Tone experimentations

[chinamando]

When I was studying piano and violin classically, I was always taught to be as colorful as possible, meaning that I should be able to create as many different tones out of the instrument as needed.

I've been experimenting with the different tones on the mandolin, playing chords, scales, crosspicking and whatnot, and I was wondering if anybody could add to the different techniques/tricks or combinations of techniques below: (without changing strings or pick)

1.Playing loudly or softly
2.Holding the pick loosely or very firmly
3.Pick angle, parallel
4.Pick angle, deviation from string plane (i.e. string scratching)
5.Palm muting
6.Harmonics
7.Playing close to bridge or on top of the fingerboard
8.Left Hand (legato or staccato, etc.)
9.Holding mandolin against your body or away (toneguard effect)
10.Fingerstyle with nail/without nail (for thin fingers)
11.Pick clicking
12.Tuning (same pair very very slightly out of tune seems to sound twangier)
13.The Chop
14.String splitting or single string (of the pair) only (mellower, softer sound)
15.Tremolo, slow and fast and everything in between
16.String snapping
17.Mandolin change #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

I don't know how many of these are legit, but am I leaving anything else out?

[arbarnhart]

External acoustics? Outdoors, indoors, small room, big room, in the corner, in the center, hard bare walls, etc, etc...
With or without silencers between the bridge and tailpiece (affects some mandos more than others).

[chinamando]

I guess what I'm trying to get at is tonal variations without amplification or based on external factors such as venue or distortion http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif , but purely based on acoustic playing technique, but yeah, venue could be a huge deal, I work at a violin shop (that has mandolins and guitars also) and every time I play my mandolin in there it sounds amazing because of the sympathetic vibrations of the other instruments in the room.

[kww]

Pick material. I use stainless steel fingerpicks, and they sound quite a bit different from my ivoroid ones. Whenever people talk about picks on this board, it can go on for hundreds of posts arguing about how to trim the edge of the pick, whether fossilized mammoth ivory is superior to virgin elephant tusk, and whether the color of the clown barf affects the tone.

[groveland]

Hammerons, pulloffs.
Hammerons in arpeggios, that is, like CGE on string 234: pick the C, hammer the G, hammer the E, pick the G and then the C on the way back up. #Rapidly repeat as required as 32nd notes. #What would we call that?

[mandoanon]

I dont know what this effect is called, but the string is picked and at the same time, the palm part of your thumb dampens. This will produce a harmonic type ring.

[chinamando]

Thanks! I forgot about the hammeron and pulloffs, I guess the "false harmonics" count as harmonics, or maybe it's an entirely different harmonic sound, a little more dampened harmonic sound I guess.

Keep 'em coming!

[groveland]

Rest stroke? It's a technique, but it yields a kind of tone.

[chinamando]

Reststrokes...that's a good one, never tried it on mandolin though, I'll have to do that. I use it quite frequently on Bass and Classical guitar though, and it does have different tone.

[chuck.naill]

When I was studying piano and violin classically, I was always taught to be as colorful as possible

Play mandolin, but think violin or fiddle. See what this produces. People will say that a f style is more woody. Try to get your mandolin to sound woody or not woody. I have an Eastman 504 that I can get to sound differantly by just thinking about it and experimenting. Playing with a capo in order to have as many open strings is a variant. Guitarist do this the produce certain tones.Crosspicking changes things up to.

chuck

[John Flynn]

This is off the wall, but Curtis Buckhannon has been known to do strums across the strings between the bridge and the tailpiece, in effect creating a percussion instrument. Depending on the mando, and how quickly and how hard you strum, you can get some interesting effects.

John Harford wrote about muting instruments altogether and stumming the strings as percussion. Of course you can also strike the body in different ways as percussion.

In addition, you can use fiddle-sticks on a mando. I tried it once. It was kind of bizzare, but I could see that if spent some time working on it, you might come up with some interesting stuff.

[JimD]

Interesting discussion!

When I began studying classical guitar, one of my favorite players was Julian Bream, who always coaxed a huge variety of colors from his instrument. I guess that aesthetic has stayed with me over the years.

I use many of the techniques discussed here already -- but wish to add a few.

1) Left hand trills (rapid combinations of hammer -ons and pull-offs)

2) tremolo with the finger tip rather than the pick (very quiet).

3) combinations of harmonics with "normal" tones.

4) rhythmic tapping of the strings

5) use of the ebow (a device usually used by electric guitarists)

6) use of a slide (bottleneck or other)

There are others as well. Some of these are used in my three movement composition "Gifts of the Bard". There are mp3s of excerpts from each of the movements on the publisher's website:
Wolfhead Music (http://www.wolfheadmusic.com/catalog.htm)

The 1st movement begins with palm muting alternating with arpeggios. Near the end of the excerpt you'll hear the ebow. Later in the movement, there is duo style and fingertip tremolo.

