technologicalworld - to avoid what has becomethe normal modus operandi.

Digital technologiesare integratedinto all areasof contemporarymusic practice:the

productionof text and notation, recordingand broadcastingand the digitisation of

archive material. Contemporary recording is most often completed within the digital

domain- analoguerecording has becomean expensiveoption - and the final

recording is usually digitally mastered,if not, it will be converted to a digital format

when compiled as a CD or DVD where the very material of distribution is digitised.

Channoncomments on how 'digitization and the home recording studio have

converged'and the effect that this has had on 'the establishedroles and identity of

the producerand the recordingengineer, as musicianstook over the control of the

apparatus...' the musiciancan now be in control of the whole process,functioning

as composer,performer, engineer, producer and record company.107 It is the multi-

textual natureof digitisation, the ability to digitise audio, text and visual material,

the increasinguniversality of softwareoperating on PC and Apple Mac platforms,

allied with the relativecheapness and portability of digital equipment,that shapethe ' 08 nature and practice of this research. Paradoxically, it is in contemplating the effect

andpresence of acousticityin creativepractice that digital technologieshave been so

useful.

107Channan, Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),164. 108 Digital technologyis relativelycheap and accessiblein relationto the analogue altematives.

p.63 Live performance increasingly incorporatessome form of digital manipulation, ranging from the covert use of digital-reverb units, to replicate acoustic environments,to the overt use of software, to manipulatethe sonic palette and sample and repeat musical sections; John McLaughlin on his 2007 tour with

RememberShakti performedlive with a semi-acousticguitar processedthrough a

laptop computer.109 The Fishman Aura, now factory installed into some Martin

guitars, uses the signal from a piezo transducer to trigger, in real-time, digital

samples of a previously recorded guitar and blend these samples with the guitar

being played. This could be an example of what Baudrillard refers to as the

hyperreal,where the real has beenreplaced by a sign of its existence;the perceived

sound of the instrument is in part the sound of another instrument recorded at

another location and at another time. ' 10In the 1970s Michael Chapman and John

Martyn used analogue tape-loops to create multi-layered guitar parts, this can now

be easily achieved using digital-samplers such as the Boss Loop Station which is

capable of recording and replaying rhythmic and melodic loops in real-time

performance."' Contemporaryperformers are embracingdigital technology as a

mediumthrough which to expandthe performanceoptions and sonic capabilitiesof

the instrument.

109http: //apple. com/hotnews/articles/2003/10/mclaughlin/ (21.3.07).

110Baudrillard, Jean 'The Precessionof Simulacra'in Storey,John (ed), Cultural Theoryand Popular Culture:A Reader(New York: Harvester-Wheatsheaf,199 8). 111Marqm, John, 'Ain't No Saint' Inside Out (UK: IslandMasters, IMCD 172, 1972).

p. 64 2.2 Acousticity

The term acousticis insufficient to describea practicethat is characterisednot just by its soniccharacteristics, but alsoby its cultural locationand articulatedsystems of value,therefore, acousticity, a useful but ugly neologism,will be mobilisedhereon asa conceptualsignifier of philosophicaland scientific concems.

When Segovia first took to the concert platform to perform a solo guitar

repertoire in a large auditorium (first USA concert in January 1928), he was

completely reliant upon the interaction of his instrument with the natural acoustic

resonanceof the space. Segovia's ability to create a range of dynamic and timbral

variation, relied upon a composite of the interaction of a series of pitched

frequenciesand overtones produced by a vibrating string, amplified by the resonant

diaphragmsand cavities of the instrument and the resonanceand reflection of these

vibrationsin the performancespace. Benade, in a scientific analysisof the acoustic

guitar, comments that:

After a musical string is excited in a complicatedway, it sets up what we

might call a two-dimensional,reverberant sound field in the soundboard.The

soundboardin its turn communicatesvia the elaboratemotion of dozensof its

vibrationalmodes with thousandsof room modes.112

The instrument,interacting with the reflective characteristicsof the performance

space,produces an unadorned acoustic experience in which the spatial relationship

Loop Station,a sampleplayer manufacture by Boss,a subsidiaryof the Roland Corporation.

112Benade, Arthur H., FundamentalsofMusical Acoustics,Second Revised Edition (New York: Dover PublicationsInc., 1990),319.

p.65 of the listener to the performer is crucial! 13Outside of the concert hall and in settings where the social etiquette of the occasion didn't demand an attentive quiet audience,performers had to coax as much volume as possibleout of the instrument and this was achieved by adopting a pronounced attacking style, using heavy-gauge plectrumsor fingerpicks, to pluck or strum heavy-gaugestrings. Perversely,the necessityto producea high volume level hasbecome a stylistic markerlong afterthe needto do so has past,with the result that a strongattacking picking style is still a performance characteristic of some acoustic blues and jazz players. However, for most guitar styles, playing the instrument with force compromises the sound of the instrument and the technique of the performer. After years of fighting for my own acoustic guitar to be heard, I have to constantly monitor my own approach in an attempt to reduce the amount of picking attack that I use.

In an attempt to produce more 'acoustic' volume, luthiers, have experimented with the size and shape of the guitar body, the choice of tone woods and the internal bracing system;but with a limited degreeof success.One of the most radical solutions was producedby the Dopyera Brothers who designedand built guitars out of aluminium, steel or brass and which employed an internal resonating-diaphragmonto which the bridge of the guitar was mounted, the vibration of the string was then amplified by both the body and the resonantcone.

The result was the Dobro guitar, an instrument with a greater volume level, but with a considerablyaltered timbre from the standardguitar and as such has become associatedwith the resonantslide guitar soundsof countryand bluesmusic. 114

113 The characteristicsof which, aredefined by its size,shape and the presenceof reflectiveand absorbentsurfaces. 114 A Dobro guitar is usedon 'Hang on JF, 'You Cooda' Told Me' and 'The Black Isle' (CD #3).

66 The guitar's limited dynamic level has alwaysrestricted its performancerole and it is only an engagement with technology that has altered this musical hegemony.This engagementhas often been avoided by classical and 'roots' performersbecause of a strong identification with acousticperformance traditions and until recentlythe poor quality of soundamplification and pick-up systems.Bob

Brossman(slide-guitar virtuoso and ethnomusicologist)prefers not to usea pick-up systemand insteadrely upon the volume producedby the guitar and the acoustic space,only when absolutely essential- when the size of the venue is too large - will he use a microphoneamplified through a public addresssystem. Although preferring the 'natural' sound of an instrument in an empathetic acoustic environment, most guitarists will usually employ some system of amplification.

However, the degreeto which they engagewith technology often reflects the musical preferenceof the performer,with traditional and roots music performersplacing a greater emphasis on a 'natural' sound and players in contemporary styles openly engagingwith technologicalsound-modifying devices; it is howeveraccepted that experimentationwith amplificationtechniques is practicedin all musicalgenres. In my own practiceI tend to be pragmatic,by choiceI would alwaysprefer to play in a complimentary acoustic space using a microphone as necessary,but when performingin a spacewhich is often designedas a multi-functionalarea with a poor acoustic response,or, faced with a challenging non-attentive audience, I will use a piezo transducer pick-up amplified through a p.a. system or a designated acoustic-

guitar amplifier. However,when recording,I alwaysrecord the natural soundof the

in best guitar the acoustic spaceavailable -a room with some reflective floor is heavily surfacesand one which not too dulled by soft furnishings- the soundof

p.67 this 'space' will then be enhancedor correctedwith the application of a small 115 amount of equalisation.

Whenconsidering acoustic instrument practice, it is necessaryto considernot

only the sonic characteristicsof an instrumentand the, often complex, interactions

with a performanceenvironment, but the cultural associationsof acousticmusic and

its practice.To this end the neologism'acousticity' becomesuseful as a signifier of

not just sonic characteristicsbut attached cultural and ideological values. As

discussed in chapter 1, the term acoustic often points to ideas of authenticity,

naturalnessand purity, and could be seen as a binary opposite to the rational and

mediated technological world, but it is also loaded with its own ideological

significance, ideas and or mythologies. Peter NarvAez comments:

during folk boom, ..the myth of acousticity,which was embraced the attaches

ideological signifieds to the acousticguitar, making it a democraticvehicle

vis-A-visthe sonicauthoritarianism of electric instruments.116

The descriptoracoustic, being unnecessaryuntil the advent of the electric guitar

pick-up,is sometimesused as a relationalterm to differentiatebetween the valuesof

a traditional 'folk' and 'mass' technologicalcultures and mobilised in favour of

particular ideological discourses.Acousticity, is often valued for what it isn't, a

commercialproduct of an industrialisedand corporatemodemity, and representsa

115 A term usedto describethe additiveor subtractivefiltering of soundfrequencies, in effecta tone control.The nameis derivedfrom early recordingpractice, where tonal manipulationwas intendedto makethe recordingsound 'equal' to the real instrument. 116 Narvdez,Peter, 'Unplugged: Blues Guitarists and The Myth of Acousticty' in Bennet,Andy andDawe, Kevin (eds.), Guitar Cultures(Oxford andNew York: Berg,2001), 27.

p. 68 reactionary stance to the modernised world; ignoring the obvious paradox that acoustic instruments are equally the product of mass production and consumerism.

Whilst the instrumentis valuedfor its sonic and performancecharacteristics (which shall be discussedin chapter 3) it has developed,in some areas of music, a mythological status and become a signifier for an organic community and a naturalnessthat perhapsnever existed,as the very design and constructionof the instrumenthas alwaysreflected the prevalenttechnology of the time, the techniques of industrial manufacture and systems of commercial distribution; instrumentalists andmanufacturers have always tried to makeit louder.In addition, it offers a further articulation with high-art traditions as the nylon-strung variant of the acoustic guitar, is perceptively articulated with classical music and an implied cultural authority.

Eventhe electric guitar, which was often treatedwith equivocaldistrust and defined by its associationwith popular music, has made forays into art music with John

Williams in the classical/popular cross over band Sky and in Steve Reich's Electric

Counterpoint, but the combination is experimental and marginalised by the

'classical' acousticguitar - the nylon-strunginstrument associated with 'classical' 117 performance- which maintainsa cultural and artistic hegemony. The electro- acousticguitar has helped to bridge the divisions of tradition and modernity and achievea spectaculardouble articulation in uniting an instrumentof the classicaland high-art traditions with contemporary forms of jazz, rock and world music. This articulationof 'art' valuescan be witnessedin the work of specific performers,for example,Ralph Towner who combinesclassical and steel-stringacoustic guitar with jazz and rock, and the acousticguitar trio of John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and

PacoDe Lucia who combinedflamenco, jazz and rock influences;McLaughlin, Di

117Reich, Steve, Different Trains & Electric Counterpoint(Elektra Nonesuch79176-

p.69 Meola both used electro-acousticnylon-strung guitars -a modem version of the 118 'classical' guitar. However, the flat-top steel-strung acoustic guitar has largely beenomitted from 'serious' musictraditions and as thereare no practicalreasons for this omission,one can only assumethat it is its intrinsic associationwith popular forms of music that have precludedit from a wider range of inclusion. However, theseassociations are being challenged,Martyn Harry, a composerwith recognised credentials,was commissionedby the Arts Council of Englandin 2003,to compose a piece of music for The Jazz Guitar Duo (James Birkett and Rod Sinclair), to be perfonned on two flat-top, steel-strung acoustic guitars - an usual departure from the oft favoured classical-guitar-duo. 119

Concepts of acousticity also extend to the processof recording, wherein there is an assumedhierarchy of authenticity that is directly derived from the performers degreeof interactionwith recordingtechnology, in descendingorder they are, live- recording, single-take recording then multi-track recording. The live recording is assumedto be the most authentic,as it is untaintedby technology,and the multi- track recording the least authentic- some recordings carry a statement,as a declarationof authenticity,to declarethat the whole recordingwas completedlive and without overdubs.Again, it is the unadornednatural acousticexperience that is valued,however as it is throughtechnology that we most often experiencemusic, as recordings or broadcasts, it is important to consider the prevalent recording and distribution technologyextant at the beginningof the 21s'century - digitisation.

2,1987). 118Towner, Ralph, Solstice (ECM 1060,1975).

McLaughlin,John, DiMeola, Al and De Lucia, Paco,Passion Grace andFire (West Germany:Philips, 811334-2,1983). 119Harry, Martyn, Grace(Unpublished, 2003).

p. 70 2.3 Digital Recording and its impact on the practices of the acoustic

performer.

For digital recording or performance to take place, the sonic qualities of an acoustic instrumentmust be coded into a digital language(binary code), once encodedthe digitised signal can be manipulatedand reproducedwithout any degradationof soundquality. The ability to produceclones of the original, ratherthan copies,is in itself an evolutionary step as digital recording produces an artefact which can be endlesslyduplicated, edited and imported into other digital domains;not a fixed immutableobject, but a creationin an eternalprocess of development- this point is crucial and will be examined later. Audio/digital conversion can take place in two distinct ways, firstly, the conversion of an audio sound wave into a digital waveform

-a digitisedreplica of the original sonic qualities,and secondly,the conversionof an electrical signal into a MIDI message-a digital code which records no audio 120 characteristicsbut can be usedto sendmidi-messages to other musical devices.

To convert the 'acoustic' sound of the instrumentinto a digital code, the sound pressurewave created by the vibration of a string and amplified through the soundboardof the guitar must be convertedinto an electrical current. In the first example,conversion takes place when a changein air pressureis detectedby the diaphragm of a microphone, or the vibration of a surface is detected by a vibration sensitive'piezo crystal' transducerand the resultantelectrical current is converted by a DAC (digital audio converter)into a binary code.The processof convertingthe

string vibration into a digital code retainsthe performanceand sonic characteristics

120MIDI: Musical InstrumentDigital Interface,a systemof communicationwhich enablesdigital musicalsystems to interact.

p.71 of the instrument,but in a form mediatedby the microphoneor pick-up system.In the second method, the vibration of the string over a digital pick-up produces an electricalcurrent, which is then convertedinto a binary encodedmidi-signal. The midi signal retains most of the performancecharacteristics but none of the sonic qualities; insteadit createsa sequenceof midi-information that via the universal systemof MIDI providesan interfacewith other midi-sound generators.The midi pick-up offers the acousticguitar player the ability to control other digital sound

sources,to trigger audio samplesin real time and/orto recordmidi informationinto

sequencesof events that can be edited and played back on demand. Most

importantly,both systemsof digital recording,the digital audio waveform and the

midi message,produce a coded system that can be infinitely edited and reproduced,

and this characteristicis crucial to an understandingof the effect of digitisation on

the recordingof the acousticguitar.

Digital recording systems offer a recording medium that is sonically

transparent(free of distortion),accurate in its reproductionof soundsources and free

of inherent noise. Whilst advocatesof analogue recording argue that digital

recordinglacks the warmth of analoguesystems, most recording engineerswould

agreethat contemporarydigital systems,operating at a samplerate of 92 kHz andbit 121 depthof 24 bits, are comparablein their quality of reproductionto analoguetape.

However where digital technology is inferior to analogue recording is in the

replication of very quiet sounds:as the sound level reducesthere is insufficient

informationfor the digital convertersto recognise,to compensatefor the lack of this

sonic information, 'dithering' is appliedto the soundsource -a low level noiseis

121 92000samples per second,with eachsample consisting of around 16 million 'slices' of information.

72 mixed with the audio signal to increasethe information to be processed.Some audiophilesclaim to be able to hearthis deficiency,when for example,an acoustic guitar string is playedwith the nail and finger tip, the soft 'fleshy' soundof the note is lost on digital systems.Personally, I'm not awareof this deficiencyand consider that as the specification of digital systems is developing rapidly, any perceived lack will be eradicated.Another definitive difference between analogueand digital recording,is the ability for analoguerecording systems to toleratepeaks in dynamic level: where it is common practice in analoguerecording to record some instruments

'hot' to tape - ignoring dynamic signal peaks - signal distortion is generally not audibleand the result is a denserperceptibly louder sound, whereas, if digital signals are allowed to run 'hot' the result is an audibly unpleasantdigital clipping.

Digital technology is less tolerant of dynamic variations, therefore the source signal needsto be processedto achievethe naturallimiting effect of analoguetape and this may be one reasonwhy digital recording is consideredby some audiophiles to sound

122 4cold'. Whilst debatemay continuein relation to the comparativeaudio qualities of both systemsand definable differencesdo exist, the most profound effect of digital technologyhas been on working methodsand in creativepractice.

The convergenceof the acoustic instrument with the technologicalworld

exacts a symbolic articulation in locating the visceral organic practice of the

musicianinto an electronicallycoded world -a nexus of invisible connections,

potentiallylimitless manipulationof sonic landscapes,timbre and interactivitywith

othermedia. Philosophically, digitisation engages cultural notionsof acousticityin a

situation of potential conflict, paradoxically,it is digital recording that offers the

potential to capture more of the instrumentsacoustic qualities in real acoustic

p.73 environments. It is increasingly digital technology and the reproduction, or simulation, of an acoustic instrument in natural or simulated environmentsthat enablesus to accessand enjoy 'acoustic' performance.Where electrically amplified musictranscends space - the fact that it is amplified determinesthat it may or may not owe someof its characterto a particularacoustic space - acousticmusic relies on real or simulatedacoustic environments. The portability of high quality digital recordingequipment, allows the flexibility to record in almost any location,and to make use of the natural resonance of particular spaces. However, the distinction betweenreal and virtual spacesis becoming increasinglyblurred as convolution technology - the sampling and re-creation of real acoustic environments - can be applied to any recording to create the illusion of a real space,and in so doing, merge the real and the imaginary.

But to what extent is the naturalisedacoustic experience desirable and how

often does it really exist? Not withstanding the increasing availability of high

definition recordingsof the acousticguitar, the truly acousticexperience is rare, as

our perception of acousticity is mediated through amplification systems and

recording.It is more likely that most listenerswill experiencethe acousticguitar

throughrecordings rather than in real environmentsand as the contemporarylistener

hasbecome so accustomedto hearingthe instrumentenhanced in a recording,there

is live an expectation that the performer will recreatethe recorded sound - the live

performancepoints to the recording. With the exception of the performers of

traditional and roots music, who in taking an 'anti-modernist stance' will use

technologyonly where absolutelyessential, most acousticguitar performerstacitly

122 A compressoror limiter canbe usedto electronicallyreduce the dynamicpeaks ofsound.

74 acceptan interface with technology and many openly engagewith the opportunity to sonically manipulate sound. Adrian Legg comments:

Although we may look fondly on the simple acousticinstrument, and while it

still hasa sweetlittle voice, the mechanicaland technical opportunities offered

by this constantlyevolving instrumentare there to be enjoyedby any artist

who wantsa broaderpalette 123

Legg choosesto supplantthe soundprocessing possibilities of the recordingstudio

onto the live acoustic guitar and uses an intricate array of signal processors to

produce a simulated and enhanced live acoustic sound, not always an amplified

'acoustic'sound.

Reviewing the contemporary market of electro-acoustic guitars, acoustic-guitar

simulatorsand soundprocessors, reveals a plethoraof soundmodifying devicesand

purposebuilt electro-acousticinstruments that claim to reproducea true acoustic

effect but more often recreate an enhanced supra-acoustic sound. The ability of

digital technologyto createillusions of the real by simulatingacoustic environments

and manipulating recorded sound, concords with Jean Baudrillard's ideas of

simulacraand hyperreality, 'the real without origin or reality'.124 Music in the

twentiethcentury is predominatelyexperienced as simulacra,an illusion of the real,

disassociatedfrom a performancein the presenceof the receiver and accessed

through reproduction technology. Having been accultured by 80 years of commercial

recordingand broadcastinghowever, the majority readily acceptrecorded music and

enhancedlive performanceas the real experience.

123www. adrianlegg. com/press_page. htm. (10.5.07)

p.75 Whilst the technicalcharacteristics of digital recording can be considered objectively,the nature of the interface and the working methodologiesof digital technology are not neutral, they privilege particular working practices. As well as

beingused to replicateacoustic instruments and their environment,sound recording techniquesand soundprocessing are usedto alter and/orenhance the original sound,

evenif this is as subtleand non-invasiveas the addition of ambientreverb. Michael

Channonrefers to ways in which 'recordinghas transformed music by changingthe 125 experience of the ear.' This is significant in the history of recording where the

intent of recordinghas moved from the desireto expressthe real to the recording

expressing the technology. Compared to vinyl records and analogue hi-fi systems,

which relied on a scrupulous maintenanceof the records and equipment to maintain

a high quality of replication, digitised music recordings and playback systems are

very cheapand most householdshave accessto high quality audio reproduction.

Therefore there is an expectation that digital recordings will possessenhanced sonic

qualities,clarity, separationof sound sources,and an enhancedtonal palette.This

privileging of the sonicqualities of digital soundhas affected the way that we listen,

the technology is as apparentas the music and may herald a new aestheticof

listening,an aestheticof productionvalues, a re-focussingof the attentionon the

processrather than product. I am very consciousin the production of my own

recordings that they will be listened to by contemporarieswhose listening experience

is attunedto contemporarystandards of recordingand who will make comparisons

124Baudrillard, Jean, The Precessionof Simulacrain Storey,John (ed.), Cultural Theoryand Popular Culture:A Reader(New York: Harvester-Wheatsheaf,199 8), 350. 125 Channan,Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),9.

76 andjudgements, overtly or covertly, in relation to contemporarystandards - they will be listening to the technology.

2.4 Digitisation and Practice

Recentyears have seenthe re-releaseof many historical and eclectic recordings,

yearsafter their deletion from record companycatalogues, and this is the result of

digital reproduction and the change of format from vinyl records to CD which has

made the issue of small numbersof recordingsfinancially viable. However this

transition into the digital domain is not without detractorsas the sonic qualitiesof

material transferred from analogue to digital recordings is often altered; it was

common practice during analogue recording to mask the inherent 'tape hiss' of

recordingsby boosting the higher frequencies,when transferredto CD, they can

sound harsh and unpleasant: The Guitar Player Plus by Davy Graham suffers form 126 this effect. It is howeverthrough access to thesereadily availablematerials that 1,

like manyothers, have been able to experiencean aural history of guitar playing and

in so doing gain a greaterinsight into the developmentalpath of the guitar. Indeed

the compilationof researchmaterials for this PhD is indebtedto the availability of

theserecordings.

Historic 'field' recordings,such as thosecreated by John and Alan Lomax,

form a substantialpart of the aural history of America's folk musics.127 They were

recordedusing portable equipment which produced easily damagedglass-based

126 Graham,Davy, TheGuitar Player Plus - Davy Graham(See for Miles Records Ltd., SEEM 351,1963). 127Lomax, Alan, TheLand "ere BluesBegan (New York: The New Press,1993).

p.77 acetaterecords and the fact that they lost several seminal recordingsof Muddy

Waterswhen the originals, as copieswere not possible,shattered whilst travelling along bumpy roads, is testimony to the precariousnature of this early recording media.Whilst digital recordingis far from fool proof, it is now possibleto produce field recordingswhich can be immediatelyreplicated in other media,electronically deliveredto any global location and stored indefinitely; in so doing a substantial aural history is being amassedfor future generations.If it is through the ability of technology to store information for reuse that knowledge evolves and endures,then digitisation has produced a plethora of recorded music and the potential for future archivesand researchopportunities is enormous. Michael Foucault's notion that books function 'node [a] be as a within a network... network of references',could also applied to the textual world of music, where recordings function within a digital world as nodesof referenceto the entire history of recordedguitar music - an eternal ahistorical present. 128Jonathan Kramer refers to 'the blurring of the distinctionbetween past and present,'129 if all of the history of guitar music exists simultaneously,synchronically and diachronically,then the characteristicsof this music and musical referents become freely interchangeable.The effect of this plurality and diversity can be experiencedin the work of several performers includingAntonio Forcione,a guitaristwho freely mobilisesa wide rangeof styles and modes of performancethat draw from historically and culturally diverse

128 Foucault, Michel, The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. Sheridan Smith, A. M., (New York: Harper Colophon, 1976), 23.

