Tone Production on the Classical Guitar John Taylor M.A. (Oxon.), L.T.C.L.CONTENTS Introduction $ Chapter 1 The Musical Note 9 Chapter 2. The Plucked String 16 Chapter 3 String and Soundboard 33 Chapter 4 Apoyando and Tirando 44 Chapter 5 Use of the Nails 53 Chapter 6 Some Controversial Issues 65 Postscript 73 References 75 Acknowledgements 77 Index 78INTRODUCTION Why does anyone want to play the guitar? It isnot difficult to think of purely musical arguments against the idea. Asa solo instrument, the guitar is difficult to play effective- ly, ithasa limited range of pitches and of dynamics, and until recently very few of the great composers have chosen to write for it, perhaps because the music has to be so carefully tailored to fit under the player's fingers. Even more care is required in com- bining the guitar with other instruments or withthe voice, since it is so easily drowned; and its lack of sustaining power makes it an indifferent melody instrument, Nevertheless, people do want to play the guitar, and itis doubtful whether many Of those who take it up are troubled by its musical limitations, They are captivated by its sound, lured by its intimate voice — a voice not always warm and seductive, but by turns cool and clear, dry and witty, even angry and violent. Moreover, the guitar is simple in its construction, and uniquely sensitive to the touch of each individual player; these are two especially attractive features in an increasingly mechanised and Uniform world, Since the guitar is nothing without its sound, one might expect all the instruction books to be full of useful information onhow to produce and vary the tone. However, this is not the case. Most of the books fail to give any detailed instructions on the action of sounding a string, and the ones that do contradict each other at every turn Some recommend using the nails only, others a combination of flesh and nail, stil others the flesh only, at leastat the start. Some say that the fingertips should first make contact with the string and then push through it, while others are equally insistent that the string is to be “struck”, the finger coming at the string from a short distance away. We are told in one place that the apoyando (rest stroke) gives power to the note by alming the string towards the body of the guitar, and in another that the apoyando is the surest way of making the string vibrate, as it should, parallel to the soundboard, [As to the correct position for the right hand, one book shows the line of knuckles set parallel to the strings and the wrist quite flat, while another shows the fingers ‘coming across the strings at an angle and the wrist steeply arched. These are just a few of the more glaring discrepancies, but enough to give some idea of the confusion that exists in this subject. The plethora of different solutions offered to the problems of tone production would not be so perplexing if there were any evidence that the problems themselves were generally understood. The same ignorance of the basic principles seems to be the rule rather than the exception even among performers: although the good ones certainly know how to produce the sounds they want, | suspect that few of them are more than dimly aware of what they are actually doing, I cannot claim to be the first to have reached this conclusion. It was a realisation that technique as a whole is bedevilled by such vagueness that prompted John Duarte’s admirably clear and concise little book, The Bases of Classic Guiter Technique’ . My debt to Duarte will be apparent in my many references to his book; but equally ‘obvious will be the radical differences between his account and mine. The reader is urged to compare the two arguments; in doing so he may conclude (as Duarte mself has indicated to me) that the difference is only one of emphasis, but he Will at least begin to understand the paradox whereby a player can get quite good results by believing one thing while actually doing another