Single String Etude #6 | more thumb melody

Watch the entire playlist at YouTube, or read all the corresponding blogs here. Thanks to Aaron Green for the use of this beautiful 1939 Hauser guitar.

Review of the basic principles (notes from the edition)

Even in a simple classical etude, melodies cross strings and chordal demands hamper their execution. In the Single String Etudes, all melodies are on one string from open to twelfth fret. Shifting smoothly and using portamento to enhance melodic playing, essential to artful guitar proficiency, is best taught early. The medieval/traditional practice of using a drone, a single tone, as accompaniment (think bagpipes) inspired these six works and allows focus on melody. Accompaniments are on a single string (or 2 or 3 adjacent) strings. Roman numerals denote position in the first, but I suggest you write them in for subsequent etudes. Use the following study suggestions (as appropriate to your level) for the six Single String Etudes and throughout the book.

First, play the scale on the given string; try different fingerings and shifting patterns, i.e: two or three notes per position; don’t just think notes, but think smooth and be aware of your position. Play all melodies rest stroke including thumb in the bass (except #2, #4 is optional), accompanying drones are free stroke and softer, more distant-sounding. Explore portamento when shifting, a soft slide over the departing fret. As I say in the video, keep your LH fingers loose and allow the tip to remain on the fret as you begin to move your wrist and arm to a new position, be reluctant to let go. This roles the tip over the fret as you leave minimizing scraping noise (in the bass) and enhances your legato. Feel the relation of movement between fingers, wrist, arm and shoulder. Use vibrato on longer notes, or even a continuous vibrato through all notes (difficult!, but try this on #5).

Play once ponticello, repeat sul tasto, and then explore a flowing combination of both, requiring comfort in the right hand/arm position on every point on the string from bridge to frets. Laissez vibrer (l.v.) means literally “let vibrate.” Often not notated, l.v. is an essential part of guitar music. It is most obviously used in arpeggios when all the notes of a chord are allowed to ring over each other. It is an art knowing when to use it and when not to. The beauty of a single string melody is that one is never tempted to let a note ring over another and so these six pieces develop good habits of melodic playing. The subtle slide required by position shifts, portamento, is essential to vocal style.

Always listen to what is ringing: is it part of the harmony; is it part of the musical language or intention of the composer; is it a low bass note that should be stopped or a high harmonic caused by sympathetic vibration; does it enhance the structure of the music or does it confuse the harmony?

Thanks to Aaron Green at Vintage Classical Guitars for the use of his gorgeous and rare guitars for these videos.

All Frank A. Wallace editions are ASCAP registered and published by Gyre Music.