129Kramer, Jonathan D., 'The nature and origins in musical postmodernism' in Lochead, Joseph and Auner, Judy (eds.), Postmodern Music and Postmodern Thought (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 2 1.

78 jazz. 130Asa referents- for example African music and European Gypsy practicing musicianI can seethis reflectedin my own work andthis will be discussedlater.

The impact of digital recording technology with its added clarity and sensitivityto low volume levelshas exertedits own influenceon performancestyle.

Performersfrom the first half of the 20th century, in an attempt to project the relatively low volume of the guitar, played instrumentswhich were strung with heavy-gaugestrings and pluckedwith heavygauge plectrums or fingerpicks.Apart from revivalist styles, this technique of playing has diminished in popularity (and necessity)to be replaced by a consensusthat unless replicating historical styles, it is moreefficient and effectiveto play with a softerattack. Digital recordingallows the recording of acoustic instruments at very low volume levels and in any environment, therefore, the subtle nuancesof performance can be easily captured and performers can play without restrictions.This has encouragedexperimentation in performance techniquesand the supplanting of electric guitar techniques such as fret-tapping and flamboyantstring bendingonto the acousticguitar. 131

The early history of soundrecording is characterisedby recordingsystems that were capableof capturinga single performance,the selected'take' was immutable and fixed in time, a singularrecord of an actualevent, music was experiencedas a whole, a completeentity, the performerwho was in the presenceof the listener(s) played complete pieces and a coherent repertoire. It was not until the development of magnetictape recordingand later multi-track recordingthat a finished recording

- producedsometimes after severaltakes - could be edited to producea final

130 Forcione, Antonio, Tears ofJoy (UK: Naim, CD087,2005). 131 King, Kaki, Legs To Make Us Longer (USA: Red Ink, WK92426,2004).

p.79 version.132 Editing was achievedthrough either the recordingengineer cutting the tapeand reattachingthe cut endswith adhesivetape, or different 'takes' on parallel tracksbeing compiledto createa finished recording. The ability to edit, after the recordinghad taken place, changedthe natureof recordingpractice forever as the final composite recording was not necessarily an actual record of a musical performance,it could be a compositeof severalrecordings. With the developmentof digital recording systemsthe transition from a relatively crude editing system, although very effective in skilled hands, to a system with almost limitless flexibility was achieved.In such a recordingenvironment where technical perfectioncan be achievedthrough a combinationof repeatedperformance and editing, it is useful to consider how the pursuit of 'perfection' affects the practice of the performer.

Michael Channan in Repeated Takes talks of Busoni complaining about 'the strain andartificiality of recording' and the 'brutal objectivity of the microphone',this is a feeling common to most recording musicians as the pressureto perform quickly and accuratelyis acute.133 To some degreethis can be alleviated when using digital recordingequipment as the opportunitiesfor multiple takes and editing after the eventare limited only by the storagecapacity of the recordingmedia, the processing power of the recording systemand the patienceof the producer.The atmosphere createdduring live performancethat encouragesthe performer to play 'in the moment' and take greater musical risks with expression and improvisation, can be reinstatedby the knowledgethat inaccuraciesin the initial recordingcan be easily removedand severalrecording takes can be edited togetherto producea finished recording.

132 The recordingtape could be erasedand a new recordingmade on the sametape. 133 Channan,Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),127.

p. 80 Audio waveformscan be edited down to the resolution of individual audio samples,for examplea seriesof demi-semi-quaversplayed at 300 beatsper minute

(a substantialmusical achievementfor any performer)would produce32 slices of information in one second,a digital recordingsystem running at a samplerate of

96kHz produces 96,000 samples per second, therefore each note would be sampled

600 times.134 This fragmentation of the musical performance (a concept of postmodernism)has become more exaggeratedwith digital systems, as any recording can be edited down to a resolution of one sample, copied, and reordered.

The option to edit after recording allows, often encourages,the musician, engineer and producerto constructand edit new and existing work, to montagepreviously recorded material, manipulate the sonic qualities of recordings and to edit and rearrangemidi information.Michael Channanrefers to how 'music,becomes more and more fragmented1135 and this is evident not only the editing of previously recorded material, but in recording studio practice, musicians often restricted by financial and time constraintsare encouragedto use editing to saveon studio and sessionfees. Editing is part of the recordingprocess and not an adjunct to it and thereforehas a direct effect on the performancepractice of musicians:in some circumstanceit is only necessaryto accuratelyrecord 'chunks' of music which can then be collated into a manufacturedwhole. 136 The very availability of editing functions demandsthat they be used; editing has becomeenmeshed in the very

134 Digital recording systems 'sample' an audio waveform at various sample rates from 44.1 kHz ranging -44100 samples a second, to 192 kHz -192,000 samples persecond. 135 Channan,Michael, RepeatedTakes (London and New York: Verso, 1995), 155. 136 In some cases single notes, chords or percussive strikes are recorded and re- assembledlater into musical sequences.

p.81 fabric of the recording process.Although this techniqueof recording is used by musiciansacross the full spectrum of ability the approachdoes mean that an inexperiencedplayer can avoid the difficulty of executingparticular difficult pieces in favour of constructingthem from a series of smaller segments.Recording's original purpose- to capturewhat is real, hasbeen transformed into a processthat is more frequentlyemployed to embellishor in somecases sanitise the real. Editing andmanipulation of previouslyrecorded material is not only a processof correction, but a creative tool. The musician in some casesbecomes a donor, offering musical ideasthat canbe renegotiatedto sucha degreethat they bare little relationshipto the original material.No longer is the finishedrecording an immutableartefact, a fixed

'record' of an actual musical event, the digital encoding of the recording, the very digitisation and conversion of musical waveforms into a binary code produces a work which can be endlesslyreused and reworked.There are parallelsto be drawn with Roland Barthes use of the word 'scriptor' as an alternative to author in

describingone who assemblestexts, from which the readerderives meaning - the

reader in this case refers to the music producer/composer. A recording is not

necessarilyfixed within a particularcontext with a singularfunction and meaning,it

137 is always available for reassemblyand the creation of new meaning. This is

particularly evident in the use of musical samples,where previously recorded

materialcan be reusedand reworked.The very essenceof music is derived from a

processof fragmentationand a reductionto an editabledigital code.

I haveapproached the recordingof the PhD portfolio with an awarenessof the

editablefunctions of digital recordingand this hashad a direct effect on my working

methodology,in some cases I have used a 'click track' to enable multi-track

137 Barthes,Roland, Image, Music and Text(London: Fonatana/Collins, 1977).

p. 82 recordingto take place and in others I have recordedmusic live - the particular working modalities are discussedin more detail later. Accepting that editing is part of the recording process places particular strictures on the performer, the most ubiquitousbeing the use of 'click track' when constructedmusical eventsare to be edited together.138 It requires a very experienced musician to play with expression and accuracyto a click-track and this can greatly affect the natureof the recorded music. Spontaneityis sometimesrestricted in favour of achieving metronomic accuracy, and fluctuations in tempo, diminuendo and accelerando, all natural processesof performance,have to be electronicallyprogrammed and 'quantised'to maintain consistencyand accuracy.139 As audio editing programmesare becoming more sophisticated the ability to alter the position and length of an audio signal, to time-stretch musical sections - increasing and decreasing tempi - to 'auto-tune" andcorrect the pitch of notesand to alter the timbre of singleor multiple notes,have also become editable functions. 140In my own work I am aware that becauseof time constraints(high calibreprofessional musicians are busy people)I may only need,in someinstances, one good recordedpassage of a specific musical phrase;I can then reassembleand reusethe materialin any way I choose.Corrective editing to timing and pitch errors can be usedto correct inaccuraciesof performanceand this I have applied as necessary- experiencedmusicians are aware of this and not

138 The 'click track' is a metronomicpulse that producesa 'click' at a predetermined tempo.Each recording needs to be madeusing the click track as a timing guide. 139 The processof automaticallylocking recordednotes to a pre-determinedgrid. 139 Melodynesoftware, manufactured by Celemony,enables the editing of audio pitch, length,and timbre.

p.83 uncomfortablewith the process,although, trust in the produceris paramountand a certaindiscretion is essential.

The domestication and institutionalisation of recording facilities is democratisingas there are more studios in domestic homes and educational institutionsthen thereare professionalcommercial studios; this allows the luxury of time and lack of financial imperativesthat until recentlywere the preserveof major performersand record companies.It is possible to set up a high quality digital recording system for around E5,000 compared to between E30,000 to E50,000 for a comparableanalogue system ten years ago; the differences between professional and amateur studios are becoming less distinct, with the result that professional recording studios are being squeezedout of a competitive market in which amateur, semi-professional and professional are capable of creating high quality recordings.

Although professional recording studios often have the advantage of acoustically designedrecording rooms, esoteric and specialist equipment, and experienced staff, the availability of professionalquality equipmentat affordableprices, aligned with the portability of lap-top computers- making recordingpossible in any space- and the expandingmarket in recordingtuition books and magazines,has createda thriving cottageindustry. Information and communicationis increasinglydistributed through the internet and anyone with the necessarysoftware, hardware and a sufficiently fast internet connection can participate within a global, international musical community. The performer through new modes of communicationcan dissolve barriers of geographyand interchangedigital-audio files in cyber-space.

With proprietary software CubaseRocket and ejamming, subscriberscan book a virtual studio spaceand collaboratewith others in the production of music, and throughDigital-Delivery and YouSendlt,digital audio files can be transferredto any

84 location.141 The recordingprocess I undertookin producinga recentcommercial CD illustratesthe degreeto which boundariesof time and location havebeen dissolved by digital technology. One song was recorded in five different locations, four in the

UK and a vocal performanceby internationalartiste Sting that was recordedin

Tuscany, Italy. The recording was produced on a range of digital recording systems andrecorded in spacesranging from a domesticgarage to a million poundrecording studio.The working tracks and finishedmix were then transmittedthrough Digital delivery to various parts of the world including the USA and Italy. 142

- The Effect of Digital Recording on My Practice

During the last twelve years, in addition to producing and performing on other

commercial recordings, I have been involved in three substantial acoustic-guitar

recordingprojects whose time span,1995-2007, has beenconcurrent with a general

movement from analogue to digital recording and it is useful to reflect on the

substantialimpact that this hashad in establishingmy own working practice:project

#1 -a commissionby an internationalguitar magazineto transcribeand recorda

series of 'classic' acoustic-guitar pieces;143 project #2: the production of a CD, The 144 JazzGuitar Duo, for commercialrelease, which includednew recordingsof some

of the earliestrecorded guitar-duets (transcribed and re-recorded)and a composition

141 Cubase Rocket by Steinberg Media Technologies is a proprietary 'cyber' studio in which subscriberscan book time and work on collaborative recordings. Ejamming offers subscribersthe possibility to play in real-time with other performers acrossan intemect connection. www. ejamming.com 142Richardson, Gerry, This "at WeDo (Jazz Action, JAI 0,2007). 143Total Guitar Magazine Issues#3-30 (Bath: Future Publishing. February 1995-Mayl997).

p.85 145 commission 'The Suite for Two Guitars'; and project #3: The PhD portfolio - the recording of a range of compositions for the acoustic guitar.

Project #l: (1995-1997), was produced using analogue recording equipment andtechniques. The original tracks,which were recordedon vinyl disc or CD, were transcribedby firstly recordingthem onto analoguetape, slowing down the playback speedto determinesome of the more denselydetailed sections - which resultedin a lowering of the playback pitch, identifying aurally the musical rhythms and pitches, transposing them back into the original key, notating the parts by hand,

learning the parts on the guitar and re-recording the track in the appropriate style. To

ensureaccuracy and the right 'feel', the original tracks were recordedonto two-

tracks of a multi-track analogue tape recorder (if originally recorded in stereo) and

the new parts were recorded on to two additional parallel tracks. When the playing

was sufficiently accurateand all of the original inflections recreated- through a

long arduous process of rehearsaland repetition - the new recording was mixed to 146 DAT and subsequentlytransferred by the publishing companyto a finished CD.

This linear process of recording relied upon traditional working methods of

transcription,notation, rehearsal and recording.

Project#2: The recordingof the JazzGuitar Duo: this was the first substantial

projectthat I undertookusing digital technologyand as my experienceof the process

was new the working methods were also experimental. After an initial attempt using

analoguetape, it was decidedthat becauseof the limited time available,the whole

144Birkett, Jamesand Sinclair,Rod, TheJazz Guitar Duo (JPC 102,2000). 145 Commissionedby: The Arts Council of England,The MusiciansUnion, The Universityof Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,Music Dept.,Jazz Action andAshley Marks Publishing. 146DAT: Digital Audio Tape

86 processwould make use of all of the available working methods offered by computer based digital recording, particularly the ability to edit. The system used was CubaseVST recording software installed on a Power Apple Mac computer, equippedwith a YamahaDSP sound card which provided an analogueto digital conversion resolution of 16bit/44.IkHz - considerably lower than 24bit/96kHz

#3 147 The resolution used when recording project . whole process was experimental and developedas the work proceeded,the methodof transcriptionand notationwas the same as project #1, but the compilation of the recording was substantially different. An effective recording methodologydeveloped: each piece would be

constructedin sections,each sectionwould be played along with a click-track, at

least three times, and the final section would then be a composite of the three

'takes', created by cutting and pasting selected sections together. Any inaccurately

pickednotes or omissions,would be addedon anotherparallel track and mixed into

the final master track. This proved to be an efficient method of recording and one

that producedan accuratelyexecuted performance, but subjectivelylacks a degreeof

spontaneityand the natural variation in tempo that would be expectedin music

performance.This can be illustrated by comparingthe original and the recreated

recordingof the samepiece - 'Stagefright, the first recordedin 1934by Dick Mc

Donoughand Carl Kress (CD #5/track #2) and the secondrecorded in 2000 by

147Cubase VST: proprietaryaudio-recording and midi sequencersoftware manufacturedby SteinbergMedia Industries. A samplerate of 44.1kHz produces44100 samples of soundper second,whereas, a samplerate of 96 kHz, produces96000 samples per second,each of thesesamples containsa quantityof informationdetermined by the bit depthof the file, a 16 bit file sampleconsists of around64000 'slices' of informationwhilst a 24 bit file consistsof around16 million 'slices' of information.

p.87 JamesBirkett and Rod Sinclair (CD #5/track #1). 148The first recording was carried out on early electrical recording equipment, which at the time was a great improvementon the results of early acousticrecording methods. An immediately obviousdifference in the audio quality of the tracks is the presenceof background noiseon track #2 andthe absenceof residualnoise on track # 1. The level of surface noiseon the original vinyl recordingcannot be quantifiedas this recordingis taken from a re issuedCD, but an assumptionis made that it is similar to that on the reference recording. Certainly on this recording the surface noise is substantial and amountsto approximately30% of the overall volume of the track, whereason track 149 #1 there is no audible backgroundnoise. The frequencyspectrum of the two tracks is also noticeably different and a fairly crude but indicative analysis was carried out using a frequency analyser: track #2 is mostly between 25OHz-4kHz

frequencies peaking at 50OHz, with a noticeable drop above 4KHz - most of the above 4kHz appearto be tape hiss; track #1 is mostly between 80Hz-16Khz with an evenresponse between 250Hz and lK. This largevariation in the frequencyrange of the recordingsis to be expectedas early electrical recordingwas only capableof

capturing frequencies up to approximately lOkHz'50 Track #2 exhibits a

considerabledegree of wow and flutter, which is indicative of the recordinghaving

beenrecorded or playedon equipmentthat ran at an uneventempo, whereas track #I

148 McDonnough, Dick and Kress, Carl, 'Stagefright' The Pioneers of The Jazz Guitar (Yazoo Records, 1057,1928), and Birkett, Jamesand Sinclair, Rod, The Jazz Guitar Duo (UK: JPC102,2000). 149 The level of background noise evident in the original recording was detennined by readings from a VU meter on the playback system. 150 Multi-meter is a Logic Pro 7 plug-in module, which is designed to analysethe frequency spectrum of a recording.

P.88 151 exhibits no audible variation. Track #2 is recorded in mono and #1 in stereo: this hasa profoundeffect on the effectivenessof the musicalarrangement, in fact, when mixing track #1 it was noticeable how panning the guitars in stereo had the immediateeffect of making the instrumentssound more isolatedand less unified than the original. As a result it was felt necessaryto use a narrow stereo-pan-width, comparedto modem productionmethods, to maintain a senseof unity. Becauseof the mono recordingon track #2 and the fact that the two instrumentswere probably recorded on one microphone, it is harder to differentiate between the two instrumentsthan on track #1, which was recordedusing two microphonesonto two separatetracks. Track #2 is noticeably faster than track #I and the tempo is much more variable, this is probably the result of track #1 being recorded to a click-track and the resultant mathematical averaging of the tempo, whilst track #2 was played in a much freer manner.The synthesisedreverb used on track #1 is evident,probably due to the lack of background noise, whereas any reverb on the original recording hasbeen masked by a high-level of surfacenoise. The choiceto use flat-top guitars ratherthan cello guitars,as on the original recording,greatly affects the tonal palette as cello guitars tend to emphasisthe middle frequenciesand this could partially accountfor the reducedfrequency range of the original recordings.The picking style on track #2 is very precisebut deliveredwith a somewhatstiff, almost mechanical articulation that is very much in keeping with the performance style of the era.

Whilst this type of mechanisticanalysis may seemto be contrived and be in dangerof stating the obvious, it is an indicator of how the medium and working

151 Wow and flutter: the terminology used to describe the effect produced when a magnetic tape recorder runs at an uneven speedand createsnoticeable, although often minor, fluctuationsin pitch.

p.89 methodshave impactedon musical interpretationand performancestyle. Whereas the reduceddynamic range of the original recordings- the ratio of the loudest soundsto the softest- restrict the musician's 'expressivecompass' as musicians are requiredto play loudly and restrict the use of softer dynamics,the resultant clarity of digital recording systemswill capture sound over a wide dynamic level. In addition,dense harmonies and polyphoniclines are more distinguishable,nuance in performancetechniques more easily expressed,subtleties in tonal variations achieved,the character of instruments and individual musical lines more identifiable and the spatial placement of instruments more accurately reproduced. 152Perhaps the greatestsurprise was the degree to which transferring a performance from mono to stereo recording had such a dramatic effect on the musical integrity of an arrangementand as such is a useful point to consider when writing and recording duetsfor two similar instruments.

Project #3, which was bom from a desire to further explore, through processes of composition,performance and recording,the musical characterof the acoustic guitar andwas stimulatedby the experienceof the first two projects.The work fully utilises the integrationof digital technologiesinto the creative processand makes full use of the inter-textualand convergentmodes of practicethat make it possible

for an individual to functionas an independentpractitioner and producer.The role of the independentproducer is a direct reflection of the democratisingeffect of digitisation, as artists, being freed from the financial and technical restrictionsof analoguesystems, can singularlyor in small groupstake on multiple creativeroles.

The fact that my role is multi-functional, I function as performer, Composer,

engineerand producer,enables me to fully shapeand control the creativeprocess, I

152 Channan,Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),68.

P.90 can record music at any time, in any location, and have full jurisdiction over all aspectsof the work; it is arguablethat a substantialelement of the characterof the musicis determinedby the chosenmodus operandi.

The digital tools employedare Sibeliusnotational software and Logic Pro 7

audio and midi-sequencing software, installed on two Apple Macintosh computers,a

laptop and a G5 tower.153 1 have madefull use of the interactiveand inter-textual

functions of digital technology (notational and audio) and adopted working

methodologies which allow ease of use, almost infinite flexibility of editing at all

stages of creation, are responsive to different modes of working and can quickly

capturemusical ideasfor later development.The use of notationaland audio/midi

software are central to my own practice and as score writing and recording are

becoming closer together exert an increasing effect on the compositional process.

Notatedscores can be exportedas midi-files and to somedegree audio recordings

can be converted into a score, the user can edit a score by adding and removing

material in 'real-time' and 'step-time' and by importing 'midi files' from other 154 programmes. Unlike the linear working methods of analogue recording, digital

systemsoffer a non-linear approachwhere any part of the work can be accessedin a

non-sequentialmode. This free-flowing digital material could be consideredas

similar to 'hypertext', a term coinedby TheodorH. Nelson in the 1960sto describe

trionsequentialwriting', wherethe readercan accessand traverse information by any

route of their choice; in this casethe writer (composer/performer)can accessand

153 Sibelius;proprietary notation software produced byAvid Technologies.Logic Pro 7: proprietaryaudio and midi-sequencing software produced by EMagic. 154 Midi-files containsequenced midi informationthat can be convertedinto notation- howeversubstantial editing is usuallyrequired to convertthis informationinto a useablescore.

P.91 manipulateall of the digitally stored information - audio files, midi-files and digitised scores- and combine/separateand edit them in almost limitless ways. 155

The sheer flexibility and multi-textuality of the process allows systems of composition and arrangementwhich embraceboth aural (organic) and textual

(academic)traditions, the notationaly literate and illiterate musician can use the samesoftware to create musical compositions,inputting sequencesof notes and chordsthrough a MIDI compatibledevice, a midi-guitar pick-up and/orby 'hand' in a conventional scholarly manner.156 Whilst inputting material by hand is more accurate, software packages are becoming more 'intelligent' in quantising the rhythmicvariants of real-timeperformance and are able to produce,within limits, a readablescore.

In creating the compositions I have consciously adopted two distinct approaches,the scholarlynotated tradition andthe organicimprovised tradition. The first approach involves developing musical ideas by writing conventional scores using notational software and this has the substantial advantageover written notationthat it can be playedback and monitoredthrough a MIDI playbacksystem.

Sometimesthe musical ideashave been written directly to the score,at other times,

musicalideas developed on the guitar havebeen transcribed and addedto the score;

an interactiveand intuitive approachwhere one method doesn't take precedence

over the other. Whena compositionand arrangementis substantiallydeveloped, the

scoreis exportedfrom Sibeliusas a midi-file and importedinto Logic Pro, usingthe

midi-file and a click track as a template,acoustic instruments are then recordedlive.

155 Nelson, Theodor, quoted in Landlow, George, 'Hypertext and critical theory' in Trend, David, (ed.), Reading Digital Culture (Malden, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell,2001), 100.

p. 92 Substantial editing to the score will then take place to reflect the performance elements that become apparent when the composition is realised. Where musicians have been employed to play specific parts and the performance idiolect of particular

playerssuggest new ideasand approaches,these can be easily accommodatedinto the emergingarrangement. These edits arethen worked on in the notatedscore and

the processtransfers backwards and forwards until a finished result is achieved.

