tone and timing

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Hampshire Guitar Orchestra » Guitar stuff » hints & tips » tone production » tone and timing

Tone and Timing

In an orchestra, every instrument except harp & percussion has a soft start. The guitar, by contrast, has a percussive start. We've seen that a metallic tone makes the sound even more percussive.

Now let's see how it is affected by the tightness of an ensemble's timing.

Let's look at two graphs

The graphs show volume (upwards) against time (to the right)

Bad tone Good tone

Metallic sound

Most of the energy is dissipated quickly - the note doesn't carry

Mellow sound

The energy is released more evenly for a pleasing sound

The metallic sound has a forceful beginning. It also has an unsatisfying "thinness" that permeates the whole sound (not shown here). Because of the way the human ear reacts to different frequencies, a metallic sound can seem louder, but it is tiring to listen to in quantity.

Timing issues

Now see what happens if 3 players play the same note, but they are not quite "together"...

3 players, bad tone 3 players - good tone

Metallic sound - 3 players playing not quite together

Timing problems (like those here) really notice!

Mellow sound - 3 players playing not quite together

The total sound builds & decays pleasantly - the glitches don't notice

So far...

So far then, we've seen that...

Coming up...