The 2nd movement begins with #rhythmic tapping of the strings over the fingerboard. Near the end of the excerpt there is a passage of L.H. trills on the 4th course while the pick is playing other courses.

The third movement is a harp-like arpeggio that combines harmonics with "normal" tones.

These techniques and others are finding their way into a set of etudes that I am composing now.

Another thought: Radim Zenkl uses a pencil to tap the strings in imitation of a hammered dulcimer.

[chinamando]

Thanks for your inputs! The whole pencil dulcimer thing is very interesting. Can you explain the elbow thing some more?

Thanks,
E.

[JimD]

Ebow is an electronic device that causes the string ti vibrate without it being plucked -- it gives keeps the string vibrating too -- hence the long sustain.

I don't understand the technology that makes it work. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Anyway, I use it on an acoustic mandolin (Phoenix Neoclassical) and it gives me a kind of "distant bagpipes" effect.

[Martin Jonas]

One important aspect you haven't mentioned is position playing. Sometimes, going up the neck is necessary for fluidity of playing, or simply because the piece goes too high for first position. But, at least equally important is the fact that playing up the neck gives a different tone colour, more mellow and less strident than first position. It's entirely legitimate to play a phrase in third postion that would be just as playable in first, purely because the tone is more suitable.

Closely related to the question of position playing is the choice of string crossings. If you're not confined to first position, you have much more flexibility of choosing which note to play on which string based on tone and on phrasing. For example, in a continuous tremolo phrase you probably want to avoid changing string, so go up the neck instead. The most basic aspect of this is open postion vs. closed position: do you want the note to keep ringing under the next note or not; does the different tonality of the open string enhance the effect, or clash with it? Many pieces critically depend on playing the string crossings as intended and keeping the fingers down on all strings, as the arpeggios may be intended to keep ringing as harmonies.

You can vary tone by the way you hold your pick, too: using the rounded corners instead of the tip, or using a pencil-type grip which allows you to modulate tone by changing pick stiffness.

Martin

[mandocrucian]

Some of the most important has been completely overlooked:

Vibrato (width and speed can varied forever. Individual electric guitarists can be identified soley on their vibrato sound.

Bending: which can be used as a substitute for hammer/pulloff slurrings, or for microtonal adjustment of the notes to non-tempered pitchs and sweet just-intonated ones. The speed (and amount) of the bend/release can be varied almost infintely, and again, just as vibrato, can be an indetifying marker of a given player.

Two-handed tapping

Multiphonics: (Derek Bailey, Fred Frith etc.) two pitches on one string. (The string vibrates from the nut to the fret as well as the fret to the bridge.

Rattles, fret buzzing,....: just about every sound that can be produced on an instrument is legit if you can call it up on demand and with control. Watch players with really "bad" technique - sometimes they inadvertantly do interesting things, even though the lack of control or the utter randomness makes it just sound like "bad" playing.

As I've said many times before, there is no "bad" tone - only appropriate/inappropriate tone (for the situation).

Do you really know all the idiosyncracies and quirks of your (individual) instrument (all over the neck)? People that are always changing instruments every few years never get "oneness" with an instrument, but then again, the fashion/trend/wealth-display statement of the new acquisition is probably the dominating concern.

You can also slap/knock/rap on the instrument as if it is a hand drum for percussive effects. #(Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel incorporates a lot of that).

But getting beyond that, the real instrument is your mind, so by extension, any non-linguistic vocalizations ("beat box" percussion, mock trumpet, scatting, Irish/Scottish "mouth music", vocalized drones.....etc) or drumkit/percussion patterns with the feet can be considered legit.

Niles Hokkanen

<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Blues Mandolin Boot Camp (http://www.ext.vt.edu/resources/4h/holiday/mandolinbuilding.html), Oct 1-4, 2006

Mandocrucian catalog (http://http://www.users.waitrose.com/~john.baldry/mando/hokkanen.html)</span>

[Jeroen]

some extra sounds come to mind:

-Jethro's funny super pull
-Sam Bush's left hand damping and ghost notes he uses for his percussive tricks
-left hand nail pull offs (don't pull off yer nails)
-right hand side of thumb muffling (for either soft groovy shuffles or mean harmonics)

I think mandocrucian's remarks about patience to get "oneness" with your instrument deserve their own thread. I usually need a few years to get accustomed to a new instrument (tweak my preferences for strings and picks and learn how to make it sing, talk and bite) and really wonder how other players don't seem to need that time.

[chinamando]

That's why I started this post, it's so that I could learn from all of you. I guess I use the following also:
playing up the neck (open vs. closed position and tambre of higher positions vs. lower), vibrato, bending, etc. It's hard to think about every single thing you can do, so I'm sure I've omitted many things on my original list. I'm sure there are hundreds. Keep 'em coming!

Thanks