Sometimesthe edits are substantial,using cut and pastetechniques to move whole

sections of music (audio and notated) around within the arrangement and this may

continue right up to the final mixing stage. This flexibility of working mirrors the

elaboraterehearsal and developmentprocesses of live ensembles,but with the

distinct advantagethat the financial and time considerations of using live musicians

is eliminated. Indeed, the 'freedom' offered to the lone producer can in some

respectsbecome problematic, as there is no one to determinewhen the work is

complete. My experience of being employed as a session musician on other

recording projects is that time constraints,a financial imperative of commercial

projects,result in an expectationthat the recordingwill be completein one or two

takes.As a lone producerworking in the digital domain (where the tape is never

full) the processof creationcan be open-ended.

The secondworking methodis substantiallydifferent and relies upon methods

of composition that develop through performance and improvisation. This is an

established tradition in aural music where musical ideas develop through

156 Notescan be written on a staveby usingmouse or keyboardcommands.

p.93 performance,a practicethat RolandBarthes refers to as musicapractica. 157 Channon comments:

musicapractica is nothing but the form that musicalknowledge takes directly

from musical practice.Theoretically filtered or not, fundamentallyit has no

need of theory or even notation.158

The music developsthrough processes of performanceand improvisationand while

would contestthat in this casethe music is intrinsically informed by a theoretical knowledge, notational systems serve little purpose as the compositions are intentionally performer-centric and any transmission to others will be aural. The form of the music tendsto be cyclic, whererepeated thematic ideas are interspersed with improvisational episodes that are intended to express particular performance skills. My working approach is to develop the musical ideas in real-time, then record the pieceas it develops,in this way the recordingprocess becomes a form of instant feedback.After exhaustive developmentthe tune will be recorded live. The technologyin this caseis transparentand the end result shouldfeel spontaneousand organic.In addition,another compositional method was inspiredby Mick Goodrick, who in his book TheAdvancing Guitarist, suggeststhe compilation of improvised materialin the following manner,on the first day the performerrecords two minutes of improvisedmusic, on the secondand subsequentdays the performerlistens to the previously recorded two minutes and adds a further two minutes, only when thirty minutesof music is completedoes the performerlisten to the whole recording.159 As

157 Barthes, Roland, 'Musica Practica' in Image, Music and Text (London: Fonatana/Collins,1977). 158 Channan,Michael, Musica Practica (Londonand New York, Verso, 1994),28. 159 Goodrick.Mick, TheAdvancing Guitarist: Applying Guitar Techniquesand Concepts(Hal LeonardBooks, 1987),100.

p. 94 digital recording technology is perfectly suited to this mode of working, I have employedthis techniqueand usedsome of the improvisedmaterial as the inspiration for some of the recordings on CD #3: notably 'Mmm Interesting', 'The Darkest

Hour' and 'You Cooda' Told Me'. The flexibility, intuitive nature and senseof freedom offered by this process,seems to encouragea varied and imaginative musicalresponse and producesa streamof musical ideaswhich can be edited and

developedinto completecompositions.

In a designateddigital recording system-a digital audio workstation (DAW) host or a computer running audio recording software - the number of available of

tracks is limited only by the processingpower, storagespace and memory of the

recording system. The availability of multi-tracking facilities makes it possible for a

single performer to record all of the parts for a single performance. Whilst this is

convenientand offers a flexible range of working methodologies,it removesthe

interaction between differing performers and raises questions regarding the degreeto

which interplay is an integral part of a musical performance.For some types of

musicthis may not be important,but if we considerthat performanceidiolect - the individual identifiable voice of a performer- is a prime factor within popular

music practice,then it takes on a new significance.If music is a communicative

interactive process,the reduction of the interplay to a single or small pool of

perfonners, disallows the organic conversational interplay achieved during group

performance,the stylistic palette of individual inflections and range of musical

interpretationbeing restrictedto the abilities and inclinations of the lone producer.

Someperformers or music idioms demandthat recordingtakes place collectively

and without a 'click track', this is particularlytrue of jazz and 'roots' music where

p.95 authenticity and immediacy is often perceivedto be of more importancethan

metronomicaccuracy. To presenta senseof balanceand contrastto the portfolio,

someof the recordinghas taken place live with an emphasison the interactivenature

of performance.Here the recordingshave beencompleted in a real acousticspace

with all of the musiciansperforming live, however,some overdubs were addedlater

and the reasonsfor this are discussedin the commentarysection. Some of the

musicalmaterials used have evolved from the '2min compositionexercise' and have

been developed into lead sheets and the performers were selected becauseof their

individual performancecharacteristics. All of thesepoints are consideredin more

detail in sections5 and 6.

Digitisation is ubiquitous: to be distributed the material must be digitised,

even if the recording is made on analogue equipment, the artefact will become

digitised when transferredto CD, it is therefore inevitable when the instrument

transcendsfrom the private to the public space.Even the systemsof accessingmusic

have altered as the iPod generationexperience music internally, directly from

headphones,not externally through air movementwhich is mediatedby external

factorssuch as the size and resonanceof a listeningspace, this hasa particulareffect

on the defining of recordingparameters such as stereo-imagingwhere the detailed

useof stereobecomes more exactand thereforeof a greaterimportance. The means

of production and distribution of all musical products is increasingly located in the

digital agora and in my own practice, once encodedthe music never leavesthe

digital domain,it is recorded,mixed down to a stereo-file,transferred to iTunes,160 161 to an iPod uploaded for digital transfer or recordedto a CD. Whilst digital

160Proprietary software manufacturedApple, Inc. 161 A proprietary MP3 player manufacturedApple, Inc.

p. 96 recordingis not without its detractorsand the comparativequalities of digital and analoguerecording are often debated,the enormousdifference in the cost of producing and distributing analogue recordings and the rapidly developing improvementsin digital recording will probably marginalisethese debatesto the rarefiedworld of the audiophileand less so to the practicingmusician; particularly as a new generationof musiciansand consumershave grown up with, and openly embrace,digital technology.

3: ACOUSTIC PRACTICE

As discussed in chapter #1, musical characteristics of the contemporary acoustic guitar can be traced both diachronically (historical stylistic families) and synchronically (culturally diverse styles), and it has become as prevalent in 'art' music as it is in 'popular' music. The acoustic guitar is a signifier of immediacy and intimacy, authenticity and tradition, ethnicity and diversity and artistry and maturity.

This chapter will attempt to place guitar practice in a broader cultural context and to considerthe determiningfactors that have impactedon the natureof acousticguitar practice.

3.1 Contemporary Practice: an historical and cultural overview.

To understandthe context in which acoustic guitar practice exists, it is necessaryto considerthe modem instrumentsdevelopment in relation to the broadercultural movements of postmodernism/modernismand anti-modernism. The term contemporaryis not in any senseintended to signify a senseof modernity, i.e. contemporarybecause it is modem,but contemporaryin that it reflectsa postmodern plurality where many styles, some modem some historic, coexist and the

p.97 contemporarypractitioner is free to draw on musical referentsfrom any place or time. With this in mind contemporarypractice will be consideredin relation to the threebroad cultural categoriesmentioned above. Whilst mindful that there is always, in this type of analysis,the dangerof producinga crude mechanisticlisting and categorisationof prevailing characteristics, it is a useful starting point in attempting a morenuanced and deeperunderstanding of the diversity of contemporarypractice.

In addition, it must be recognisedthat the work of any musician/ performer

/composer may be placed in differing categories at different times and as such will neverbe entirely discreteand distinct.

- Postmodernism

To some degree postmodern thinking challenges the dictum 'Art for Art's sake', which was bom out of a 19thcentury distaste for industrialisation and a desirefor a

return to a golden age of romanticism, by prefiguring a return to the valuing of

specific cultures and their differences. Postmodem music is therefore often

characterisedas being a free-flowing interplay of musical hybrids and fusions,

eclecticism,juxtaposition of historical and cultural traditions and the resulting

fragmentation.But in reality many music practicesexist that expresssome of these

qualities but may not necessarilyconsidered as postmodern.It is worth being

mindful of JonathanKramer's comment that it is more fruitful to think of the

concernsof a movementas being an attitude - of the composer,performer and

listener- rather than a list of markersthat can that can be checkedoff. 162An

162 Kramer,David, 'The Nature and Origins ofMusical Postmodernism'in Lochead, Judy Auner, Joseph,(eds. ), 'Postmodern and . Music and PostmodernThought ' (New York and London:Routledge, 2002).

p. 98 attitudenot only in compositionalterms but also in 'how we listen to and usemusic of other eras'.163 Kramer arguesthat it is us that have becomepostmodern and by associationthe way that we use music has defined the music itself. 'Music has become postmodern as we, its late twentieth-century listeners have become

postmodern',in other words, it is in the way that we listen, composeand perform,

that elementsof the postmodememerge. 164 There must be truth in this assertionas

we as listeners,writers and performersare conditionedby the world in which we

live, a world in which the whole history of recorded music coexists and is available

in a variety of media. Our choice is to reject, absorb,combine or play with these

ideaswith a sometimes-ironicsensibility. I'm aware as a practitionerof the vast

body of work that constitutes acoustic guitar music and of my own esoteric

developmentas a guitarist which, rather than being linear in its development,has

beenformed by often randommeetings and exposureto other musiciansand musical

styles. I have learnt from others and from listening and the opportunity to do this has

increasedexponentially with an increasein the digital communicationrevolution.

In consideringhow a postmodernattitude may be expressedit is useful to

consider the work of two guitarists, Antonio Forcione and Bill Frisell. Italian

guitarist Forcione,as mentionedearlier, draws upon a wide range of historic and

culturally locatedstyles, the percussiveslaps of flamencomusic, the improvisational

sensibilities of European gypsyjazz, the rhythmic complexities of African music and

performancetechniques of 'classical' guitar, these he combineswith the electric

guitar techniquesof 'string-tapping'and soundprocessing. In a more consciousand

163 lbid, 14. 163lbid, 15.

P.99 elaborateway American guitarist Frisell also juxtaposesand blends the musical stylesof jazz, country,blues, rock, middle-eastern,African and classicalmusic, but in a way that at times appearsless cohesiveand often exerts an ironic sensibility where diverse musical styles collide, for exampleon the track 'We're Not From

Around Here' from the album Nashville he juxtaposesthe traditional instruments and harmonyof a country bandwith angularmusical phrases and dissonantchordal

voicings.165 Both performersjuxtapose historical and cultural music referents,but to

a greater degree in the latter, where the juxtapositions are overt and lesser degreein

the former,where differing stylistic referencesare more gently absorbed.If attitude

is a prime considerationof a postmodernpractice then this is probablymore distinct

in the work of Bill Frisell whose music has been described as a 'postmodern 166 Americana', a free flowing recontextualising of American MUSiC. This

comfortableengagement with the presentand the past through the reuseof diverse

musical references,recording practice and instrumentation, present a universalising

collageand an attitude which accordswith the postmoderndiktat of a rejectionof

'the linearity of historical progress',a consciousnessof the existenceof all recorded

music and the withdrawal of a modernistdictum to reject the past. Kramer sees

postmodernmusic as an attitude that is anti-historical and history as a cultural

constructand as such dernotesthe importanceof an historical lineage,in so doing

this allows the postmoderncomposer to 'enter into a peacefulcoexistence with the

past' and not be in a permanentstruggle to challengeand repudiatewhat has gone

165Frisell, Bill, 'We're Not From Around Here' Nashville (Nonesuch Records, 79415-2,1997). 166www. songtone. com/press/frisell/guitarplayerl999. htm. Levy, Adam,Post ModemA mericana-BillFrisell digs into his roots. (10.5.07)

P. 100 before.167 This is very much an attitudethat concordswith my own practice,where for example, the composition 'Afro-Diz' is a conscious musical collage of African musical referents and 'It's Not My Fault' openly engages in a process of musical fragmentation.To deny the historical musical developmentof the instrumentin one9sown aestheticrealm is to ignorecenturies of musicalacculturation and a rich organic musical language that is deeply ingrained in our consciousness.

Postmodemismrecognises that the past sharesthe same recorded spaceas the present, a digitised documentary record which is increasingly intertwining the local and the global and in so doing transfiguring and re-contextualising music. In a technologicallydominated world the producer/performer/composer,in an attemptto find an individual voice (a modernistconcept), has at their disposalthe complete history of recorded music, from which, they can freely extract musical elementsand idiomatic performancestyles and fashion hybrids from a multiplicity of pluralist voices - assuming sufficient income, a computer and an internet connection.

Musical unity, the presenceof an over archingform and structureto a musical composition,is of prime importanceto the modernistand the anti-modernist,but for different reasons,to the modernistform denotesthe rational,to the anti-modernistit

denotesa conformancewith stylistic traditions; unity is of lesserimportance to the

postmodernistand is therefore a useful defining characteristic.Jonathan Kramer

considersthat:

167 Kramer, David, 'The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism'in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph,(eds. ), 'PostmodernMusic and Postmodern Thought' (New York andLondon: Routledge, 2002), 18.

P.101 For both antimodernism and modernists, unity is a prerequisite for musical 168 sense;for some post modernists, unity is an option.

The whole notion of musical unity is therefore not only of lesser importance to the postmodernist,but reflects the fact that the world is a place of incompletepartial experiencesand the productof an increasinglytechnology-saturated society, where our attentionis sought,often simultaneously,by a multiplicity of aural, visual and textual media. The very production of contemporarymusic is in itself often a process of fragmentation, as recorded music is assembled from a discontinuous series of musical experiences that are reassembled during a final process of editing and assemblage.The discontinuity of modem lives and short attention spansof the consumersof technology 'has created a context for fragmentation'.169 4 Its Not My

Fault', presentedin the portfolio, representsthis very fragmentation in its conception and realistion, the composition is consciouslyfragmented and episodic and the recording process makes full use of processesof digital editing - cut and paste techniquesand the sonicmanipulation of acousticsounds. A postmodernacceptance

of fragmentation in music demotes in importance the existence of an over arching

schema and encourages the inclusion of different music types, for example, the

cyclic and linear modesof vernacularmusic, where the functionalrole of indigenous

or situated music (ritual, song and dance) determinesthe need for repetition,

embellishments then occur in an additive linear progression. This cyclic nature

168 Kramer, David, 'The Nature and Origins ofMusical Postmodernism' in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph, (eds.), 'Postmodern Music and Postmodern Thought (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 15. 169 Kramer, David, 'The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism' in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph, (eds.), 'Postmodern Music and Postmodern Thought' (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 19.

102 precludesthe development of large-scale forms and favours an improvised organic rather than an imposed schema; it is acknowledged that large-scale works also contain cyclic structures,but these are usually part of a larger compositional scheme.

Formal structuresare less commonin the aural music traditions but are evident in some early-recorded material, for example in some of the early guitar duets where

Stagefright,as mentionedearlier, is a goodexample. 170 Whilst large-scaleworks and formal structuresare sacrosanctto the modernistcomposer, a postmodem'attitude' accepts that many diverse elements can exist within a composition. Again guitarist/composer Bill Frisell, whilst at times employing conventional compositional processes,has more recently chosen to allow the music to develop through improvisation, bringing together performers that he enjoys musically and letting the music develop out of preparedmusical sketches.17 1 This could be seenas a postmodern response in actively eschewing large scale and rationalised compositional methods in favour of fragmentation; the absence of a schema

encouragesfragmented music ideas, plurality and eclecticism, by encouraging the

interaction of individual voices and the granting of musical autonomy to the

performers.

- Modernism

A modernist aesthetic or 'art' music practice exists in some acoustic guitar practice,

where the intention is to signify and attempt a dislocation of traditional continuities.

It is evident in the work of such performersas Robert Fripp, who interestingly

170Birkett, Jamesand Sinclair,Rod, TheJazz Guitar Duo (UK: JPC102,2000). 171 In responseto a questionabout compositional approaches at a workshopin The Opera House, Newcastle upon Tyne, November 2003.

p. 103 developedreturned more to acoustic guitar playing after a substantialperiod of playing the electric guitar and the modernistapproach seems to have followed his progressionto the acoustic instrument.Robert Fripp, who in seekingto exert a modernistrefiguring of guitar music, has developednew methodsof working with the specific intent of breaking with traditional practice. Fripp's Guitar Craft movementoffers an instrumentaland philosophicalapproach to guitar playing in which he specifies a new tuning system,the type of instrument to be played, the way the instrument is to be held and a precise pedagogy for the development of playing technique.172 His conceptualapproach to performanceand compositionis designed

to remove all previously acquired 'guitaristic' conceptions and to challenge the

orthodoxy of common practice. The devotees undergo an extremely disciplined

routine of instruction and progress through various levels of 'craft' to become

instructorsand spreadthe movement.Others, for exampleDerek Bailey, have sought

to carry on in the 'free' improvisation tradition, using the guitar in a randomised

aleatoricmode in which the instrumentbecomes a resonantbox for the creationof

sound-scapes,freed from the confinesof receivedguitar practice.173 The way that

acousticityis viewedby the modernistis different from that of the roots or revivalist

performer: the modernist readily uses instrumentsthat are electro-acousticand

hybrid designsto producea modified acousticresponse, not at all naturalisticmore

an enhanced'supra' acoustic sound, whilst roots and revivalist performers pursue an

unadulterated 'natural' sound where acousticity is a sign of authenticity and

tradition,

172Tamm, Eric, Robert Fripp: From King Crimson to Guitar Craft (Boston and London:Faber and Faber, 1990). 173Bailey, Derek, Improvisation (USA: Ampersand02,2006).

104 - Anti-modernism

Anti-modemist concerns are reflected in practices that attempt to maintain continuitywith historicalstyles and to revive traditionalpractice. The music is often performedon authenticinstruments that are either replicas of original designsor original instruments from the relevant era; a fetishism not only for stylistic convention but the original artefacts, vintage instruments, amplification and recording systems, often for the sake that they are old, not necessarily better. The practice is intentionally anti-modem and attempts to recreate musical practices of a perceived 'golden age'. The availability of record back-catalogues,specialist broadcastingand music festivals, have createdan outlet for performers who practice

revivalist music styles, where importance is placed on a continuance of tradition and

authenticity. Contemporary performers such as The Be Good Tanyas, Jessie Sykes

and Gillian Welch could be describedas anti-modem in their traditional approachto

the performance of music: the acoustic instruments are played in a traditional way

174 and amplified using simple microphone placements rather than pick-up systems.

Some bluegrass performers have taken this approach further by returning to

traditional recording and performancetechniques where everyone standsaround one

microphone,moving closer as necessaryto forefront particular instruments.The

practice of performing at low volume levels to an audience weaned on the rock

aestheticof high volume is in itself a statementof authenticity.

The difficulty with categorisationbecomes less distinct when considering

croots'music, which is rootedin a traditionalmusical lineage but often realisedin a

174Wclch, Gillian, Hell, 4mong The Yearlings (USA: Acony Records-ACNY 470102,2001).

p. 105 contemporarycontext. The popularity of roots music has been aided by the digitisationof historic recordings,giving the audienceand performereasy access to back cataloguesof recordedmaterial and it is accessto these materialsthat has spawnednew marketsfor the performersof roots music.Roots music standsoutside of the concernsof the modernist,being built upon aural musicaltraditions andwhat

Anne Le Baronref ers to as a simple type of automatic music createdthrough

improvisation,repetition and embellishment.175 The music doesn't possessa large-

scale form as it tends to be basedon cyclic patternsand has a tendencyto be

episodic in structure;oscillating betweenrecurring ostinatosor simple harmonic

sequencesto which improvised episodes,adornments and flourishes are freely

added. Examples of this approach can be found in flamenco, blues, country and

European folk music, for example, 'Angie' by Davy Graham,"' 'The Boy Plays

Guitar while Kissing the Girl' by The Reverend Gary Davis, "' 'Hats Off To Davey'

178 and 'Afro-Diz' in the portfolio. Musical unity is not consciously challenged, as in

the sense employed by the postmodemist, but it is disfavoured and demoted in

importance,what is evident is that the overall form, as a musical journey, is of lesser

importance than the relationship between the isorhythmic - repeated ic/harmon rhythm ic scheme - and the improvisations. The performer becomes

175 Barron, Anne, Le, 'Reflections of Surrealism in Postmodem Musics' in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph(eds. ), 'Postmodern Music and Postmodern Thought ' (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 15. 176Graham, Davey, 'Angie', The Guitar Player Plus (See for Miles Records Ltd., SEECD 351.1963).

177Davis, The Reverend, Gary, 'Boy Plays Guitar While Kissing the Girl' The Blue Guitar and Banjo of the Rev. Gary Davis (Prestige PR7725,1964). 178 'Afro-Diz', 'Hats Off To Davey' CD#2 PhD portfolio.

106 central to the realisation and the character of the music; the process is less compositionalin that its intentionis not to createmusic to be performedby others.

3.2 Pedagogy

A pedagogictradition for the classical guitar has existed for over 200 years during a periodin which a musicalcanon of both repertoireand performancetechniques have beenestablished. Around the middle of the 19'hcentury howeverthe guitar as an instrument of the classical orchestra fell out of favour, to be replaced by the modern pianoforte in an example of what Tim Brookes describes as the Victorians'

'fascination with the gigantic' and it was not until the early 20'h century when

Segovia toured Europe and the USA that it made its reappearanceas a classical instrument. During this period the modem guitar was left to develop a new trajectory unrestrainedby a structured pedagogictradition and Brookes refers to this as

'possibly the greatest thing that happened to the guitar', as the guitar was left unrestrainedduring a period that witnessedthe emergenceof the musical forms of early jazz and blues.179 The lack of a defined pedagogicstructure allowed the developmentof highly differentiatedand personalisedstyles, and encouragedan unfetteredaural tradition in which playerslearned by listening anddoing.

Irving Sloanecomments that:

Until after the Civil War, few Americans knew how to read music. Self-

taughtinstinctive musicianship was the rule. Music without words,based on

formal theoriesof counterpointand harmony, was in fact unknownto most

Americansuntil the late nineteenthcentury.

179 Brookes, Tim: during a telephone conversation on Saturday October 29h 2006.

p. 107 This lack of a tradition rootedin classicalEuropean music helped shape the

characterof Americanmusic. Rhythm, the stepchildof classicalmusic, and a

strongmelodic line becamethe hallmarksof the folk, hillbilly, andjazz

traditions that are uniquely American. 180

The natureof auralmusical cultures, the inherentneed to improviseand to adaptto differing demands,form the basisof manyguitar styles,in fact, someof the more interesting styles have developed where players were attempting to emulate other instrumental techniques on the guitar, for example, in western swing when steel guitar players attempted to sound like horn sections, in blues and ragtime when guitarists such as Blind Blake developed guitar styles that sounded like piano players and when blues players such as Charlie Patton used a slide to mimic the wailing humanvoice. The essenceof readingand aural cultures intrinsically differ: the readingculture develops a text based(notated) canon of music over a periodof time, which establishesand confirms conventions of performance, whilst the aural culture

createsa fluid musicalcanon through repetition and performance, the very natureof

which altersas it is passedbetween performers and listeners.

Channonrefers to this relationshipbetween notated music and aural cultures:

Jazzand blues, with their roots in improvisationand oral tradition, initially

lackednotated forms at all. The first written blues(using the twelve-bar

shapewhich would later influence rock 'n' roll) were published around

1913-1915,rapidly followed by the first recordedblues' 181

180Sloane, Irving, Steel-StringGuitar Construction(New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1975),8.

181Channan, Michael, RepeatedTakes (London and New York: Verso, 1995), 45.

