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Re: Cool technique

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Home Forums Coffee Break Cool technique Re: Cool technique

#109233
tony-morosco
Participant

Yes. I forget the technical name for it, but there is a notation for it and everything. I have been learning Deborah Henson-Conant’s piece Baroque Flamenco and this technique is a very significant and necessary aspect of the piece because part of the goal of the pieces is a contrast between a Baroque minuet and the strumming of the guitar in Flamenco music.

You basically dampen the strings not in the chord you want to play with the left hand leaving the strings for the notes in the chord open, and then strum back and forth using the backs of the fingers on the downward strum and the back of the thumb on the upward strum. You can get different effects by strumming at different heights on the strings, although it seems to me the best and most guitar-like sound comes from strumming lower on the strings. You can get an interesting percussive like sound by playing up higher on the strings almost just below the neck of the harp.

It takes some care. At least on a concert strung harp. A couple of times I ended practice with bloody fingernails.