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.

[Richard William Ineson]

Hi Austin, In life we find that there are always more questions than answers. As regards this question I don't think that the situation where it is necessary to emphasise the middle voice in a triad is going to crop up too often so I wouldn't waste too much  time worrying about it. My teacher taught me to play everything at as full a volume as I my young muscles were able to summon, his reasoning being that you could always reduce the volume when necessary but the main thing was to play as loudly as possible. He never got round to demonstrating how to emphasise  the various voices in a triad as he was of the old school and had to play the banjo in the days when microphones were not available. Subtle stuff like this comes later when you have mastered the art of deafening everyone within 20 metres of your banjo.

[Jody Stecher]

 Each string is played with a different finger. To make one string louder than others played at the same time, pluck that string harder. This is done by intending to do it. It's not an issue, not complicated, not difficult.  You can verify this by plucking the open 3rd. 2nd, and 1st string together 4 times, Once at equal volume and once each emphasizing each string in turn. It's a matter of mild will power. 

As for the friend's advice I don't know what "and then put it all together" means either. 

Anyway this effect does not need to be practiced. It is more or less automatic.  What does need practice is keeping a steady rhythm, moving from one position to another, producing and maintaining a musical flow in one's playing, playing with clarity at all speeds,  and a dozen other essential things.    Emphasizing a particular string is "window dressing". Not fundamental,  Meaningless without the fundamentals in place.

[Joel Hooks]

Hey Austin, how is the counting and metronome work coming along?

[Austin]

Actually pretty well. It's just a new thing to me to have to move my hands in time. I'm more of a singer. I just want to program muscle memory for my interpretations as much as I can. Still not that great at counting without a metronome, but I can play simple pieces along to it and I work on sections with one just to get them ready.

Joel Hooks said:

Hey Austin, how is the counting and metronome work coming along?

[Austin]

I guess I just come from a singing pedagogy. We think about everything at once when it comes to interpretation rather than work on one thing at a time. 

Jody Stecher said:

 Each string is played with a different finger. To make one string louder than others played at the same time, pluck that string harder. This is done by intending to do it. It's not an issue, not complicated, not difficult.  You can verify this by plucking the open 3rd. 2nd, and 1st string together 4 times, Once at equal volume and once each emphasizing each string in turn. It's a matter of mild will power. 

As for the friend's advice I don't know what "and then put it all together" means either. 

Anyway this effect does not need to be practiced. It is more or less automatic.  What does need practice is keeping a steady rhythm, moving from one position to another, producing and maintaining a musical flow in one's playing, playing with clarity at all speeds,  and a dozen other essential things.    Emphasizing a particular string is "window dressing". Not fundamental,  Meaningless without the fundamentals in place.

[Ethan Schwartz]

I'm struggling to think of an example where you would actually want to bring out the middle voice in a closed-voiced block chord. 

[Jody Stecher]

I would want to bring it out when it is the melody note and the surrounding notes are harmony notes. 

Ethan Schwartz said:

I'm struggling to think of an example where you would actually want to bring out the middle voice in a closed-voiced block chord. 

[Ethan Schwartz]

Perhaps I should have said, "I'm struggling to think of an example where an experienced composer/arranger would do that intentionally." Yes it happens in choral/orchestral contexts, but on banjo? There's plenty of melody-on-top and melody-on-bottom harmonization. Melody-in-middle is generally realized with some kind of broken/arpeggiated texture (also true of bluegrass/OT banjo), not block chords. 

Jody Stecher said:

I would want to bring it out when it is the melody note and the surrounding notes are harmony notes. 

Ethan Schwartz said:

I'm struggling to think of an example where you would actually want to bring out the middle voice in a closed-voiced block chord. 

[Austin]

There's this moment in Bradbury's arrangement of the caissons go rolling along in the intro where I would like to bring out the middle voice of a D7

Ethan Schwartz said:

Perhaps I should have said, "I'm struggling to think of an example where an experienced composer/arranger would do that intentionally." Yes it happens in choral/orchestral contexts, but on banjo? There's plenty of melody-on-top and melody-on-bottom harmonization. Melody-in-middle is generally realized with some kind of broken/arpeggiated texture (also true of bluegrass/OT banjo), not block chords. 

Jody Stecher said:

I would want to bring it out when it is the melody note and the surrounding notes are harmony notes. 

Ethan Schwartz said:

I'm struggling to think of an example where you would actually want to bring out the middle voice in a closed-voiced block chord. 

[Ethan Schwartz]

Where can I find that (or you could screenshot the part)? 

[Austin]

It's in the Mel Bay method published in the '60s I believe. Still in print so you'd have to buy it. Don't currently have it with me but I'll take a picture when I get home.

Ethan Schwartz said:

Where can I find that (or you could screenshot the part)? 

[Joel Hooks]

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.