P. 108 Functionallythe purposeof notationin the two traditionsdiffered, in popularsong andclassical repertoire the notatedmusic presents a standardisedmelody and harmonicsequence as definedby the composer,in music from the auraltraditions notationis transcribedfrom performanceand was always intended as a templatefor individual interpretation. Channan refers to how the availability of recordings affectedinterpretation:

the role of the recordwas not to substitutefor the written score,which did

not exist in jazz; it communicatedwhat cannotbe indicatedin any score,the

nuancesof articulationand timbre that areamong the centralstylistic concerns

182 ofjazz.

Channan talks of jazz, but there is a commonality with all aural musical styles as

having accessto a recording and to experience nuances of articulation and timbre

alleviatedthe needto be in the presenceof the performer- the performercould be

relocated into the 'presence' of the listener. The effect that this has had upon the

developmentof musical styles and their subsequenttranscendence from localised

marketsto global marketscannot be overestimated.To the aural musician,whose

very meansof learningrelied on being in the presenceof a performer,the recording

and broadcastingindustry brought a constant flow of new material. Harold

Courlander,quoted in Channon,refers to a feedbackthat is producedwhen another

performer takes a recorded song, adapts it to his own performance style, and then re- 183 recordsthe song. Paradoxically,although the processmirrors the aural tradition,

where performancestyles are basedon what is heard and passeddown, recording

182Channan, Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),19. 183 lbid, 5 1.

P.109 can initiate a processof canonisationand fixing of style wherethe record becomes the standardisedand approved version.

The popularity of the guitar in the early years of the 20thcentury is reflected in

the existenceof specialistmagazines, tutor books,and transcriptions. In the United

Kingdom,the Banjo Mandolin and Guitar Magazine(BMG) was first publishedin

1903and although initially containingmore transcriptions of banjoand mandolin

music,included in the 1920sthe Hawaiianguitar andukulele and increasingly 184 featuredthe plectrum guitar. During the 1930smany tuitional books for the

plectrumguitarist were published:the Modem AdvancedGuitar Method185by Eddie

Lang,the Manualof PracticalHarmony for the Guitar by JamesMarchisio 186 and

Modem Plectrum Guitar Playing by Dick Sadler.187 In addition, transcription books

of popular recordings such as the Dave Berend publication of Eddie Lang and

LonnieJohnson guitar duetsbecame available. These transcriptions were however

perfunctory, being greatly simplified for the sake of brevity and easeof performance

andthey carriedwith them an implicit assumptionthat the performerwould have

alreadyheard the recordings- the transcriptionspointed to the recordings.

From my own experienceof listening to early blues recordings, where

performers often used differing tunings systems and played in idiosyncratic

performancestyles, it was often very difficult to understandhow individual

184BMG: Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar (London: Chappel Music, 1903-1973). 185Lang, Eddie. (ed. Dave Berend) Modern Advanced Guitar Method (New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1935). 186 Marchisio, James.Manual ofPractical Harmonyfor the Guitar (London: Francis Day and Hunter Ltd., No publication date). 187Sadler, Dick. Modern Plectrum Guitar Playing (London: Herman Darewski Music Publishing Co., 1938).

P.110 techniqueswere achieved.This becameeasier when I discoveredspecialist guitar 188 magazinessuch as Guitar Player. Guitar magazines,tutor books DVDs and CDs arenow commonplace;a surveyof materialsin the Ashley Marks Publishingon-line catalogue(Fretsonly. com) revealsan expansiverange of tuitional material covering a comprehensiverange of guitar styles.189 In addition, specialistguitar periodicals, coveringa wide rangeof guitar styles,are currently on sale.190

3.3 Notational systems

Two structurallydifferent systemsexist for the notationof guitar music,standard notationand tablature, the standardnotational staff employedin music from the

Europeantradition and tablature, a graphic pictorial system that has been in use for over 250 years. Although most early twentieth-century transcriptions and tuitional

materialsfor plectrumstyle and classicalguitar werewritten in standardnotation, a

choice that probably reflects the formality and notational hegemony of the

industry, publishing tablaturewas occasionallyused - StefanGrossman, the

proprietorof Homespunrecords, claims to own a Hawaiianguitar tutor from the

1920sand some nineteenth-centuryparlour songswritten in tablature.191 In

contemporarypractice both systemsare used, but thereis considerabledebate in

188Guitar Player Magazine (USA: Grove Press) 189 www. fretsonly. com 190 1 was commissioned to write 32 tuitional articles for Total Guitar magazine, Future Publishing Ltd., 191 Homespun Records specialize in acoustic guitar tuitional materials. The existencesof historical pieces that are written in tablature were outlined in an email (Appendix 1).

P.1 11 relationto the validity of tablature.To understandthese debates it is useful to considerthe historicaldevelopment of both systems.

Femando Ferandiere'sArte de tocar la guitarra espanolapor müsica (Madrid

1799),is the first known instructionmanual to teachguitar playersto readfrom standardnotation; previously, guitar music from the earliestknown book of arrangementsof popularsongs and dances for the Frenchguitar, 192 Le premier livre de chansons,gaillardes, pavannes etc., Paris 1552 (one of a seriesof four books), were written using the graphic notational system of tablature. In 1639, the tablature systemwas extendedwhen Juan Carles y Arnat's Guitarra espailolay vandola,

Gerona,also includeddiagrams and illustrationsof handsplaying chordson the 193 fingerboard. Although the use of tablature was also common to other instruments such as the lute, the viola da gamba, and the Northem-European organ, Ferandiere's

publicationbroke with a 250 yearold tradition of usingtablature as the solemeans

of writing guitar music. Whilst offering a broader repertoire base for the guitar, the

very systemof writing in a genericrather than an instrument-specificstyle is

significant.Grunfeld makes the following observation:

This soundsa new and ominousnote in the literatureof the guitar-a themeof

instrumentaltransvestism which we shall haveoccasion to heara greatdeal

moreabout during the romanticera. 194

192 A seven-stringedinstrument, six of the stringswere set in threedouble courses plus one melody string. 193Grunfeld, Frederic V., The Art Times and of the Guitar -An Illustrated History (New York: Da CapoPress, Incorporated, 1974), 59. 194Grunfeld, Frederic V., TheArt and Timesof the Guitar - An Illustrated History (New York: Da CapoPress, Incorporated, 1974), 140

112 Although his commentsre an instrumentaltransvestism relate to the romantic era they sound a warning of the potential loss of identity for guitar music. The adoption of standardnotation created the meansthrough which the guitaristcould function in a broadermusical sphere but alsocreated a divide andmusical hegemony that would separatethe notationalyliterate performerfrom the rest.This hegemonyis reflected in the fact that transcriptionsand tuitional materials for classical guitar and the plectrumguitar stylesof the early 20thcentury were generallynotated in the received style, whilst music from the aural traditions, consisting of a simplified melody and guitar accompaniment, were representedin a graphical musical shorthand as chord boxes. Examples in this form can be found in sheetmusic and songbooksof the 19th and early 20th centuries where notated piano arrangements were provided for the musically literate and chord boxes and/or chord symbols provided for the guitar, banjo or ukulele; players of rhythmic instrumentswere expectedto construct a 195 suitable musical accompaniment. Whilst this hierarchy was often the result of

expediencyand brevity, it also reflectsparticular understandings about the role and

musicalauthority of particularinstruments, the

pianorepresented the world of musicalliteracy and strummedor picked string

instruments,rather than bowedinstruments, an aural music culture.Tablature didn't

disappearaltogether as evidencedby Stefan Grossman,and it is significant that

tablature was revived to notate Hawaiian slide guitar music, the music of an aural

musical culture, which becauseof the use of open-tuningsand the elaborate

glissandosand microtonalpitches, created by using a slide, is very difficult to notate

195 Chordbox: a graphicrepresentation of the instrumentneck, marked with finger positions.Chord symbols: a nomenclaturewhich indicatesthe chordroot-note, the

p. 1 13 in standardnotation. 196 For similar reasonsit madea significantreturn in 1969,with the publicationof StefanGrossman's transcription books of early blues and ragtime tunes,this could be seento mirror a cultural shift at the end of the 1960stowards traditionalforms of music and signaleda returnto the useof tablaturein mainstream 197 music publications. Tablatureas a notational systemfunctioned as an effective musical shorthandfor the non-readingguitarist of a new generation,who, being dislocatedfrom the continuities of traditional aural music cultures, found it very difficult to gain first hand experience of American music other than through the occasional touring artist and scarce recordings; some American guitarists notably

John Fahey and Stefan Grossman sought out the original performers. Tablature offered a specialised system that could indicate precise performance characteristics of what were often idiosyncratic playing techniques. In the caseof blues and ragtime tunes tablature was re introduced becauseof its functionality and graphic clarity and was a rational choice for music styles which are characterized by the use of non- standardtunings, idiosyncratic and often complex techniques.

Examples of both methods of notation, standard and graphic (tablature and chord diagrams) are still used in contemporarypractice, but the choice of system is often articulated with particular ideas of legitimacy and authority. The debate is often polemic, with those favouring the standardnotational system stressing its

the limitations instrument universality and self-imposed of an specific system- in tablature, its simplest form, indicates the position of notes but not the pitch, chordalquality andany alterationsto the standardintervallic relationshipsLe G7 (b5)

196Described in an email communicationof 4.11.06.(Appendix 2) 197Grossman, Stefan, The Country Blues Guitar (USA: Music SalesCorporation, 1968).

114 intervallicor rhythmic information.Whereas advocates of tablaturestress its graphic ability to indicate explicitly the position of notes, which is particularly useful in contrapuntalmusic suchas finger picking, when non-standardtunings are usedand whenguitaristic techniques such as slide or tappingare employed. In addition,as a graphic positional, rather than pitch-related, system, it provides accessibility for thosewho do not possessa notationalliteracy. Although in its simplestform tablatureonly indicatesthe positionof noteson the guitar neck and excludes rhythmic information, it can function as a complete musical system that precisely indicatespitch, notevalues, and the rhythmicand metric relationshipof notes.

The inherentcomplexity of the guitar,which resultsfrom the multiple locations in which most notes can be found, presentsparticular difficulties for the composeror transcriber: where standardnotation indicates the note implicitly, a specificpitch is specifiedbut not its location,tablature indicates the noteexplicitly, determining a precise location for each note. I would argue that becauseof its genericmusical qualities standard notation is important,but that a cogentargument canbe madefor the useof tablatureas a usefulsystem that explicitly describes guitar-specifictechniques. In the following examplethe guitar arrangementis played in the opentuning DADGAD and it is apparenthow tablatureprovides precise positionalinformation in a graphicfrom and in this instanceis much easierto read thanstandard notation.

p. 1 15 Section 3.3, rig #I: The Black Isle

Acoustic Guitar U-7

AcousticGuitar

To elaborate, the following mechanistic analysis reveals the difficulty in notating and sight-reading guitar music: the lowest five notes E2-G#2 (where middle

C is C4), and the highest five notes G#5-B5 (on a nineteen-fret instrument) are playable in a single position, the other 34 notes (77%) are playable in between two 198 and five positions. The availability of multiple locations in which the same pitch can be played, but with a distinctly different timbre, creates an instrument which is rich with timbral possibilities but is also complex to play, difficult to accurately notateand challengingto the sight reader.To make a comparisonwith the piano, where eachnote can be played in only one position and with a possibility of five fingerings,produces five fingeringoptions - assumingthat one handis usedto play a particular phrase,the guitarist in some caseshas to select from 20 possible combinations (four fingers and five positions) to produce the same note, in addition to coordinating both the picking and fretting hands.

198 An alphanumerical system establishedby The Acoustical Association of America for definingthe pitch of notesby usinga pitch nameand octavenumber, for example,Middle C= C4.

116 The common practice of writing guitar music on one stave determines that severalledger lines have to be usedabove and below the stave.The guitars range from a low E2, written below the third ledgerline below the staveto the highestnote

C6 (on a twenty fret instrument)two octavesabove middle C, written abovethe fifth ledger line, necessitatesthe use of an additional eight ledger lines:

Section3.3, fig #2: the written range

-cr

Composerswill often avoid the full range of the guitar's compass and simplify the performanceparameters but this is not always the case,Martyn Harry's composition

'Grace 2003', commissionedfor the Jazz Guitar Duo, spans from a E2 on the bottom string to a B5 and presentsa particular challenge to read and execute.

Section 3.3, rig #3: bar no. 105 from Grace 2003 cNIartyn Harry

Someattempts have beenmade to addressthis issuein the publication of classical guitar repertoire in which the guitar is notated in its actual pitch across bass and 199 treble clefs. When standard notation is employed, position indicators and

sometimesfingerings are also notated;this howeveris achievedautomatically using

tablature.The useof openstrings, a performancecharacteristic common to acoustic-

199Elliker, Calvin, Your Cry Will Be a Whisper, USA" Pennsylvania, Merion Music, c1996).

p. 1 17 guitar-music and particular techniques such as 'harping' make copious use of open- strings alternating with fretted strings, to create a cascadeof overlapping notes and againthis is muchclearer when written astablature (see fig. #4).

Section 3.3, fig #4: Extract from Hats Off To Davey

Guitar

Guitar

Where non-standardtunings are used the complexity is expanded exponentially: the relocation of musical pitches on the guitar neck and often increasedpitch range can be difficult to encompasswithin a stave,with the result that notating and reading become more complex. Certainly, most players would baulk at the thought of sight- reading a conventionallynotated piece in a non-standardtuning. Therefore,the reasonfor writing somemusic in standardnotation has to be questioned,if it does not make the performanceof the music easierthen why is it notatedin this way.

Thereare two answersto this question,one that musicaltraditions will often dictate that the receivedsystem is usedand secondlythe use of the universalsystem makes

musical analysis possible. In conclusion, the arguments for a textual orthodoxy and

universalityare compellingbut they shouldnot deprivethe performerof a practical

and easily interpretedsystem of tablature.Paradoxically, it is technologythat is

118 uniting the two historic systems as notational software programmes allow music to be written in eithersystem then converted(with carefulediting) to the other.200

3.4 Acoustic guitar / Electric guitar

To employ the neologism 'acousticity, to describeacoustic-guitar-practice, infers that it differs from the electric guitar in more ways than simply its acoustic resonance,and as such necessitatesan investigation into its specific musical characteristicsand performancetechniques. As the conceptof the acousticguitar did

before not exist the advent of the electric guitar pick-up - all practice was guitar practice- any discrete,distinct and identifiablemodes of practicehave developed as a result of this division. However,although both the electric guitar and acoustic guitar share functional musical qualities and commonalities of practice, the flat-top acoustic guitar becamethe vehicle for new distinctly acoustic guitar techniques. It is in these distinct modes of practice that acoustic practice can be defined. The hybridised electric-semi-acoustic guitar - an acoustic instrument specifically designedto be amplified- hasbeen omitted from theseconsiderations as it at times functionsin the samerole as the solid-bodiedelectric guitar, as in the caseof blues,

and at other times, particularly in jazz, tends to function in a similar role as the 201 acoustic guitar. In addition, contemporarydevelopments in amplification and

instrumenttechnology are producing a range of hybrid instrumentsthat possess

someof the performanceand sonicqualities of both instruments.202

200Sibelius notational software by Avid Media Industries. 201 The semi-acousticguitar is the signatureinstrument of bluesguitarist B. B King andjazz guitaristMartin Taylor. 202 Godin (Canada)have produced a rangeof guitarsthat areequipped with piezo acoustic,electric magnetic, and midi pick-ups.

P.1 19 For reasonsof pragmatism,most guitar playersfunction asboth electric and acoustic players: in particular settings which demand performance at low volume levels; whereit is idiomaticallyappropriate and the instrumenthas a signifying role as in the performanceof folk and 'roots' musicand to createtimbral variation as a textural alternative to the electric guitar. However, some performers can be categorisedas being either primarily acousticor electric-guitarplayers: Martin

Simpsonis primarily consideredto be an acoustic-guitarplayer whereas Hank

Marvin is perceived as an electric-guitar player, others, for example Mark Knopfler,

Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Pat Metheny, appearto be equally comfortable and convincingin both modes.So what characterisesthe acoustic-guitarplayer in relation to the electric player and is it possible to define what divides or unites the two approaches?Obviously the resultant sound is determined by the mode of

performance,electric or acoustic,but the simply drawndistinction between an

amplified (modified) and un-amplified (natural) timbre is insufficient as a descriptor

of differencesin performancestyles. To a largedegree these differences are bound

up with musicalrole, the acousticinstrument is moreclosely associated with solo or

smallensemble practice whilst the solid-bodiedelectric-guitar functions primarily as 203 part of a rhythm-section.

instrument It is this role as a solo or part of a small ensemble- the guitar-duo,

string-band, or accompanimentto a voice or other melodic instrument - that has

necessitatedthe developmentof particularperformance techniques, with the player

functioning,often simultaneously,in a rhythmic,percussive, harmonic and melodic

role. Alan Lomax refersto the way that black guitar pickersturned their instruments

203A rhythm-sectionis comprisedof a percussionplayer (usually drum-kit), bass player,and a minimum of onechordal instrument.

120 into one-pieceorchestras by employinga rangeof rhythmic andpercussive techniques:

black countryguitar pickerstaught their instrumentsto sing the bluesand, at

the sametime, to serveas one-piecedance orchestras, evoking the multiple

patternsof the old string bandby beating,picking, plucking,hammering,

204 pushingand sliding.

This differs from the role of the electricguitar, which in the contextof a rhythm section,where everyonetakes on a highly differentiated role, tends to adopt differing modesof performance at different times. To achieve this multi-functional role - rhythmic, percussive,han-nonic and melodic - the acoustic-guitarist often adoptsa finger picking or hybrid-picking technique. It could be argued that acoustic players tend to employ finger-picking styles and electric-guitar players tend to use plectrum technique,and whilst this blunt distinctionreflects certain truisms there are obvious exceptionsto this 'rule of thumb', two striking examples being the plectrum guitar stylesof the acousticgypsy-guitar-players and the bluegrassflat-pickers, who with the useof a plectrumproduce percussive rhythmic accompaniments and flurries of preciselyarticulated notes. Interestingly, Doc Watsona founding fatherof the bluegrassguitar style originally developedthe style on electricguitar and only transferredto acousticguitar to satisfythe 'traditionalist, demandsof the 'folk 205 revivalists'. So,whilst thereare tendencies towards different picking practice fingerpickingv plectrumstyle - fingerpickingstyles are more commonlyused and

204Lomax, Alan, TheLand nere BluesBegan (New York: The New Press,1993), 352. 205When performing at the NewportFolk Festivalin 1963.

p. 121 ?06 highly developed in acoustic-guitar playing The ability to perform complex rhythmic picking patternswill earn the epitaph of "a real picker" from American acousticguitar aficionados.

- Picking styles

The picking techniqueemployed by guitar playersis subdividedinto thosewho

primarily useplectrums or finger picks andthose who usethe fingernail and or the

flesh of the fingertips and thumb. The variation in picking techniques is as old as

guitar music itself, with both finger-picking and plectrum techniques being common

throughout the history of stringed instruments, Grunfeld, describesa plectrum, made

from an eagle's talon, being in use in Al-Andalus (Andalucia, Spain) as early as AD 207 1015 and again in the 14'hcentury where it was made from a quill (peflola).

Howeverthe choiceof a particulartechnique has a profoundeffect on the quality of

the note produced and the execution and development of particular musical styles.

Bluegrassand swing-guitar styles owe therecharacter to the preciseuse of heavy-

gaugeplectrums, Travis-picker Chet Atkins and slide-guitarblues guitarist Bob

Brozmanuse of thumb and fingerpicks,bossa-nova guitarist Louis Bonfa and

Canadian12 string guitarplayer Leo Kottke to the useof fingersand nails. 208

Sometimesparticular techniques can be tracedback to their historicalroots, as in the

caseof Eddie Lang who 'founded a melodic "single string" style (punteado as

206As previouslystated, players of semi-acousticguitar are includedin this category, particularlycountry-guitar-pickers and solo-jazzplayers. 2'7 Grunfeld,Frederic, V., TheArt and Timesof the Guitar - An Illustrated History (New York: Da CapoPress, Incorporated, 1974), 56. 208Travis picking: a style developedby Merle Travis wherea thumb-pickis usedto play a strongalternating bass line.

122 opposedto rasgado,in the older terminology)fusing jazz with the Italian popular guitar', the Italian guitar tradition favoursthe useof the plectrumas doesthe Italian mandolintradition and plectrumjazz banjostyles which EddieLang playedbefore changingto guitar.209 The choiceof plectrumor fingernailsis sometimesdependant uponthe type of stringsused, steel strings easily damage the nails andtherefore are usuallyplayed with a plectrumor fingerpickswhereas nylon stringsrespond effectivelyto the useof fingersand nails. These distinctions serve well to mark the historic development of some guitar styles, but contemporary practice reflects many variants to traditional practice with some nylon-strung players using plectrums (John

McLoughlin,Antoine Forcione)and steel-stringplayers using fingersand nails (Leo

Kottke and Tony McManus); this is probably the result of improved amplification technology which alleviates the need to produce a high volume levels, leaving the guitarist to experiment with a variety of picking techniques. Whilst different picking styles can createtextural differences, this is not an absolute, a plectrum is generally usedon steelstrings to createa percussivetexture but Louis Bonfa playing on nylon strings can createa similar effect with the back of his nails. Somejazz guitar players favourthe plectrumbecause of the evennessof timbre acrossdifferent stringswhilst othersuse finger picking techniques:Wes Montgomery and Jim Mullen usethe thumbof the picking handto spectaculareffect. Whilst somegeneralisations on a

relationship between picking techniquesand acoustic or electric instruments and

picking stylesand musical idioms canbe made,many deviations from these

tendenciescan be commonlyfound. With this caveatthe following tendenciescan

be determined:plectrum style is effectivefor executingsingle-note lines and

rhythmiccomping with a precisearticulation and consistencyof timbre, but has

209 Ibid, 258.

p. 123 inherentlimitations imposed by reducingthe picking possibilitiesof any plectrum stroke to a single chord, arpeggio or note. Whilst the combining of melodic and rhythmicmaterial is achievable,it requiresconsiderable skill to balancesingle-note passageswith chordalinterjections and limits the possibilitieswhen playing contrapuntallines. To overcome these limitations the plectrum guitarist will often adopta hybrid-pickingstyle, which combinesthe useof the plectrumwith oneor two of the fingersof the picking handto pluck additionalnotes. Finger picking styles,whilst often not possessingthe picking power or timbral consistency of the plectrum,offer numerouspicking options:the thumb can be usedto play basslines 210 andmelodic passages - whena particulartimbral weight is required - whilst the index,middle and annularfingers (the little finger is lessoften used),provide 211 harmonicand melodic material. In summationfinger-picking or hybrid-picking stylesprovide a greatdegree of flexibility andthe possibility of combiningbass- lines, rhythmic interjections and melody lines simultaneously, they are therefore morecommonly used in acousticguitar styleswhere the function of the instrument is to providemultiple musicalroles, rhythmic, percussive, harmonic and melodic.

