Voicing

[Austin]

How do you work on voicing? Like if you want a specific voice in a triad to be louder than the others. Say I want to bring out the middle voice in a triad of GBD how do I practice doing that? One of my classical guitar friends says that you practice it by plucking it just slightly after the other two and then put it all together but I'm not sure how that's supposed to work.

[Jody Stecher]

Ethan, it's in the Melbay version on page 39. It's the first chord of the  4th measure of the intro. The inversion is A, C, D on strings 3,2, and 1.  

Context suggests that the note to bring out here is the top one, D.  

Austin: But if you want to bring out the C (instead of what Bradbury probably intended)  the method of bringing out the C is as follows: Bring Out The C.

Control the volume of the strings played with the thumb and middle finger and pluck string 2 with the index a bit harder.  Austin, you're a singer, right?  Imagine three singers whose notes to sing are A, C and D.  When C is wanted to be louder than the other two notes what is done?  The singer of C sings louder and the singers of the other notes hold back a bit.  No special technique is applied to sing quieter or louder. When we want to yell we yell. When we to speak softly that's what we do. Same for singing. Same for plucking banjo strings. It's not a mystery or any kind of big deal.

[Ethan Schwartz]

I see it. But I don't see the musical reasoning for doing that. The previous two measures establish D as the focus, and that remains the focus in the main melody (measure 5 onward). Harmonically speaking, the A (the 5th) of the D7 is more relevant than the C (the 7th); compare the feeling of resolution in the lines D-A-D vs D-C-D. What's more, that A is approached through chromatic movement (the G# in measure 3), so it is itself a resolution. The C is not; in fact, it could be interpreted as "along for the ride" as a parallel 3rd harmonization of that G-G#-A movement. In any case (and not specific to the banjo), it would be unusual for a composer/arranger to put the root of a 7th chord on top (that is, the 2nd inversion) if their intent was to treat the 7th as the melody note. You can try it for yourself and compare how it sounds: in measures 3 and 4, simply bring D down an octave onto the 4th string. The ear will be drawn to the (now upper) B-B-B-C. 

[Austin]

Because I added a bit to the intro. Where it walks down in an arpeggio

Joel Hooks said:

Page 39-40 in the PDF from Mel Bay, I have not checked to see if the page count matches the original two volume or the later combined version in print. 

I can sort of see what you are saying, but I think you are overthinking it. Stick to the fundamentals for now. This sort of thing, if even necessary, will develop with practice. 

As you work on pieces and exercises with two voices you will naturally start to emphasize the melody over the harmony. This also comes with careful dynamic work.

The etude a few pages earlier "Sidewalks of New York" is excellent practice for bringing out melody over accompaniment.