Plectrumtechniques offer an evennessof timbre, a strongpercussive rhythmic texture,increased volume and are often usedwhen a performeris working with otherchordal instruments and there is lessnecessity to undertakesimultaneous multi-functional roles. In my own practice, I have developed plectrum and finger picking techniquesto achievea broadrange of performancepossibilities and variation:for example,plectrum techniques are used in Tut it In The Pocket',

210 The thumbprovides more flesh andmass with which to strike the string. 211 The soundproduced by the thumb and fingersmay differ, and consistencyof timbreacross all fingersis difficult to achieve.

p. 124 'Mmm Interesting'and Its Not My Fault' and finger picking techniquesin Dark, and'Afro-Diz'.

- Tunings

The fact that the instrumentcan be retunedeasily, unlike fixed pitch instruments suchas the pianoor accordion,has made experimentation with tuning systems

commonplace.Although alternativetuning systemsare used on the electric guitar,

this is less common and the tunings used are usually derived from the acoustic

guitar.It is worth noting that the guitarsstandard tuning, from low to high E-A-D-G-

B-E, wherefour string pairsare tuned an interval of a fourth apartwith one pair, the

secondand third, tuned a major third apart, is an anomalous system and a

contrivanceto maintain a separationbetween the top and bottom strings of two

octaves.The advantageof the standardsystem is that it makesthe playing of six

string-barre-chordspossible and this aids the guitarist to move easily between

differentkey centres;this factorwas crucialto the instrumentsmodern development

as it produceda guitar which could functioneffectively in the diatonic music

traditions.However, the standardtuning derivedfrom nineteenth-centuryEuropean

systemsis only one of manypossibilities, the desirefor the acousticguitarist to

experimentwith tunings,which aremore suited to particularmusical genres and

styles,is naturaland is commonin global guitar practice.

Bob Brozmancomments:

the diatonicEuropean system of music is, in fact, the odd manout in

world music cultures,the restof the world preferringthe more

mathematicallysimple and therefore natural-sounding modal approach.Open

tuningsnot only facilitatethis, but alsoprovide dronestrings, making self-

p. 125 accompanimentmuch easier. For exampleOpen G major tuning occursin

the guitarmusic of: Hawaii, Mississippi,west Africa, southAfrica,

Philippines,India, Mexico, [and] SouthAmerica. 212

Many guitaristsuse open tuning systems,both to resolvethe complexityand difficulty of playing solo acousticguitar and in the pursuitof new timbres,these tuningswith their easeof accessto dronenotes and simpleprimary chordsare particularlysuited to modaltonalities and musicthat remainsin the samekey ccntre and as such often simple vemacular music.213 In some casesthis simplification and naturalnessmay be also a musicallimitation, Bob Brozmanargues strongly for the validity andvalue of modaltonalities as beingpredominant around the world and that diatonic music systemsonly account for only '20% of music', the rest being made up of rhythm, pitch variation and percussion.214 Whilst open tuning systems may limit the harmoniccomplexity of music,they offer a rich paletteof timbral possibilities creating resonant chordal voicings, multiple drones, increasedmelodic development-micro-tonal systemswhen used in conjunctionwith a slide, percussivepossibilities and tuning systemsthat reflect the characteristicsof the instrument; the guitar is not attempting a 'musical transvestism' as suggestedearlier by Grunfeld,it is usedto performin specificallyguitaristic modes of practice.Bob

Brozmangoes further by sayingthat Westerndiatonic music hasprobably run its courseas all the new developmentsare in the modal systemsof global music rather

212 Smith.Christopher J., 'The Celtic guitar: crossingcultural boundariesin the twentiethcentury' in Bennet,Andy andDawe, Kevin, (eds.), Guitar Cultures (Oxford andNew York: Berg,2001), 232. 213Interview with JamesBirkett, CD #6 PhD portfolio. 214 In conversationwith Bob Brozmanat BeckfootHouse, Cumbria on 26.11.06

126 thanwesternised diatonic traditions -a contentiousbut thoughtprovoking point. A referenceto commonly used tunings is included in section 7.0: Tunings.

- Percussive qualities

Soprevalent are the useof percussivestrikes on both the stringsand the guitar body that the acousticguitar could almostbe consideredas a tuned-percussioninstrument.

As the resonatingstrings of the guitarare amplified through the flexible membrane of the soundboard,the instrumentresponds to percussivestrikes, whether they be the picking action of the performer and the variable dynamic attack of notes and chords, or physical strikes and slaps on the guitar; it is this percussive quality which very clearlyseparates the acousticinstrument from the solid-bodiedelectric guitar.

JamesBirkett comments:

the instrumentis fundamentallybuilt you areusing way that the ...to createthe music,the materialit is madefrom, the actualdesign, structure and resonance,

you are using that as part of the music, you are absolutely not using that with

215 an electricguitar.

Althoughthe body of the electricguitar does have an effect on the soundand

resonanceof the instrument,it is muchless pronounced and utilised as a musical

parameterthan in the caseof the acousticguitar. Al Di Meloa talking aboutthe

experienceof playing acoustic guitar with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia says:

You can't strum an electric the way we strum acoustics. You can switch from

rhythmto leadvery comfortablyon acoustic,but not on electric.It's easierto

havea conversationon acoustic.216

215Interview with JamesBirkett, CD 46 PhD portfolio. 216Al di Meola in Guitar PlayerMagazine: March 1981(USA: GPI Publications, 1981).

p. 127 The percussiveaspect of the instrumenthas long existedin the rhythmically dynamicmusic of Flamenco,where the guitar style is characterisedby the useof

Ggolpes'(blows, or fingernail strokes)on the instrument'ssoundboard and the striking of the body of the guitar with the fingersand hands.Using the percussive qualitiesof the guitar hasbecome extremely popular and almostde rigour for the contemporarysolo guitaristwith playerssuch as Tommy Emmanueland Antonio

Forcionehaving absorbed the techniqueinto their live performancesand particular

exponentsThomas Deeb and Kaki King have made it a central part of their

217 performancetechniques.

Usingthe materialfrom which the instrumentis madeto producepercussive and

dynamic qualities producesa very physical reaction, JamesBirkett again comments:

it is definitely a physical interaction; this is a very personal physical

relationshipthat you havewith the makingof notesand the sound,and the

vibration of those notes through your body.218

The acousticresponds differently to the electricguitar andthe playerinteraction

with the instrumentis moreof a physicalfull-body experience.The electrificationof

the instrumenthas detached the soundsource from a personalphysical interaction

with the instrumentto a separateddetached sound and althoughthis mediationwith

electricityand amplificationhas created new timbresand sonic landscapea

fundamentalphysicality has been lost.

- Sonic characteristics and timbre

217King, Kaki, Legs To Make Us Longer (RedInk WK92426,2004). '18Interview with JamesBirkett 1.11.06,CD 46 PhD portfolio.

p. 128 A characteristicof the instrumentis its relativelyshort sustain,the initial transient createdby the strike of the pick or finger diminishesvery quickly and it is this short percussivetransient to eachnote that encouragesthe performanceof particularstyles

- finger picking, rhythmic strummingand the rapid executionof notes.Long sustainednotes are not possiblebut a notecan be extendedby using a slide, tremolandopicking and vibrato: a bottleneckor slide extendsthe sustainof the note by applyingan exaggeratedvibrato, the 'slide' is movedrapidly backwardsand forwardsalong the lengthof the string,encircling the chosenpitch and usingthe friction betweenthe string and slide to produceadditional vibration; with tremolandopicking a note is repeatedlypicked to extendthe duration;applying vibratoby pushingand pulling a string acrossa fret extendsthe lengthof the note.

This lack of sustainencourages the playingof manynotes, if long sustainednotes arenot possibleplayers will tendto fill out silencesby playing more notes.The lack of sustainalso encourages the useof open-stringsas dronesand sympathetic tonalities:when playing a frettednote if the openstrings are not dampedthey will

resonantsympathetically with the selectedpitch andthis devicecan be used

effectively.The useof open-stringsis disfavouredin someguitar styles,particularly

whenthe guitar is playing a melody,as the consistencyof timbre producedby using

all frettednotes is consideredto be preferableand the uncontrolledsustain of an

open-stringcan cause problems when amplified. Whilst open-stringsmay be utilised

for their simplicity of use,in providing the simpleharmonic language of vernacular

music,execution of primarychords and the resonantpower of unrestrictedopen-

strings,they can alsobe usedin sophisticatedways to exploit the naturalresonances

of the instrument- it is to take advantageof openstrings that flamencoguitarists

play in the first position.Acoustic guitar playersimplicitly makeuse of these

p. 129 resonancesas dronenotes, pivotal points for ostinatos,additional or optional note choices in finger picking, 'harping', open-tunings, when using a capo and in extendedchordal voicings; all of thesetechniques are used copiously in the portfolio.

3.5 PerformanceStyle: virtuosity and repertoire

In referenceto flamencoguitar playing,Peter Manuel refers to 'guitar-technique fetishists, who hoot and howl after every lightning sixteenth-note run', a similar responsecan be witnessedduring the performancesof manycontemporary acoustic players,where there is an expectation of virtoustic performance and great importance is placed on the performers ability to amazethe audience with a display of technicalbrilliance. 219 This is in someway inevitable,in that the solo-guitar playeris performingto an audiencethat demandsentertainment; Maurice

Summerfield views this is as nothing new as performers have always vied for attentionin an extremelycompetitive mass market, Paganini, for example,was renownedfor his flamboyantand extravagant viroustic displays. The link between musicand entertainment is so stronglywoven that it is to be expectedthat an audiencewill at times expectto be amazedby virtoustic dexterityas well as musical andinterpretive ability. This compoundedwith an increasingemphasis on visual performancewill alsodemand a greatervisual display.Perhaps the guitar at this point in the 21" centuryhas matured to a similar point to that achievedby the violin

in the middle 19thcentury. Has the guitar reacheda nadir, a summativepoint, have

219 Manuel,Peter, Flamenco guitarý history, style, status in Coelho.Victor A., (ed.), TheCambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2003),23.

p. 130 all of the substantialtechniques now emergedand developed, is all that remains, apartfrom compositionaldevelopment, pastiche, novelty andvirtoustic display- an aestheticgrounded in techniqueand an expressionof style over substance?In conversationwith JamesBirkett he refersto the presenceof a fretboardolympics andthe way in which performersare graded in accordancewith their ability to performtricks ratherthan expressa compositionalor interpretativeability: 'the pyrotechnicsare just part of the firework displaythat is releasedhere and there,but is not a central point of the performing experience', there is a place for virtoustic displayin all music performancesbut this shouldn'tbe the primary focusof any performance.220 Whilst youngerperformers and lessexperienced guitarists may be dazzledby the exciting pyrotechnics, whether it is on electric or acoustic guitar, it is questionablewhether the music is enhancedrather than backedinto a cornerand limited by an over emphasison the techniqueof the individual performancerather than the broader development of a repertoire base. Is there a problem when contemporarymusic is derivedfrom an individualisticapproach rather than a communalestablishing of repertoire?James Birkett asks:

'How much is establishedas repertoire... in the sameway that Segoviain

manyways set up the repertoirefor Classicalguitar' and 'Is the virtuoso

thing, the one of waysof attractingattention and gettingan audience... you

almost have to draw attention to yourself as being a phenomenabecause

thereis no establishedrepertoire baseT

Theseare valid questionsbut probablyquestions that apply to largeareas of popular

musicpractice. If thereis not a 'systematicbase line setof techniquesas againthere

arefor the classicalguitar', this personalisingof the instrumentproduces an arenain

220Interview with JamesBirkett CD #6 PhD portfolio

131 which performancetricks may be at the expenseof a musicaland compositional logic andperformance becomes so personalisedthat the 'soundworld' that an individualcan create may be impossibleto recreatefor another.221 It hasto be recognisedthat compositionserves a different function for the solo performerwhere

it is often as a vehicle for their own technicaldisplay, and that entertainmentvalue,

which hasalways been a part of musicperformance, becomes increasingly important

in a massmarket where individual playershave to establishparticular stylistic

markers in order to gain any recognition.

4.0 PERSONAL CREATIVE PRACTICE

4.1 Formative development

My first substantial memory of the guitar is of watching the Beatles perform 'She 222 Loves You' on Thank Your Lucky Stars. The power of the music, the physical

presenceof the Beatles, the exotic clothes and rebellious long hair, combined with

the screamingadoration of teenagegirls were instantlyarticulated with an

instrumentthat seemedto offer entrdeinto an adult sexualisedworld - the electric

guitar.Although I must haveseen and heard guitars before this time, I had never

beenso affectedby, and felt suchan inextricablefascination with, a musical

instrument.

As an electric instrument was well beyond my meagre income as a paper-boy,

I boughta very cheapacoustic guitar from a second-handshop; it was cheapbecause

severalof the strings were rusty, some of the machine-heads(tuning pegs) were

damagedand the guitar could only be tuned with the aide of a pair of pliers. What

"' Interviewwith JamesBirkett CD #6 PhD portfolio. 22222 nd August 1963,Thank Your Lucky Stars:ABC Production.

p. 132 constitutedan 'electric' guitar was a completemystery to me, but the boy next door, a teddy-boyin his mid-20's, confidently explainedthat mains-voltageelectricity

(240volts) ran through the guitar strings and that is why electric guitarists used plectrums,to havethe fingersof the fretting handon the stringsat the sametime as the picking hand would result in electrocution- an imaginative if somewhat misguidedexplanation. I did for some time consider wiring the strings of my acoustic instrument to the mains to see if this would work, luckily, when I mentioned this theory to my father his reaction halted my invention of a truly electrifiedguitar.

Growing up in a mining village in County Durham during the 1950sand 60s, my experience of the guitar and access to guitar players was through a limited exposure to guitar music on television, radio, and records and not through real-life encounters;unknown to me, severalother people in my locality were undergoing similar experiences.The 'otherness' of the guitar, created by this senseof distance, addedto the exoticismof the instrumentand its playersand heightenedmy sensesto the existenceof anotherparallel exciting world. The guitar to me was an exotic and remoteinstrument and articulatedwith my adolescentideas of glamour,youth and

excitement.

owe my formative musical training to five sources, my father, radio,

television,recordings and the Christianchurch: a curious mix of the pious and the

profane.My fatherwas a self-taughtmulti-instrumentalist whose musical experience

and repertoire,as an anglicisedScotsman, was confined to popular Scottishsongs;

with his skills he helped me to tune the guitar and identify simple chords. The

learningof music as demonstratedby my father and grandfatherwas primarily an

aural process, one learnt by doing, when watching my grandfather play the

p. 133 harmonicaand asking him how I could learnto play, he replied,"Ach its easyson all you do is bla, suck, bla, suck, suck, suck, bla" and it surely is, the result is a major scale. Having establishing a strong auto-didactic ethos, I listened intently to recordingsand becameincreasingly successful in mimicking the guitar parts on records.This processwas alternatelyone of puzzlementand frustration followed by a great senseof fulfilment when I succeededin playing (often inaccurately)my favourite guitar lines - the JamesBond theme tune was a particular milestone.

Although I was unaware of the importance of nurturing aural skills, this exploratory and experiential process of learning would enable me to later freely interact with

musicand musiciansfrom other auraltraditions. Conversely my experiencewith the

available peclagogic materials was less useful, an attempt to learn from Bert

Weedon's 'Play In a Day', the instructional manual that is cited by many as their

introductionto guitar playing, was of limited value: the chord shapeswritten as

chord diagrams were useful but the notated tunes were of little value to someone

who had embarkedon an aural musical education.223 1 discoveredlater that there

wereother tuitional materialsavailable, of which I was unawareat the time, but the

practice of using standardnotation and the limited stylistic range of materials

availablewould probablynot havebeen of interestto me (seesection on pedagogy).

Perhapsthe most unexpectedinterface with the 'devil's music' was my association

with the local church and church youth club, which led me to spending two summers

at a Christiansummer camp on the Northumberlandcoast. 224 This was a formative

and enlighteningexperience as, removedfrom the confinesof pit-village life, I was

223 Weedon,Bert, Bert Weedon'sPlay in a Day - Guide To Modern Guitar Playing (London:Chappell Music Ltd., 1957).

p. 134 exposedto other young people who came from a broad geographic and social spectrum.Here I met three particularguitar players,who being severalyears older than me, had a much wider experienceof music: from them I learnt to finger-pick and was exposed to the songs and guitar styles of progressive-folk-guitarist Bert

Jansch,blues and embryonic attempts at jazz-guitar. This was a true epiphany for me

(musicalnot religious), as I could watch closely and play alongsideplayers whose knowledgeand experiencewas more advancedthan my own. This experience convergedwith my growing awarenessof an emerging music counterculture (1968), a new cohort of acoustic performers, Bob Dylan, Donavan, Nick Drake, John

Martyn and Michael Chapman and a tradition of exciting guitar music. The problem was finding this music as it was rarely broadcast; the solution necessitated a determinedsearch for old recordings.One of the most influential recordingsI found was a recording of American rural-blues,the discovery of which led to a rich musical seam in which the acoustic-guitar was central and its proponents played in an unorthodoxand compelling manner. A fascinationwith the historicaltraditions of the acoustic-guitarhad begun.

Concurrentlythe allure of the exotic andhighly sexualisedworld of the electricguitar led me in anotherdirection, one which would give me the opportunity to performand, importantly, to makemoney. The sonichegemony of the electric

guitar sidelined the acoustic-guitar for many years to performances in small social

anddomestic settings and a seriousreturn to the instrumentdidn't comeabout until

the first electro-acousticguitars became available and re-establishedthe possibility

of public performance.Having worked as a guitar playerfor approximately39 years,

224 The churchhall would later becomethe venuefor rehearsingmy first bandand first 'gig' in front of an audience.

p. 135 playing electric guitar in a wide range of performance settings, it was not until the early 1980sthat the technical limitations of acoustic amplification were sufficiently resolvedfor the new electro-acousticguitar to be introducedinto live performance.

Acousticguitar music had neverleft the performancestage, but to the working professional,there were so manytechnical issues to resolvethat until a simple

methodof amplificationemerged, the piezotransducer, the instrumentwas

unpredictable,subject to feedback,poor quality sound,and a lack of volume.

4.2 Current Practice

My practice is located in the concreteexperience of performance,composition,

recording, and education and my experience as a performer, composer, and producer

of guitar music provides a strong contextual base from which to consider

contemporarypractice. I have performedon the guitar on radio, television, movie

sound-tracks, vinyl and CD releases,toured in the United Kingdom, Europe, Eire

and Romania,performed at major festivals and venues,composed and recorded

music,transcribed recordings, been the joint recipient of an Arts Council of Great

Britain touring award and composition commission, written tuitional articles for an

internationalpublishing magazine,worked as an educatoron an bachelorof music

honours degree programme in jazz, popular and commercial music and have

deliveredspecialist perfonnance workshops.

I continueto performon both electricand acousticguitar, but havebecome

increasinglyfascinated by the acousticinstrument: its history and musical

developmentencompassing a wide rangeof diverseguitar practice,much of which

predatesthe developmentof the electricguitar pick-up. In addition, I havebecome

increasinglyaware of the acousticguitar as an instrumentthat is separateand

136 distinctfrom the electricguitar, an instrumentthat is definedby its acousticnature andit is this differencethat hasbecome increasingly fascinating for me.

4.3 Acoustic Guitar Practice

The compositionalframework is purposefullyguitar-centric (instrument specific) andis intendedto highlight the mechanisms,structurally and contextuallythat influence the guitarist as a composer/arranger.225 All of the pieces in the portfolio have beenwritten to highlight the expressiveperformance and sonic characteristics of the instrument, 'The Black Isle' for example is performed in a DADGAD tuning, oftenused in Celtic guitar music,and it is from the inherentresonances offered by this modal tuning that the composition draws, in contrast, 'For You' employs a less

guitar-centric, more abstract compositional approachthat develops through different

key centres,at timestonally at othertimes in parallelharmonic shifts, to producea

pieceof musicthat could be performedon any instrument.Whilst the guitaristic

natureof 'The Black Isle' is self evident,'For You' providesan explorationthe

guitarstimbre byjuxtaposingit in a settingwhich reliesupon the fore fronting

qualitiesof the recordingmedium to featurethe guitar as a melodic and improvising

instrument.The settingof the guitar differs but it is the timbral and harmonicpalette

of the guitarthat is the centralfocus of the composition.Although someof the

piecescould be performed on other instruments they are intended to function as

'guitaristic' that is guitar-centredcompositions that expressspecific performance

225 Structurally:the inherentcharacteristics of the instrument;pitch range,timbre, tunings,string gauge,and tension. Contextually: style and idiomatic factors,groove, form andrhythmic style.

p. 137 characteristicsof the instrumentand importantlythe performancestyle of the performer(s).

In developingan instrumentspecific approach to composition,it is essentialto understandthe performanceand physical characteristics of the instrumentfrom which the performanceelements of the musiccan be drawn.These can be divided

into physicalcharacteristics: the limitationsof the instrumentimposed by its design

andperformance characteristics: the variousways in which the instrumentcan be

played.

- Physical characteristics:

tuning: the standardtuning of the instrument produces fixed pitched notes

between E2 and B5 (in some casesC5) a span of approximately three octaves

anda fifth. This rangecan be alteredby usingdifferent tuning systems.See

section 7: Tunings;

chordalvoicings: the standardsix-string guitar limits the voicing of any chord

to six simultaneouspitches and in somecases, where adjacent voices are

separatedby small intervals,six separatepitches cannot be used;

stringgroupings: variations in the groupingof stringsare relatively common,

the most commonbeing the 12 string instrument,where the bottomthree

strings have an additional course of strings tuned an octave higher and the top

threestrings a coursetuned in unison.Many variationsto this exist, the most

commonbeing the nine-stringguitar used by Lonnie Johnsonand Big Bill

Broonzywhere only the top threestrings are doubled;

138 scale-length:the distancebetween the nut andthe bridge differs dependingon

the manufacturer;some are designed with a longerscale length to maintain

moretension when slack tunings are used;

body shape:some guitars are designedwith a single cutaway to the lower part

of the guitarbody adjacentto the neckjoint, the 'cutaway', in a half circle

shape,facilitates access to the higherfrets;

necklength: most modemacoustic guitar are fitted with a guitar neckthat

joins the body at the 14'hfret,however the neck on nylon-strungclassical

guitarsand somesteel-string guitars joins the body at the 12'hfret. Luthiers

preferthe 12thfretjoint as it createsa greaterdistance between the soundhole

and the bridge creating more resonancein the soundboard.

- Performance characteristics:

sustain:the limited amountof sustainmake it particularlysuited for rhythmic

andpercussive strokes and maintaining definition betweenrapidly executed

notes in finger-picking styles and single string runs;

volume level: limits its performancerole;

dynamiclevel: althoughthe guitar is a relatively quiet instrument,certainly in

relationto otherchordal instruments, for examplethe piano,accordion or

banjo, it can produce a wide range of dynamic levels;

open strings: the presenceof 'open' strings has impacted on the keys in which

guitarmusic is often written and performed.Consequently there is a tendency

for guitarcompositions, particularly arrangements that don't featurea bass

player,to be in keyswhere an openstring canbe usedas a tonic or dronenote:

p. 139 226 E major /minor, A major /minor, D major /minor, G major /minor.

Althoughthis is sometimesseen as a limitation, it doesencourage the useof

openstrings in creativeways: open strings can be usedas drone notes,strong

resonancesin chordvoicings and alternativenote choicesto producetimbral

variation;

0 tunings:the ability to retunethe guitar allows for a largedegree of

performance flexibility;

0 percussion:the percussivenature of the instrument allows for strikes, blows

andtaps on the stringsand guitar body,to be incorporatedinto performance;

0 picking styles: common to other stringed instruments, the strings can be

strummed, plucked with fingers, fingernails or picks;

0 pitch alteration: the pitch of individual or combinations of strings can be

alteredby using a slide, bendsand vibrato; the timbre of eachnote canbe

varied in many ways and micro-tonal pitches and elaborate glissandos created;

the ability to play the samenote in severaldifferent positionson the guitar

allows in someinstances for up to five timbral variationsfor any singlenote.

4.4 CompositionalPractice

'All art is a synthesisof improvisationand order 227

The compositions, whilst paying homageto historical and idiomatic traditions, attempt to explore new juxtapositions, contemporary performance techniques, and the soniccharacteristics of the instruments.There is no overarchingthematic narrativethat servesto unify the work, as in a large-scalecomposition, but a series

226 The rangeof 'open' keyscan be simply extendedby using a capo(capo dastra) on higherfrets. 227Mike Leigh (Film director):The SouthBank ShowOctober 13thOctober 2002.

140 of discretecompositions each of which attemptto engagewith performanceand idiomaticcontexts. The intentionof the compositionsvary in that someprovide a transmutabletext, a notatedscore - an artifactthat could be usedfor further performance,others are performer-centred and aim to expressesthe musical characterof the performer.The harmoniclanguage is varied,in someexamples the harmonicschema is driven by an abstractedmusical logic and at other times by guitaristicpractice, in otherwords, at timesthe harmonicvocabulary is advanced and contains several key changes,parallel and diatonic harmony and many chromaticalterations as in 'For You' and in other occasionsthe harmonicscheme is intentionallysimple as in 'Afro-Dizwhich is basedon the to useof dronesand ostinatos.This concords with Peter Manuel's comments on the relatively simple harmonic languageof Flamenco guitar, where guitar harmonic practice 'evolved in directconnection with the guitar ratherthan developingas an abstractharmonic repertoire along the lines of Western common practice'; he is making the point that guitarstyles have adopted, stylized and sometimessimplified a harmoniclanguage to suit the instrumentand this is particularlyevident where the guitar is usedin modalopen-tunings and the emphasisis on othermusical elements rather than 228 harmonic complexity. The compositional processat times reflects Western

notationalpractice and at othersan aural 'organic' approachin which performance

and improvisation are integral to the compositional method, Channon comments

that: 'In the Afro-Americantradition, compositionand performanceare part of a

228Manuel, Peter 'Flamenco guitar: history, style and status' in Coelho. Victor A., (ed.), TheCambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2003), 30.

141 singleact', an acknowledgementthat the distinctionbetween composition and

229 performanceis not alwaysfixed.

I recognizethe way in which my musicalideas and expressionare drawnfrom my own performing and listening experienceand the assertionsof Julia Kristeva's that all textsto somedegree owe their existenceto othertexts; how true this is in relationto musicthat is groundedwithin andreflects the practiceof musicalstylistic families.230 Where evidence of musicalinfluence and quotationwas an issuefor modernists,the non-linearity of postmodernism is accepting of the polymorphous existenceof auraltraditions: without musicalinfluence and quotationaural music would not exist. In adding to an instrument-specific musical tradition, where musical

and instrumental practice is the product of a 'guitaristic' approach, how can this be

denied?If our lives areconstructs derived from an amalgamof experiences,how

elsedo we learnother than through mimicking? In my own experienceof learningto

play guitar in the late 1960s,the only method available to an aspiring player (outside

of classicaland dance band guitar) was the 'aural' studyingof others,a process

which involvedlistening to vinyl recordsin an attemptto absorband replicatewhat

washeard; it is throughthese processes of absorbinga musicallanguage and

performancestyle that auraltraditions endure. However, when style is casually

drawnfrom a broadrange of historicaland cultural referentsand becomesseparated

from a musical context, the resultant hybridisation of style could be considered as an

appropriationand watering down of othermusical cultures. I would arguethat

becauseall of the compositionsare intendedfor performanceon a particular

instrumentand therefore adapted to the musicalcharacter of that instrumenta new

229Channan, Michael, Repeated Takes (London and New York: Verso, 1995),52. 230Kristeva, Julia, Serniotike(Paris: Tel Quel, 1969).

142 contextis automaticallycreated. In additionthe nomadicnature and flexibility of the guitarhas always encouraged the guitaristto draw from andadapt the music around them.

In summationtherefore, the compositionsare intendedfor performanceon the acousticguitar, and to a largedegree, they arean expressionof my own musical personality.I recognisethe inherentweaknesses in suchan approach,in that being so performer-centred,my own idiosyncrasiesare overly exposed,and attemptingto cover such a wide range of styles may be over ambitious. However, the breadth of approachreflects my own varied musical history and the realization of the portfolio establishesa specific set of personal and musical challenges.

4.5 Modalities of Creative Practice

It hasbeen my intentionthus far, to establisha contextfor contemporarypractice through undertaking a nuancedand reflective study of the synchronic and diachronic

factorsthat haveshaped the musicalcharacter of the acousticguitar, the instruments

historicaldevelopment, and its relationshipto broadercultural practice.Although I

am awareof the potentialdifficulties of drawinga history backwardsfrom the

presentand the dangersin drawingconclusions from narrativehistories (as

discussedin section2.1), 1consider that a cohesiveargument for the impactof

specific historical and cultural practices has been developed and clearly articulated.

The valueof carryingout suchdetailed research is in establishinga contextfor my

own work andone that servesto inform my own creativepractice. As a practitioner

of approximatelyforty yearsI am awarethat my own development,and in

has been probabilitythat of manyothers, often the resultof randomencounters -

ratherthan a linearprogression, therefore the opportunityto systematicallyresearch

p. 143 andcodify the factorsthat haveinfluenced contemporary practice provides an invaluablebase from which my own work canbe considered.

Wherelarge-scale compositions achieve artistic unity through the presenceof an overarching aesthetic or philosophicaltheme, the unity of this portfolio, which is comprisedof a seriesof discretecompositions, is drawn from the expositionof instrumentspecific composition: it is the performancecharacteristics of the instrumentthat arebeing explored rather than an abstractedtheme. It is useful therefore,in consideringthe essenceof contemporarypractice, to attemptto define specificperformance criteria andpropose a seriesof modalitiesthat circumscribe this diversity of practice. Drawing on my researchinto the development of contemporarypractice it becomesevident that three distinct, but not always discrete,

modesof practice can be proposed,and where each focuseson specific aspectsof

performativity, compositional practice, and mediation by technology. It is not

intendedthat each mode is distinct and discrete as it is acceptedas axiomatic that

somemusical pieces may overlap particular modes, this is not however considered

as a weaknessor a flaw in the proposition as the purpose of defining modes is purely

structural - it provides a framework in which creative practice can be developed.

Therefore the portfolio is presentedin three parts, three recorded sections, each

representinga particular working mode. Each mode encompasses,in varying

degrees,performance, composition improvisation, and an engagementwith

technology.Written notationis used,as appropriateto the practice,but the recording

is consideredto be the finishedartifact: it is within the recordedperformance that all

of the creativemusical elements are encapsulated. The scoresfunction as working

documents;they havebeen produced as part of the compositionalprocess rather than

for live performance(except in modality #3). As materialhas beendeveloped during

144 the recordingprocess, some updating of the scoreshas taken place but this hasonly beendone on a pragmaticbasis and where necessary, the scorestherefore serve to conveyspecific information and are not alwaysintended as discretedocumented compositions.

Thethree modalities of creativepractice:

1. Technological:practice that fully embracesand interactswith technologyand

wherethe effectsof this interactionare intentionaland evident.

Traditional: practice where technology functions only to record the music and

to simulateacoustic environments.

3. Interactive:where the creativeemphasis is placedupon improvisationand the

interaction of performers and where the performance takes place in real time

and in real spaces.Technology functions only to record the music and to

simulateacoustic environments.

Eachmodality is intendedto expressparticular characteristics of the instrument

notablythe acousticquality andguitaristic nature but in addition is centredwithin a

particularmode of practice.

#1: Technological - Modality

Practicethat fully embracesand interactswith technologyand wherethe effect of

this interactionis intentionaland evident.

p. 145 Primarycharacteristics:

practitioner/producer: digital recording systems,notational software packages

andthe intertextualprocesses of creativepractice, as outlined in Chapter#2,

havemade it possiblefor a musicianto function as a lone practitionerby

taking on severalor all of the creativeroles, composer, arranger, performer,

engineerand producer and only employingthe servicesof other performersas

necessary;

instrumental balance: any instrument, regardlessof their inherent sonic

characteristicscan be juxtaposed with other instrumentsin any musicalsetting.

The sonic emancipation of the acoustic guitar -a product of the interfacing

with sound technology - allows the, often intimate, musical voice of the

guitar to be fore-fronted in any ensemble;

sonicmanipulation: when recorded and particularlywhen the audio sound

sourceis digitized,the resultantcode can be endlesslymanipulated and

altered;this hasresulted in the acousticguitar being reunitedwith the electric

guitarin its ability to createan almostlimitless sonicpalette.

- Modality #2: Traditional

Practicewhere technology functions, primarily, to recordperformance and is evident

only the processof recording and the simulating of acoustic environments.

Primarycharacteristics:

formal (notated)and intuitive (improvised)modes of compositionthat express

the acousticqualities of the instrument;

solo and small ensembleperformance: compositions arranged for the solo-

guitar,guitar-duo, and, guitar andpercussion;

p. 146 guitar-centriccomposition: the compositionsserve to expressspccif ic

idiomaticperformance characteristics of the instrument.

- Modality # 3: Interaction and Improvisation

This modeldraws upon processes of improvisationand interactionthat occur in a varietyof performancesettings. The relationshipto technologyis simple in that digital technologyallows the recordingof expansivetracts of music without the

limitations of material cost:

interaction: the creative emphasisis placed upon the musical interaction

betweenselected performers brought together to create music in real time and

in real spaces;

interpretative and improvisational skills: the compositional stimuli vary from

completearrangements to 'lead sheets'and skeletalmusical stimuli that the

performers realize through their own interpretative and improvisational skills.

5.0 THE RECORDED PORTFOLIO AND COMMENTARIES

p. 147 The intentionof this sectionis to providea contextfor the recordedtracks, not just as individualpieces, but also in relationto the positedcreative modes. To aid clarity the portfolio andthe commentariesare presented in threeparts where each

correspondsto a particularmode. In eachsection, a brief outline of eachrecording is

given,along with a moredetailed consideration of the genericmode of practicethat

drawsupon specific details from individual tracksto illustrateparticular points.In

this way, the specificaims of eachof the compositionswill be consideredin direct

relationship to the outlined modes of production.

Although three modes have been posited as descriptors of contemporary

creative practice, it should be recognised,that it was never intentional that each

individual composition should slavishly adhereto specific criteria, as to do so would

artificially distortthe natureof creativepractice. Ratherit is consideredas

axiomaticthat certaincharacteristics may appearin someor all modes;what it is

being argued, is that there exist tendenciesin each different practice that impact

uponthe musicaland creative voice andas suchare worthy of consideration.

- Modality# 1: Technological (CD #1)

The intentionof eachrecording/composition in this sectionis to expressthe

particularperformance and musical characteristics that result from the interactionof

performance,composition, and technology. As previouslyoutlined, the interaction

betweenthe acousticinstrument and technological processes has had a significant

effecton performanceand compositionalpractice, and the instrumentssonic

characteristics.It is takenas axiomaticthat the degreeto which this interfacewith

technologyis overtly apparentin the finishedrecordings will vary as it is often in the

148 processof producingthe musicthat working methodologieshave beenmost greatly influenced.

This sectionis comprisedof five compositions:Lydian Dance,For You, It's Not My

Fault, Songsof Summer Past, Put It In The Pocket.

- Lydian Dance:the rhythmicfeel of the track is basedon a Salsadance

stylewhere the rhythmicpulse is providedby congas,shaker and triangle andthe

acousticbass plays a bass line which varies between playing an accented semi-

quaver before the 2nd and 4th beatsof each bar, to create a feeling of forward

momentum, and the crotchet-beatwalking bass line of the B section. The melody,

derived from an A Lydian mode, develops from a simple melodic motif through a

processof melodicextension and augmentation and hasbeen arranged for flute and

acousticguitar to providea contrastbetween the percussiveattack of the guitar and

the soft transientof the flute. A diatonicharmony in 3rdsand 4ths hasbeen added

to the melodyto providea texturaland harmonic contrast to the melodic motiE This

tunehas been included in this sectionas it is the processof multi-track recording

that hasallowed the freedomto experimentwith a broadrange of textural voicesfor

the acousticguitar in spreadingharmonically dense chords over two and three

guitars - in a similar way to the techniques employed by the early guitar duos.

Performers:

Guitars:Rod Sinclair

Double-bass:Neil Harland

Percussion:Paul Smith and RogerHempsall

Flute:Garry Linsley.

p. 149 - For You: ajazz ballad.The compositionis comprisedof a strongmelodic themeand a highly developedharmonic schema that alternatesbetween two contrasting sections.The arrangementjuxtaposes the acoustic guitar with a string quartet, flute, rhythm section, and a midi 'pad' that provides a chordal accompaniment.The compositionhas been arranged for two acousticguitars, double-bass,drum kit, flute, sequencedmidi pad,and a string quartetof first violin,

secondviolin, viola, andcello.

Performers:

Guitars: Rod Sinclair

Double-bass:Neil Harland

Drum kit: Paul Smith

Flute: Garry Linsley

Violin: Stuart Hardy

Strings section and midi-pad sequence:Rod Sinclair.

- It's Not My Fault: the title is takenfrom a speech-textwarning which was

usedby the Apple Macintoshcomputer operating system 9, and was often an

indicatorthat a seriousprocessing fault hadtaken place. Being so reliant during the

developmentof this portfolio upon computer software score and recording packages,

I, on severaloccasions, became the victim of technologicalfailure and learnedto

dreadthe auto-generatedcomputerized response of 'it's not my fault'. I was inspired

by this technologicaldisclaimer to write a musicalresponse that reflectedthe

postmodeminter-textual nature of computer-basedrecording. The form and musical

elementsof the pieceare angular to reflect the often-dramaticswing betweenperiods

150 of elation,when everything works smoothly,and frustrationwhen computersseem to havetheir own agenda.

Performers:

Guitars,Rod Sinclair

Double-bass,Neil Harland

Drum kit, PaulSmith

Hammond Organ, Gerry Richardson

Sequences:Rod Sinclair.

- Songs of Summer Past: a composition with a melody that could also be

used for the setting of lyrics. The standardtuning system of the guitar where

adjacentstrings are tuned in intervals of fourths (with the exception of the major

third intervalbetween strings three and two) makesthe playing of chordsbuilt from

a quartal harmony to be relatively easy.The A section of the composition tune

makesuse of this particularfeature by embellishingthe main melodictheme with

elementsof quartalharmony; this is thencontrasted with the B sectionwhich usesa

ternaryharmony. The title of the compositionreflects the songlike melodyand the

lyrical flowing quality of the instrumentation.The melodyand improvisationare

played on a nylon-string guitar - the Americanised version of the 'Spanish' guitar

- which is usedto contrastwith a rhythm sectionin which severalof the

instrumentshave been sequenced and the soundsgenerated from midi triggered

samplesand loops. The useof sequencedinstruments playing soundsamples is a

consciousdecision as the instrumentsare intendedto soundsequenced rather than an

imitationof acousticinstruments, as is often the case,and contrastwith the acoustic

guitarsand percussion. In additionto the acousticallyrecorded guitar, the digital

P.151 audiofile hasbeen duplicated and converted to a midi-signal.that has beenused to trigger other sample soundsto create further textural opportunities and emphasise, thejuxtaposition of the organicand the technological.

Guitarsand sequences: Rod Sinclair

Percussionloops: Roger Hempsall

- Put It In the Pocket: a simple and repetitive composition in a 'funk'

idiom where the musical interest is provided by the rhythmic pulse and interplay of

the rhythmsection instruments, the textural contrastof acousticand electric

instruments,and the guitar improvisation. The tune is purposefully simple in both

form and melodic content as my intention was to emphasisthe strong rhythmic

characteristicsof funk music as expressedin the title 'Put It In the Pocket', where, in

popularmusic parlance, 'in the pocket' describesthe effect of achievingan effective

groove. A substantial difference exists in relation to most music from this genre in

that acousticguitars and double-bass have replaced the idiomatically standard

4electric'bass and guitar,and the 'horn' sectionconsists of flugel horn and tenor

saxophoneto providea light texturallybalanced response to the acousticguitar.

Performers:

Guitars:Rod Sinclair

Double-bass:Neil Harland

Drum kit: Paul Smith

Tenorsaxophone: Garry Linsley

Flugelhom: DaveHignet

HammondOrgan: Gerry Richardson

Sequences:Rod Sinclair.

152 The availabilityof relativelyinexpensive technology (compared to the analogue

equivalent)allows the composerto functionas a lone producerwho calls upon the

servicesof othermusicians as necessary. All of the compositionsin this sectionhave

beenproduced (composed/recorded/mixed) with an overt useof the available

technologies.Scores have been produced using notationsoftware (Sibelius),

exported as midi-files and imported into audio/sequencingsoftware (Logic Pro7) to

function as either a template for the overdubbing of acoustic instruments, or, to

generatemidi-sounds. All of the tracksin this sectionhave been constructed from a

processof multi-tracking, sometimesfor expediency,where the same track will be

repeatedseveral times and the through a processof cut and paste techniques

assembledor 'comped' (compiled) into a single track, or where the ability to spread

musicalmaterial over severaltracks can createa particularaural effect that would be

difficult to reproduce live, for example in 'Lydian Dance' where for part of the

arrangementfour acousticguitars are used (five in bar no. 3 1). Although someof the

underlyingharmonic structures could be playedby one guitar, with somealteration

to the voicings,using severalguitars allows four and five note chordsto be voiced

acrossdifferent instrumentsto achievea wider more sonically 'open' voicing:

Section 5. rig. HI: extract from Lydian Dance

Allia7tOll) Allia7(011) G#niU7(#Il) 14 -14 At igii 4F - Guitar 41t :; t. G#Ma7(#Il) Allia7t#ll) MIAMI) 3 AD. fe ýP ...... Guitar 4 11 IF, -N- PE PE Pt pt- -pq 4 MM -k4: ý11 6-= r L. g ---. C, *#Illa7t #11) Ama7(011) Ama7(#Il) ----I

If T, AII IIIJ. Guitar Odli951! dh r- t -- -F -2 -u=-Iý-I,

p. 153 In 'It's Not My Fault', the acousticguitars in bars 17-27are doubled and spread acrossthe stereospectrum. The ability to divide chordalvoices in such a way and

duplicatetracks across a wide stereofield createsa broaderspread of chordaland

texturalvoice.

The useof acousticand synthesisedor sampledsounds in this sectionrange

from 'Lydian Dance',where all of the instrumentsare acousticallyrecorded, to

'Songs of Summer Past', where all of the instruments, except the acoustic guitars

and some percussionare sampledor synthesized.The choice of using acoustic

instrumentsor digital samplesis sometimesaesthetic and sometimes pragmatic, in

Tydian Dance' the juxtaposition of multiple acoustic guitar voices is artistic, in

'Songs of Summer Past', sequencedrhythmic loops and mediated sampled sounds

are intendedto create contrasting textural and rhythmic layers to the sonically

acousticand natural sound of the nylon-strung guitar. In It's Not My Fault',

acousticand sampled instruments are dynamic juxtaposed. Very often however, the

decisionis pragmatic,particularly when the practicalimplications of using live

instrumentsand musicians can be prohibitive, for example,in 'For You', the string

quartetparts were produced by string samples,then later the first and secondviolin

partswere overdubbed with an acousticviolin; I would haveundoubtedly preferred

to recorda full string-quartetbut the practicalimplications of time and moneywere

prohibitive. This however reflects real world practice as many professional

composersparticular in the film industryalmost exclusively use sampledorchestral

sounds:Hans Zimmer, a leadingfilm composer,has invested over a period of time

154 in a largelibrary of string,samples which he usedrecently on the feature film

Piratesof the Caribbean:At World'sEnd. "'In 'Put It in The Pocket' the useof a midi sequenceand sampledFender Rhodes piano and HammondOrgan parts(some oo arepragmatic but suitedto the repetitiverhythmic natureof this idiom.

The relativelylow volumelevel of the guitar restrictsthe size and type of ensemblein which the acousticguitar canbe performedacoustically and without the aid of additionalamplification - which alwayshas an effect on the acousticsound.

Multi track recording removesthe performance limitations of the acoustic guitar, imposedby its relatively low volume, and allows it to be recorded acoustically and mixed with any ensemblesize or type. In two of the compositions 'For You' and

'Lydian Dance', a live recording could have been attempted, although the guitar would haveto be effectivelyseparated from the rest of the ensemble,but in 'Put It In the Pocket' and 'It's Not My Fault' where the guitar is juxtaposed with a dynamicallyloud rhythm sectionthis would havebeen impossible.

Oncerecorded in the digital domainthe soniccharacter of the instrumentcan be easilymanipulated and this hasbeen used in 'Put It In the Pocket' wherethe dynamiclevel of the guitar hasbeen compressed to achievea greateroverall dynamic level and 'It's Not My Fault' which contains a reverse 12-string guitar

sample,the doubling of guitar tracks and a distorted acoustic guitar solo, and in

I Songsof SummerPast' wherethe acousticguitar signal is augmentedwith an

additionalmidi soundsample.

231 White. Paul(ed. ) Soundon SoundPirate Schemes: Film Music andThe Futureof The SampledOrchestra. (Cambridge: Media House,July 2007), p 58

P.155 In summary,this particularmode of working producesa wide rangeof flexibility in the useof resources- musicians,instruments and time, the ability to

sonicallymanipulate sound (although this can alsobe achievedin the other modes),

andopportunities to juxtaposeany instrumentregardless of its inherentvolume. The

conventionalconsiderations of the arrangerto usemultiple instrumentsto providea

balancebetween musical textures, as in orchestralarrangement, are removed.In

addition,the easeof transferringmaterial between different media- notation,midi,

digital audio files - allows a flexible range of working methods. The disadvantages

area corollaryof the advantages.The flexibility of working methodsand the ability

to manipulatethe recorded material, with virtually no limitation, can result in a

processthat is never concluded as material can always be reworked, extended, and

re-positioned.Also, the ability to work as a lone producer can separatethe producer

from the musicalstimuli of others,in a conventionalprocess of composition

rehearsal>> performance, the musiccan be informedby the input and observationsof

others.Because of the necessityof usinga 'click track' and or quantizedmidi-

sequences,when multi-tracking it requiresexperienced musicians with a high level

of interpretativeand technical skill to removethe musicalsterility of the 'click track'

andadd an appropriatefeel to the recordedperformances.

#2 Traditional (CD #2) - Modality

This modeof practiceis describedas traditional in that the working practiceof the

compositionaland recording process is largelyunaffected by technologically

practicesand all of the piecescould be performedacoustically in a live _''determined performancesituation. The compositionalprocess engages formal notatedand

p. 156 organicaural traditions to expressspecific 'guitar-centric' and acousticperformance characteristics.

This sectionis comprisedof five compositions:'A Long Way Home', 'Dark', 'Afro-

Diz', 'Sorry To SeeYou Go' and 'Hats Off to Davey'.

-A Long Way Home: the inspiration for this guitar duet came during a long carjourney and was inspired by the constant movement and rolling rhythm of the moving car. To achieve this I intended to build upon the guitar style of 'Sorry To

SeeYou Go', but with a greater focus on the development of the accompanying rhythm guitar styles. The harmonic and rhythmic structure emerged first and the melody was derived from improvising over the developing accompanying part. It is therefore a simple theme that is supported by an intricate and rhythmically strong accompaniment.This techniqueis particularlyevident in the introductionwhere guitar 2 combines walking bass lines and chordal interjections to create a strong rhythmicstatement.

Section 5, rig. #2: A Long Way Home

Intro Guitar

Eadd9. B7/E Eadd4 B7/E

Guitar -r -r -ý-r pýýr

In the B section,again the predominantinterest is in the accompanyingguitar part

that negotiatesthrough three key centres.The interactionbetween the two guitarsis

largelyrhythmic, and in particularpassages, rhythmic and melodic materialis

echoedacross the two instruments

Guitars:Rod Sinclair

p. 157 draws its from - Dark: a solo guitar piece. Dark name the use of the lower register of the guitar to play melodic themes. In solo guitar techniques the melodic material is usually played on the upper strings with the lower strings providing bass notesand the supportingharmonic material which is voiced in the registerbeneath the melodynotes. In this instance,the melodyis intentionallyvoiced in the lower registerto draw different sonoritiesfrom the guitar; this is further pronouncedby tuning the lower string down by one tone. The tempo is very slow to allow the harmonically denseresonances to project.

Guitar: Rod Sinclair

- Afro-Diz: A composition for solo guitar. The title of this composition is a

play on the wordsaphrodisiac and African and it was intendedto reflect the

stimulating and exciting effect createdby combining the strong percussive rhythms

andrepetitive musical phrases which arecharacteristic of African music.There is an

inherent dangerwhen appropriating the playing styles of the African sub-continent

in that it is easyto inadvertentlyreduce a rich tradition of highly stylized,

differentiatedmusic stylesand subtletiesof performancenuance into an

homogenisedparody; this was never intended, rather, the intention is to create a

homageto the great traditions in African music. Aware of this danger, the title

'Afro-Diz' pointsto the dizzying arrayof existingstyles, and the attemptto play

with a rangeof musicalideas drawn from African music traditions,it is not an

attemptto be a pieceof African music.The pieceis performedwith a percussion

playerplaying a Djembe.

Guitar:Rod Sinclair

158 Djernbe: Roger Hempsall

duct in bossa-nova - Sorry To SeeYou Go: a guitar a style.

Becauseof the popularity of the guitar in Latin America, it is present in many indigenousmusic styles; this is particularlytrue of bossa-nova,which was developed as a guitarstyle by playerssuch as JoaoGilberto and Luiz Bonfd. The rhythmic

underlayto this tune is a bossa-novarhythm andthe form is thirty-two bars long

beingcomprised of sectionsAl (8 bars),A2 (8 bars),B (8 bars),A2 (8 bars).The

piecewas arranged to expressthe interactionbetween the two instrumentsand this

has bcen achicvcd by closcly intcgrating the two guitars, it is not simply an

arrangementfor melody guitar and accompanying guitar, as the two parts are closely

interwovento expressthe resonanceof the instruments.

Performers

Guitar 1: Rod Sinclair

Guitar2: JamesBirkett

- Hats off to Davey: an improvisedfingerpicking tune.

As discussedearlier, the guitaristDavey Graham, spearheaded a movement in

British guitar music in the late 1950s,that drew freely on a wide source of musical

styles- traditionalEuropean folk music,American blues and jazz andthe Oud

playingof the Middle East- to producea rich paletteof musicaland sonic

possibilities.The impacthe hadon shapingcontemporary acoustic guitar practiceis

profoundas he encouragedthrough example the acousticguitarist to experiment

with new musicalforms. 'Hats off to Davey' is in recognitionof his role in shaping

p. 159 the music of the contemporary guitar.

Guitar: Rod Sinclair

This section reflects a range of guitar playing traditions and as such is guitar

centricin styleand form. The compositionalapproach, arranging methods and

performancetechniques reflect the acousticguitar in an unadornednatural state.

The compositional approachin this section of the portfolio employs both notated

and aural methods. 'Sad to SeeYou Go', 'A Long Way Home' and Dark' were

developedthrough a combination of playing and writing in a score form, in contrast

'Afro-Diz' and 'Hats off to Davey' were developed through a process of

performanceand improvisation. The method through which the music has been

developedhas a tangibleeffect on the musicalstructure of the completedpieces,

where 'Afro-Diz' and 'Hats off to Davey' are cyclic and episodic in nature, 'Sad to

SeeYou Go', 'A Long Way Home', and Dark' have a more formally structured

musicalschema with both sharingan A, A, B, A structure,but with somevariation

in the bar numbers:'Sad to SeeYou Go' -Al (8 bars),A2 (8 bars),B (10 bars),A

(8 bars) 'Dark' and 'A Long Way Home' -AI (16 bars),A2 (16 bars),B (16 bars),

A (16 bars).Differences also exist in the harmonicscheme where the two

improvised pieces are much simpler: 'Afro-Diz' is built on aD drone with a simple

harmonic progressionand 'Hats off to Davey', although predominately in A major,

containssome chromatic and parallel harmonic movement, in the otherthree the

harmonicmovement is moreadvanced, in 'A Long Way Home' the tonality is

establishedin the introductionas E major but eachA sectionstarts in the relative

minor (C# minor) beforeworking towardsa resolutionat the end of the sixteenbar

sequenceto E major.The B sectionbegins in C major, which is establishedduring a

160 two barmodulation where aG triad is suspendedover an E bassnote which progressesto aG triad suspendedover an A andthen a first inversionG triad.

Section 5, fig. #3: A Long Way Home

A. Gtr.

A. Gtr pý JE

The B section moves through three key centres C major (4 bars), A-flat major (4

bars) and Eb major (4 bars) before the introductory 4 bars are reintroduced to re

establishE major as a key centre. In 'Sorry to Seeyou Go' the A section is in aB

minor tonality andcontrasts with the B sectionwhich developsthrough a seriesof

minor I IN harmonic progressionsbefore briefly resolving to G major, then

modulatingthrough a seriesof secondarydominants to returnto B minor, the

harmonyand melody of 'Dark' is predominatelymodal (D Phrygian)contrasting

with shortsections in A-flat major (bars25-27). These differences in harmonic

complexityreflect both the idiomaticmusical language and the compositional

method,in that thereis a tendencyfor notatedmaterial to be more harmonically

complex and aural music to be simpler in its use of a harmonic language.

An importantfactor in acousticguitar music is the choiceof key and useof

guitartunings as they both determinethe availability of openstrings with which to

providedrones and resonances.'Afro-Diz' is written in D Major and a droppedD

tuning is used(the bottomE string is tuneddown a tone to D), 'Dark' againuses the

droppedD tuning, but with the whole tuning systemdetuned by a furthertone to

producea droppedC tuning which extendsthe melodic rangeand givesaccess to the

p. 161 open C and G strings. The other three pieces are in standard tuning but the choice of key is important in that it increasesthe resonanceof the instrument: the A section of

'A Long Way Home' is in E making use of open E, A and B strings, with a contrastingB section which modulates through C, E-flat and A-flat major creating different timbral resonanceas the root notes are on fretted strings and therefore less resonant.The choice of the key of B minor for 'Sorry To See You Go' gives rise to a seriesof sympatheticresonances from the unfretted 'open' strings B, G, D and E. and createsopportunities to construct a bass line utilizing open strings. 'Hats off to

Davey' usesall of the open string notes particularly A and E as strong bass resonancesand the rest to produce 'harping' effects.

The percussivequalities of the guitar are used extensively, particularly in 'Hats off to Davey' and 'Afro-Diz', where the finger picking technique draws percussive resonancesfrom the guitar strings and body. In Wro-Diz% dampening the strings dramatically alters the resonantnature of the guitars timbre and this is achieved by interweaving a piece of folded paper between the strings and close to the bridge. I discoveredthis technique in the late 1960's when matchsticks were split and placed

on the strings to emulate a banjo, but was re introduced to the idea when seeing

guitarist Lionel Loueke playing with Herbie Hancock at the Sage Gatesheadon

13th2006. The is November effect compelling and by dampening the resonanceof

the strings, the percussivenature of the instrument is more greatly expressed.

Severalof the tunes draw directly from other guitar styles 'Afro-Diz' from

African guitar 'Hats off to Davey' from blues and country and jazz, 'Sorry to See

bossa-nova you Go' from and more tangentially, 'Dark', from Flamenco music.

is 'Afro-Diz' a playful celebration of African guitar styles, the introductory motif is

drawn from musical and textural qualities of the Kalimba, the African thumb piano,

162 an ancientinstrument that is commonacross Africa and which is usedto produce cyclic ostinatosand is mimicked on the guitar by dampening the string resonances with the handat the guitarbridge. This ostinatoacts as a pivot aroundwhich episodic improvised sections occur. The tune develops through a series of musical sectionsthat draw uponthe stylesof SouthAfrican townshipmusic, where strong melodicthemes are developed and repeated with embellishment,and the Malian tradition of guitar playing exemplified by Ali Farke Toure.

Where two guitars are used, the arranging possibilities are greatly increasedas the presenceof two melodic,harmonic, percussive and instrumentsoffer a wide rangeof timbral and rhythmic possibilities. In 'A Long Way Home' both guitar interact closely and this interaction becomesmore pronounced in the coda where the samerhythmic figures move betweenthe two guitar parts.

Section 5, rig. #4: A Long Way Home 12

A. Gtr.

A. Gtr-

In 'Sorry To SeeYou Go', the combiningof two guitarsexpands the harmonic

possibilitiesand the introductionsection is particularlyeffective in its useof two

syncopatedand synchronous parts. In 'Dark', 'Sorry To SeeYou Go' and 'A Long

Way Home', specificsections of the musicare arrangedfor improvisationwhereas,

in 'Afro-Diz' and 'Hats off to Davey', which were devisedthrough improvisation,

the performeris reqiuiredto reinterpret,embellish and improviseat each

performance.

p. 163 A click track hasbeen used to recordthe guitar duetsbecause, whilst two performerscould perform these compositions live, they are in this instancerecorded througha processof multi-trackrecording and the click track becomesimportant in synchronizingthe two parts.The decisionto recordin this way is pragmaticrather thanaesthetic and has been determined by time constraintsand the difficulty of finding someoneto learnor sight-readthe part. The useof a click track alwayshas an impact upon the degreeto which any musical interaction can take place as it artificially restricts any metronomic variation. The solo pieces were recorded using a combinationof live recordingand click track 'Afro-Diz' was recordedlive with a

Djembe player, 'Dark' was partially recorded with a click track but the pulse was freely interpretedand variations in tempo played without the click, 'Hats off to

Davey'was recorded without a click track. Again, the choicein all caseswould be to

record all of the pieceswithout any click track but the time constraints of recording

encouragedits moderateduse.

#3: Interaction Improvisation (CD #3) - Modality and

in this section,the intentionwas to realisecompositions in real time and real spaces

asa directcontrast to the first mode,and it was executedby bringing togethera

selectedgroup of musiciansto createmusic prepared compositional material. In this

process,the choiceof musiciansis crucial as they arebeing chosenbecause of their

individual skills and interpretative talents. Two recording sessionswere arranged in

which to recorda varietyof materialwith two different groupsof musicians:

Group#1: a bandcomprised of double-bass,drum-kit, percussion,acoustic guitar,

Dobroguitar, and fiddle.

The doublebass and drum kit players(Neil Harlandand Paul Smith) areboth

professionalmusicians with a nationaland internationalreputation as performers

p. 164 and sessionmusicians. They both perform in a wide range of music styles and are consideredas 'first call' musiciansfor professionalwork in the North of England.

The Dobro guitar was played by Jim Hornsby who is a leading national exponent andhas performed on manyperformance tours and recordings,and Andy Lawrenson a musicianresident in Yorkshirewho hasa wide experienceof playing in vernacular folk styles,and, unusually for a 'fiddle' player,jazz and popularmusic.

Group #2: a band comprised of double-bass,drum-kit/percussion, steel-string acousticguitar and nylon-string acoustic guitar. in this ensembleAdam Sinclair(drum-kit), Andy Champion(double-bass) and

JamieMcCredie (nylon-strung guitar) are representativeof a new generation of

in this instance performerswho are graduatesof music education programmes - in this instancethe BMus (Hons)Jazz, popular and commercialmusic degreeat

NewcastleCollege. All three players are making a name for themselves as accomplishedversatile musicians. The acoustic guitar in both instanceswas played by myselL

The two bandswere very differentand these differences are reflected in the

waythe recordingprocess was conducted.The first bandare all seasoned

professionalmusicians but with a considerabledegree of differencein their skill

base,where all of the musicians posseshighly developed aural skills and the ability

to interpret and improvise in different performance genres,a wide difference exists

in sight-readingskills. This differenceis directly relatedto their working practice,

the drummerand bass player require a high level of readingskills to function as

professionalplayers in a commercialmusic market, whilst the vernaculartraditions

from which the Dobro and fiddle playerhave emerged place more importanceon the

ability to interpretmusic in very specificmusic genres.The secondband, are much

p. 165 youngerprofessional musicians who havedevelopcd tlicir skills through academic/instrumentalstudy and who canall confidentlyimprovise and sight-rcadat a high level.The compositionschosen for eachrecording session were carefully conceivedto suit the particularplayers - this is an importantpoint and hasa

considerableeffect on the way the musicwas composed, arranged, communicated,

interpreted,performed, and recorded.

Session#1:

Four pieceswere preparedfor the first sessiontwo as a featurefor the Dobro guitar

andtwo as featurefor the fiddle player.In eachpair of compositionsone wasvery

prescriptivewith detailednotated parts and the other,a much more skeletal'lead

sheet', this was a purposeful decision to leave room for interpretation and

improvisation. The two-featured players were each given one part that was intcnded

to presenta challengeto their own perfonnancestyle, and one piecein which their

improvisationabilities could be comfortablyexpressed.

Two pieceswritten to featurethe Dobro playing of Jim Hornsby:'You Cooda'Told

Me' and 'Hang on JP.

You Coodal Told Me: a countryballad for slide guitar. The Dobro guitar

canbe tunedin manydifferent tunings,but the most commontuning, and the one

preferredby Jim Hornsby,is open'G' major tuning (seetunings), this makesplaying

in G major and closelyrelated keys easy, but muchmore diflicult when chromatic

harmony,key changesand alterednotes are present.Knowing the playing style of

Jim, I wantedto write a piecethat, I hoped,would presenta challengefor him both

melodicallyand harmonically,therefore this compositionis considerablymore

complexthan most countryballads. The A sectionstarts in G maj or but modulatcs

into B minor andA minor and containsseveral secondary dominant chords and tri-

166 tonesubstitutions, and the B sectiondevelops modally througha parallel harmonic movementof dominantgth chords to finally resolveto G major. In addition,the B sectioncontains space for improvisedsolos by the guitar and Dobro. duct by -Hang on JJ: this compositionwas originally rccordcdas a guitar

JamesBirkett and Rod Sinclair as part of 'The SuiteFor Two Guitars' on tile album

TheJazz Guitar Duo and I havealways wanted to try a new arrangementwith a differentrhythmic feel. The title refersto JJ Cale who is a leadingexponent of

Americancountry blues music and is renownedfor his 'laid back' laconic grooves, thereforethis compositionseemed ideally suitedto a laid back rhythmic treatment.

The compositionconsists of a simple 'head', which was taughtaurally, and substantialspace for interpretation,improvisation, and interactivity.

Two pieceswere composedfor Andy Lawrenson:'The Black Isle' and 'The Darkest

Hour'.

influcnccdby -The Black Isle: a compositionin a Celtic style,which was

imagesof the Black Isle (Scotland),this island,although more accurately an

extendedpeninsular, combines a ruggedHighland landscape with beautiful

seascapes,and is hometo both a thriving agriculturaland modemtechnological

community.This piecehas at its essencemany characteristics of Scottishmusic the

ballad,the dance,and the useof drones,but to reflect the modernizationof the

Scottishhighlands is more cosmopolitanin form and instrumentation.The piccc is

comprisedof threemain themes:section A, a simple melodic ballad which is

harmonizedwith diatonic chordsand drones,B an interludein B minor, with some

chromaticismin the melodyand 'C' a rhythmic variation startingwith a unison

melodyin a 9/8 rhythm moving into an improvisationsection in an alternatingthree

p.167 bar sequenceconsisting of two barsof 6/8 followed by a bar of 9/8, after a climatic point the fiddle returnsus to a repriseof the introductoryballad. This composition requiresthe fiddle playerto expressthe Celtic influenceof the music in playinga countermelody to the guitar,the lyrical main theme,cadenzas and more challenginglyan extendedimprovisation in part C. The tune could be describedas a smallpiece of programmemusic that could be developedinto a more extensive piece.Each section is representativeof a characteristicof the island, sectionA;

tradition and lyrical melody, section B; reflection and contemplation and C; dance

andrhythmic excitement.

darkest hour is - The Darkest Hour: it is a common perception that the the

onebefore dawn, a time of night noisesand for somenight terrors.This simpleblues

is intendedas an evocationof the darknessof this hour and is comprisedof a

dissonantand micro-tonal melody that is setagainst a repetitivewalking bassline

andfractured rhythmic paletteprovided by the drum-kit. The compositionis writtcn

in D'minor but both the melodyand harmony are ambiguousas the microtonalslurs

producepitches that lie betweenthe major and minor third intervals.As the fiddle

andDobro can producemicrotonal slurs anddrones, this is a perfectchoice to

providean underscoreof unsettlingglissandos, drones, and dissonantsounds. AfIcr

the melodyis introduced,there are four repetitionsof the 12 bar scqucnccincreasing

in intensity before the theme returns.

Session#2:

Eachof the playersin this secondline up areenthusiastic improvisers who arc cagcr

to tacklenew material,therefore the compositionis structuresto encourageboth

individual and collective improvisation.

168 Mmm Interesting: a sambaarranged for drum-kit, doublebass, nylon-strung acousticguitar, and steel-strungacoustic guitar The title echoesthe responseof a particularlistener's first hearingof the piece.This compositionwas intcndcdas a vehiclefor improvisationand to draw out the complementarybut contrastingtimbres of combiningtwo guitars;the combinationof nylon and steelstrung guitarsand two

playerswith different individual stylescreates many opportunities for interplayand

the contrastingof timbre. The compositionis in a sambastyle and the arrangement

containsseveral variations in texture.The melodictheme is playedon the stccl-

strung guitar with the nylon-strung guitar playing an accompanying rhythm pattcrn,

this developsthrough into a seriesof improvisations,connected by bridging

sections,where each instrument has the opportunity to improvise and interact with

the rhythmsection. The bridging sectionsare all rhythmically varied and include

'faux' Flamencoinflections (bars 75-78), unison lines, and polyrhythms

The intentionof this modewas to createa portfolio of music througha proccssof

interactionand improvisationand is in direct contrastto mode#1 (multi-track

recor ing). Increasingly,'live' recording,where all musiciansare presentin the

samespace and recordingtakes place in real time, is becomea rarefiedexpcricnce.

This modeof recording,which entereda modernage of sophisticationwhen

'electrical' recordingemerged, attempted to capturea 'live' music pcrformancc,but

whenmulti-track recordingbecame possible, it correspondinglydiminished.

Althoughsome listeners place great value on the notion of the unadornedlive

experience,with the exceptionof the recordingof a live stageperformance, it has

becomeincreasingly rare asthe demandsfor accurateperformance, and the financial

constraintsof musiciansand the music industrydemand a flexible recordingprocess.

p.169 Live recordingrelies upon the availability of all of the musiciansat a specifictime, a processof rehearsal,and an appropriatespace both in acousticresonance and size.

All of thesefactors have an impacton the finishedprocess. The time demandsof

this processcan vary greatlydepending upon the skill baseof the musicians:

musicianswith highly developedreading and interpretativeskill are in greatdemand

as sessionand commercial band musicians, where they are expectedto work quickly

andaccurately in a rangeof differing styles,conversely, many musicians arc in

demandfor their specificperformance skills, which are often by their very nature

idiosyncratic,highly specialisedand individually stylized. With the latter type of

musician,the working processis usuallyaural and rehearsalis an intrinsic part of the

learningprocess - the musicianslearn by doing. Becausethe first bandconsisted of

two sessionmusicians and two vernacularmusicians (I count myself as having

qualitiesof both), the preparationfor the recordingsession was different for both,

scoresand parts were availablefor all, but in addition,demo tracks were recorded

for the 'aural' players.The 'aural' playerswere sentparts (including tablatureparts

for the Dobro player- seesection on tablature)and audio recordingstwo weeks

beforethe recordingsession and the 'session'players received their partson the day.

This arrangementwas agreedto by all of the parties,but the outcomewas not as

expected.The fiddle and Dobro playertelephoned two daysbefore the sessionto

declarethat they were going to havedifficulties with the parts.This in both cases

was dueto the fact that both had allowed insufficienttime to prepareand, I assume,

that they consideredthat their performance,aural, and improvisingskills would be

sufficientto carrythem throughon the day.This was an interestingif not irritating

scenario,as I had explainedto them both that at leastone compositionhad been

written to challengetheir expectations,not in an unachievableway, but to stretch

p. 170 their performanceboundaries. Both had failed to appreciatethe extent to which tills would requirepreparation. Because of the difflculties in getting everyonetogcthcr at the sametime, I decidedto conductthe sessionas arrangedand to recordeverything live, but, with sufficient soundseparation to allow any repairsto rccordcd performancesto take placeat a later date.

The recordingsession took placeover a five hour period and involved playing eachcomposition several times until an agreedfinal take of eachpiece was achieved.The results were as expected,the musicians performed well with a high

level of interactionand improvisationtaking place,however, both the fiddle and

dobroplayer performed at their bestin their musical'comfort zone', addinga great

senseof musicalcharacter and interpretivemusicality to eachpiece, but failed to

performadequately during the more challengingsections. However, stimulated by

the processof beingchallenged, they both optedto return a week later to 'overdub'

the weakermusical sections; this was generallysuccessful but it was decidedlater to

replacethe fiddle partson 'The Black Isle' and 'Hang on JP with thoseof another

performer.

In contrast,session #2 was conductedin a very different manncras all of the

musicianscould sight-readtoo a high standardand possessedhighly dcvelopcd

interpretiveand readingskills. The compositionwas rehearsedthen playedseveral

timesuntil a finished 'take' was achieved.In comparingthe two sessionsthe

contrastbetween the differing musicianswas quite striking, and althoughI was

awareof the potentialdifficulties in runningsession #l, I thoughtthat with sufficient

organizationand appropriatemodes of communication(tab notationand aural

recordings)that any difficulties would be overcome,what I didn't considerwas that

the auralmusicians, so accustomedto a particularmode of working and musical

p.171 in idiom, would fail to appreciatethe amountof work necessaryto function this modality.

6.0 SUMMARY

In the introductionto this thesis,I suggestedthat I intendedto establishmodalities of contemporaryacoustic guitar practice,though a processof research,composition, andperformance. Three modalities have been posited and presentedas a portfolio of

recordingson 3CDsand on eachthe characterand contentof the modality is dcrincd

by a particularcreative approach, working methodologyand methodof recording.In

addition,as all of the creativework is intendedto elucidatethe acousticnature of the

instrument, the concepts of 'guitaristic practice' and 'acousticity', arc central to the

creative work, and provide the pivotal points around which the portfolio has been

developedand the modalities of practice defined. Acousticity, has been defined in

early chaptersas, 'a conceptual signifier and product of sonic qualities and cultural

values', and consideration has been given to the expression of these sonic qualities,

and the way in which cultural signifiers reveal themselves in the practice.

As it is the acoustic sound qualities of the instrument that are being expressed,

great care has been taken with the choice of instruments, the recording spaceand the

recording medium. The instruments have been recorded in naturally resonant

acoustic spacesand a great deal of consideration has been given to the choice of

microphones and their position relative to the instrument. In most casesthe recorded

signal has then been treated with only a small amount of corrective cqualisation (in

order to remove undesirable resonances)and the addition of reverberation to

enhanceor recreatea particular type of acoustic space-'Dark' is a good example of

this where a long reverberation time has been used to create the effect of a large

172 resonantspace. By contrast,in orderto achievea particulareffect and to elucidate someof the techniquesof sonicmanipulation made possible by digital recordingand audioprocessing, the original acousticsignal has been altered to sucha dcgrccthat it is almostdevoid of its original acousticcharacteristics, or, the acousticsignal is enhancedwith an additionalmidi-triggered sound sample - the former is demonstratedin the slide guitar solo in 'It's Not My Fault' and the latter in 'Songs of SummerPast'.

It hasbeen argued, that the cultural locationof the acousticguitar is a direct resultof the developmentof the electricguitar andthe resultantbinary oppositionof the 'natural' acousticguitar and the 'technologically'defined electric guitar,as

suggestedearlier:

If the electric guitar signified modernitythen the acousticguitar significd

tradition and authenticity;it functionedas a signifier for the organic

community,the naturalworld and anti-modernism.

However,even though such a harddistinction between the electric guitar and

acoustic-guitarhas to somedegree diminished with guitar manufacturerssuch as

GodinGuitars producing instruments that can simulateacoustic and/or electric

qualitiesin one instrument,acousticity remains a potentsignificr of a musical

languageand cultural practice.In the portfolio thereare manyexamples which draw

musicalreferences from vernacularmusic traditions,within which acousticity

continuesto function as a signifier of tradition and the continuity of a musical

language,for example,Celtic music 'The Black Isle', folk and blues'llats off to

Davey', African guitar 'Afro-Diz' countrymusic 'Hang on JP and bossa-nova

'Sorry to SeeYou Go'.

p.173 The two neoligismsacousticity and guitaristicare interlinkcd, as it is the acousticnature of the instrumentthat encouragesparticular performance practice andtechniques, which in turn highlight its soundcharacteristics -a relatively quiet

intimatesound, percussive nature and a relatively short sustainwhich favoursthe

repetitionof single-notesand chords.Also of importanceare its flexible musical

characteristics;the ability to play singlelines, chords,drones, combinations of all

three,and to be tunedto differenttunings. When usedin combination,as in the

guitar duo, the potential musical options increaseexponentially, offering the ability

to play extendedchord voicings, contrapuntal lines and the division of musicalroles

betweenaccompaniment and melody. All of thesecharacteristics have been

expressedin the portfolio: variation in tuning systems in 'The Black IsIc', Wro-

Diz', 'Hang on JP and 'Dark; the combinationof two guitarsin 'Sorry To SeeYou

Go' and 'A Long Way Home'; the percussivequalities in 'Hats off to Davey', 'Afro-

Diz', 'Mmm Interesting'; extended chordal voicings and the combining of several

guitarsin 'Lydian Dance' and Songsof SummerPast'; the extensiveuse of open

stringsas drones in 'The Black Isle', 'Hats off to Davey', 'Afro-Diz' and 'Dark'; the

useof openstrings to producespecial effects, for exampleharping, in 'Ilang on JP,

'Hats off to Davey; finger picking stylesin 'The Black Isle', 'Hats off to Davey',

'Afro-Diz', 'Hang on JP, 'A Long Way Home'; plectrum styles in 'Mmm

Interesting','Lydian Dance', 'It's Not My Fault' and 'Put It In the Pocket'; slide

guitar in 'It's Not My Fault' and Dobro guitar in 'The Black Isle', '11angon JP

The expressionof particularperformance style and idiolect hasbeen

encouragedthrough the compositionof particularpieces which are intendedto

expressthe particularperformance characteristics of choseninstrumentalists, for

examplein 'Hang on JP, 'You Cooda'Told Me', 'The Black Isle', 'Dark' and

174 'Mmm Interesting',and someto expressthe very particularperformance characteristicsof individual interpretationin 'Afro-Diz' and 'Hats off To Davey'. In the former,the compositionsare shapedby a pre knowledgeof the performcr(s) ability and styleand are intendedto allow for the performanceidiolect to be expressed,in the latter the pieceshave been developed through improvisation,and aretherefore, to an evengreater degree, intended to expressthe performance subjectivitiesof the performer.In all cases,a certainlevel of virtuosity is expected asthe materialis constructedas a showcasefor the performersability.

It hasbeen argued that, sincethe mid 1950s,it is hasbeen the solid-bodied electricguitar that hasdominated Western popular music and functionedas a potent signifier of youth, commercialism and a particularly overt sexuality, whereas the acoustic guitar, if it does signify the opposite pole in a binary opposition, has functionedto signify intimacy,tradition and,perhaps, artistry, maturity and reflection.The role of the electricguitar and its pre-eminencein rock forms of music signifiesa powerful articulationof dynamismand energy,but it is oflen the acoustic

instrument(or semi-acoustic)which is evidentin forms of music more traditionally

associatedwith artistry andmaturity - Westernart music, and someforms ofjazz,

blues,country and folk music;this suggestsmore than a casualassociation bctwccn

acousticity, artistry and maturity. Several pieces in the portfolio allude to this sensc

of tradition and perhapsartistry, 'For You' sets the acoustic guitar with a string

quartetand 'Dark' adoptssome of the techniquesof other more traditional solo

guitar forms by drawingupon inflectionsof Flamencomusic and the Spanishand

classicalguitar musicaltraditions.

The global distribution of the guitar and its appropriationinto local and global

formsof music,have resulted in an eclecticrange of music and esotericmodes of

p. 175 practiceand this to somedegree is reflectedin the portfolio. It must be recogniscd however,that any portfolio of this size,and the creativework of one individual, couldonly possiblyrepresent a small areaof practice.The portfolio doeshowever, illustratean assimilationof differing cultural and music practices:funk 'Put It in The

Pocket;jazz ballad 'For You'; bossa-nova'Sorry To SeeYou Go'; samba'Lydian

Dance'and 'Mmm Interesting';country music 'Hang on JP and "You CoodaTold

Me'; Celtic 'The Black Isle'; folk 'Hats off to Davey'; blues 'The DarkestHour';

African music 'Afro-Diz'; Latin 'Songs of Summer Past'; classical/flamcnco 'Dark'; jazz/rock/fusions 'It's Not My Fault'.

A diversityof socialand cultural practiseshas been reflected in the useof aural and notated music traditions and they are representedin the modalities of creative practice; aural traditions of composition ('Afro-Diz' and 'Hats off To

Davey') andnotated traditions have been used (Tor You' and 'Lydian Dance').

Wherenotated music hasbeen produced (examples exist in all modalities),its form andpurpose differs. In modality #1, the scorefunctions as a compositionalformat into which materialcan be directly written andthen usedto produceparts for performingmusicians, when produced in softwarescore writing packagesit can also be exportedas a midi-file andused to producean audiotemplate for the overdubbingof acousticinstruments, or, for the triggering of midi sounds.In modality#2, notatedmaterial has been produced as appropriateto the musicalstyle andarranging format: it is necessarywhen arrangingguitar duetsand somesolo material,but in other cases,compositional development has been through an aural

process,therefore is not notated.In modality #3, the scoreprovides working parts

for readingmusicians and becauseof the interactivenature of the process,is less

detailedthan in modality #1. At all timesthe notatedmaterial is intendedto

p. 176 communicateand develop musical material rather than to be a finished entity in itself.

It hasbeen argued that technologicaldevelopments have had a profoundcffcct on the practiceof acousticguitar music andthat any recordedperformance is, by its very nature,mediated by the technologicalprocesses of recording,the effect of this mediationis evidentin the portfolio and in all threeposited modalities. What differs, however,is the degreeto which this technologicalmediation has an overt or covert effecton the recordedproduct and the degreeto which this mediation is intentionally expressed,or merelya functionalmethod of capturingthe performance.The degree to which this mediationby technologyis expressedin the portfolio spansfrom the covertrecording of the solo guitar compositions,'Hats Off to Davey, and 'Afro-Diz'

(modality#2), to the overt sonicmanipulation of the acousticguitar in 'It's Not My

Fault' and 'Songsof SummerPast' (modality 0). Oncedigitized, sonic

manipulationis possiblewith all recordedmaterial (assuming that there is sufficicrit

separationbetween each of the recordedinstruments), for example,in 'Songsof

SummerPast' (modality #1), the audiosignal of the nylon- acousticguitar was

convertedinto midi dataand used to trigger sampledand synthesisedsounds,

whereasthe 'live' acousticguitar in 'The DarkestHour' (modality #3) was sound

processedafter the recording.In modality #2, digital reverbis usedto simulateor

accentuatereal environmentsand is usedmost elaboratelyin 'Dark'.

A fundamentaldifference in the productionof the portfolio is in the working

methodsof recordingthe music.It hasbeen argued earlier, that it was the

developmentof electricalrecording and later multi-track recordingthat changed

foreverthe practiceof musicians,and that it is currentlythe effect of digital

recordingpractice that is shapingthese changes once again. It seemsthat the concept

p.177 of 'live' recordingis becomingless easy to distinguish,as most 'live' recording takesplace on multi-track recordingequipment and the 'live' take is in cffect a seriesof separatedtracks, which, dependingupon the level of acousticseparation betweenthe instruments,can be editedand sometimesre recorded.Can anyone exceptthose present at the recordingof a particularevent determine, after the event, which partsof a recordingwere live, or, a simulacra?It is also doubtful whether thosein attendanceat a live stageperformance could distinguishwhether any post- production editing of the 'live' recording has taken place or any additional material hasbeen added -unless strikingly different. Furthermore,is it of importanceto the listener?In the portfolio, the differencesbetween modalities #1 and #3 are self evident, as the natural variation of tempo in the latter is a product of the recording methodology.It is useful to comparetwo similar tracks in similar idioms, 'Lydian

Dance'and 'Mmm Interesting',the first was multi-track recordedto a click track,

andthe latter recordedlive with no overdubs.The differencesbetween modes #I

and#3 areself evident,as the naturalvariation of tempo in the latter is more

appropriateto the musicalidiom andwhere the former containsa high degreeof

detailwith multiple overlaidguitar parts, the latter is more spontaneous,and

rhythmicallyand dynamic varied. To manypeople I suspectthese differences would

be indistinguishableand thereforeunimportant, to others,the knowledgethat one is

a 'live' performanceand the other constructedthrough a processof multi-track

recordingwould signify an authenticityand perhapsartistry in the former; for wc

know that the performerscan indeedperform.

The decisionto producea live or multi-trackedrecording also affects the

compositionalprocess, in modality #1, the compositionalprocess is fluid as all

materialcan be alteredand manipulated at any part of the process,and althoughthis

178 is to someextent true of modalities#3, it is lessso, as no 'click track' has bccn uscd.

For example,the drum kit in 'Its Not My Fault' (modality # 1) could be replacedat in anypoint, but this would be very difficult in 'The DarkestHour', or impossible

'Mmm Interesting'(modality #3) becauseof the soundleakage between instruments.

Wherea click track is used,sections of the compositioncan be, through a processof cut andpaste, freely reorganizedand reordered in dramaticways, for examplein 'It's

Not My Fault', substantialparts of the drum-kit and guitar havebeen copied and

is reused-this fragmented mode of reworking reflective of the postmodcrn ethos of this composition.Multi-tracking could also be seenas reflecting a new aesthetic wherethe metronomicpulse is a centralfeature of the music for examplein 'Put It

In the Pocket'. Although cut and paste techniques can be applied to modes #2 and

#3, this is greatlyrestricted by the morenatural and lessmetric rhythmic flow of this recordingmethod. Katz remarkson the 'tightening' effect of recordingand that:

Over the courseof a century,there has been a noticeablemove in classical

performancetowards steadier tempos, with fewer and lessmarked tempo

fluctuations.232

If this is true in classicalmusic, it is certainlytrue in other forms of music that owe

their natureto the recordingprocess.

My own working preferenceis to recordas much of the track as possible

without a click track, in real time, to a multi-track recordingsystem, while

preservingas much soundisolation between the instrumentsas possible. This

retainsthe option to overdubadditional tracks and rcpair/rcplace parts of the original

live tracks,but importantlyretains the spirit and energyof live pcrformancc.This

mostclosely describes the working practiceof modality #3, whereall trackswhcrc

232Katz, Mark, CapturingSound (USA: University of California Press,2004), 23.

p. 179 recordedlive, but overdubshave taken place later, the most notablebeing 'The

Black Isle'. This choiceis howevertempered by the pressuresand demandsof contemporarylife, wherethe impactof technologyhas shaped the very way in which musicianswork, communicateand ultimately perform.As the ability exists to

4construct'a finishedcomposition from performancesoften separatedin time and locality (fuelledby developmentsin communicationand recordingtechnologies) the modalityof practiceis to a largeextent determined by financial pressuresand the availabilityof particularperformers. This doesnot imply a crudetechnological determinism,but reflectsthat fact that the availability of particulartechnologies does affectpractice.

Katz againsuggests that 'we must rememberthat in the end,recording's influence manifest'sitself in humanactions', it is we as humanbeings and practitioners,albeit 33 oftenwithin confines,who decidethe extentto which we engagewith tcchnology?

7.0 TUNINGS

Many tuning variationsexist, someare alterations to standardtunings and othersarc

referredto as opentunings. An 'open' tuning describesa tuning that producesa

chordwhen the open(unfretted) strings are played, the chord is generallymajor but

233Katz, Mark, CapturingSound (USA: University of California Press,2004), 3.

P.180 someminor tuningsexist. The otherterm usedin relation to tuning is 'slack key' or

'slack tuning', this refers to the common practice of tuning strings down in pitch,

ratherthan up, to producean opentuning and resultsin a decreasein the tensionin

the stringand the structureof the guitar.

Tuningsused in the portfolio:

Alteredtunings:

D-A-D-G-B-E Dropped 'D' tuning - standard tuning with the bottom string

dropped to D. Used in 'Afro-Diz' and 'The Darkest Hour'.

E-A-D-G-B-E Nashville tuning - the bottom three strings are tuned an

octavehigher than standardtuning. Nashville systemuses a

modified standardtuning where the bottom three strings E, A

and D are replaced by lighter gauge strings and tuned an

octavehigher, the result is an instrumentthat has fewer lower

resonancesand makes it particularly suitable as a rhythm

guitar- the lack of lower frequenciesmakes the guitar stand

out in a recordingmix. This tuning is usedin 'Songsof

SummerPast' and 'The Black Isle'.

Open tunings:

D-G-D-G-B-D Open 'G' or Sebastopoltuning. Used for the rhythm guitar in

'Hang on JP.

D-A-D-G-A-D Developedby British guitaristDavy Grahamin the late 1950s,

in an attemptto emulatethe soundof the oud. This tuning has

tonality, is 3rd but neithera major or minor as there no ,

possessesstrong drones and a pronouncedsuspended fourth

(D-G). This tuning is usedin 'The Black Isle'. b

p.181 G-B-D-G-B-D Dobro tuning usedin 'You Cooda' Told Me'.

Examples of other tunings:

D-A-D-F#-A-D Open 'D' Spanish tuning predatesthe American Civil War

and its nameis derivedfrom the popularsong Spanish

Fandango.

E-B-E-G#-B-E 'Cross-Spanish'tuning usedby bluesplayer Son House- the

sameas Spanishbut not slacktuned i.e. tuned up in pitch.

E-B-E-G-B-E Used by blues player Skip James-a minor key variant of

cross-Spanishtuning.

D-A-D-G-A-C derived from an ADG anjo tuning. 234 C-G-D-G-C-D derived from a CDGCD Banjo tuning.

C-G-D-A-E-G Robert Fripp's Guitar craft tuning.

8.0 GLOSSARY

Capo: a movablemechanical device that clampsover the guitar neck and makesit

possibleto retainthe useopen-strings and fingeringswhilst playing in different keys.

234DADGAC sawmill tuning, CGDGCDG sustuning. Examples'Payday' and 'Dark Holler' from Simpson,Martin, Righteousnessand Humidity (TSCD540, 2003).

p. 182 Chord box: a graphic display of a chord shape as it would appear on the guitar fretboard

Comping: ajazz guitar terminology for playing chords in an even rhythmic style.

Cross-picking: requires the player to accurately pick non-adjacent strings.

Digital audio converter: converts an audio signal into a digital code.

Falsettas- flourishesbetween vocal - strophes

Finger picks: picks made out of plastic or metal and which fit onto the fingers and thumb.

Fretboard: the playing surface of the guitar neck on which frets are fixed.

Golpes - blows or fingernail strokes on the instrument.

Guitar bridge: a wooden or metal bridge on which the strings are supported above

the guitarbody.

Guitaristic: a neologismthat is intendedto describea practicethat is functionally

locatedon the instrument.

Hammer ons and hammering: a techniquein which a finger is placedon the

fretboardand anotherfinger 'hammers'another higher note onto the fretboardto

producea smooth(legato) rather than a picked (staccato)note.

Isorhythmic: a repeatedrhythmic and/orharmonic scheme to which improvised

episodes,flourishes and adornments are added.

Lead sheet: A simplified music score containing the minimum of compositional

materialthe melody,harmony, a suggestedrhythmic style and sometimesbass line.

Luthier: a makerof stringedinstruments such as guitar or violin.

Machine-heads:(tuning pegs)a mechanicaldevice to which the stringsare attached

andtightened or slackenedto raiseor lower the string tension.

p. 183 Midi pad: a sustainedchordal accompaniment, which is 'triggered' from a midi- signal.

PIectrum: an implementmade from variousmaterials, including plastic and metal, which is held betweenthe thumb and fore finger and usedto pluck the guitar strings.

Picado:single note runs.

Pick: refersto a methodof picking guitar stringsand to the plectrum with which the strings are picked.

Punteado: the playing of single string lines.

Rasgado/rasqueado: a rhythmic strumming style incorporating the four fingers and thumb of the strumming hand.

Saddle: A plastic or metal attachment set into the guitar bridge on which the strings rest.

Soundboard:the resonantsurface of the guitar onto which the bridge supportingthe

strings is fixed.

Slide: a tube,usually made out of glassor metal,which is pressedagainst the guitar

stringand moved up and down the guitar neckto producea rangeof varying pitches

andglissandos.

Tailpiece: a metal anchorto which the stringsare attached.

Tonc-woods: wood that is used in guitar making which is particularly suited to

producinga pleasingresonance in an acousticguitar.

Tremolando: the rapid repetition of a note or notes.

Trigger (midi): a midi deviceused to sendinformation (trigger) to a midi sound device.

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(1932-1945) volume 3 (Australia: Cumquat Records, GWCD-1003,1999). The GreatestGuitarists You've Never Heard Of, SwinginTo The 60's (1946-1960)

volume 4 (Australia: Cumquat Records, GWCD-I 004,1999). The GreatestGuitarists You've Never Heard Of, Bebop, The Night 771eLid Blew Off (1945-1955) volume 5 (Australia: Cumquat Records, GWCD-1005,1999).

P.191 IL The GreatestGuitarists You've Never HeardOf, Into The Cool (1955-1962)volume 6 (Australia:Cumquat Records, GWCD-1006,1999). Toure,Ali Farke,Red and Green (World Circuit, WCD070,1998). Originally released1984 and 1988. Toure,Ali Farke,Talking Timbuktu,(World Circuit, WCD040,1993). Towner,Ralph, Solstice (ECM 1060,1975). Unwired:Africa, Koras, Albiras, Guitars:An Acoustic Voyage(World Music Network,RGNET 1062CD, 2000). Various,Giants Of TheAcoustic Jazz Guitar, Vol.2 The Great Duet (Australia: CQCD-2752,1999) Various,Hawaiian Slide and SlackKey SurfingSounds (World Music Network [UK], 0001049RGN,2001). Various,Hawaiian SlackKey Guitar Masters(Dancing Cat Records,380382,1995). Various,The Pioneers of TheJazz Guitar (YazooRecords, 1057,1928). Various,The Rough Guide To GypsySwing (RGNET 1138 CD, 2004) Weaver,Sylvester, Complete Recorded Works Vol. 1 (1923-27)(Document Records, DOCD-5112,1992). Welch,Gillian, Hell Among The Yearlings(USA: Acony Records-ACNY470102, 2001). Zorn, John,'You Will Be Shot', NakedCity (USA: NonesuchRecords, 79238, 1990).

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- Web sites www. apple.com/hotnews/articles/2003/1 0/mclaughlin/ www. apple.com/iphone/ (10.5.07) www. acoustic-alchemy.net/disc/ameng_pl. html www. acousticguitar.com/article/I 72/172,7431, GEARFEATURE-1 ASP www. adrianlegg.com/press_page. htm www. till. com/articies/PickupResponse/index.html www. b-band.com

192 www. celticguitarmusic.com/aboutceltguitar. htm www. comquatrecords.co. au www. fishman.com www. funkyjunk. com www.jimmierodgers. com www. martinguitar. com/history/ www. ofgz.biziand. com.therootsofthumbpicking. htm www. thanksforthemusic.com/history/guitar. html www. tonymcmanus.com www. scholars.nus. edu. sg/cpace/ht/jhup/digitality. htmi www. songtone.com/press/frisell/guitarplayerl999. htm. www. sover.net/artedel/music. html (20 Aug 2004 www. vsojazz.com www. worldcircuit. co.uk/

Audio-visual resources. Super Guitar Trio & Friends, 1990 (DVD, TDK, Mediaactive, USA). American Roots Music by Jim Brown, 200 1(DVD, Palm Pictures, USA)

p. 193 10. CD CONTENTS CD #1 Track list: 1. Lydian Dance 2. For You 3. It's Not My Fault 4. Songsof SummerPast 5. Put It In the Pocket

CD #2 Track list: 1. A Long Way Home 2. Dark 3. Afro-Diz 4. Sorry To SeeYou Go 5. Hats Off To Davey

CD #3 Track list: 1. Mmm Interesting 2. Hang On JJ 3. The Black Isle 4. The Darkest Hour 5. You Cooda' Told Me

CD #4: Additional recordings. Track list: I. Blue Day 2. Riff-Raff

194 CD #5: Reference recordings. Track list:

I. Stageffight -The Jazz Guitar Duo Kress 2. Stagefright - Dick McDonough and Carl 3-8 Compositional material: 2min exercise.

CD #6: Interviews. Track list:

1. Interview with JamesBirkett.

CD #7: The Jazz Guitar Duo: James Birkett and Rod Sinclair

ILAPPENDICES

Email correspondence: 1. Email from Stefan Grossman

2. Email from Tim Brookes (author of Guitar: an American Life)

p. 195