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Super blues star Buddy Guy is a master of dynamics, especially in live performances,
as he careens from a shout to a whisper with guitar and voice. A
good recorded example, however, can be found on the epic, cathartic, slow
blues “I Smell a Rat” on Stone Crazy (Alligator Records).
The techniques of playing loud and soft
Controlling the loudness and the ways to change between two degrees of loudness
(and not just loud and loudest!) takes some skill. But really, the concept
can’t be simpler: To play loud, strike the strings hard. To play soft, strike gently.
Playing dynamics may sound simple enough, but until you master it, playing
dynamically can mess with your timing. Specifically, you may find that you
tend to rush when playing loud and drag when playing soft. This phenomenon
is natural because playing hard requires more speed and strength. In science,
force = mass × acceleration, so translating that to a hand striking a
string, you get the force you need by exploiting the acceleration side of the
equation (the speed at which you downstroke). You have to be careful,
though, because you also use quick motions to play fast — so be aware of the
timing when you change dynamics.
Fine-tuning your awareness: Playing dynamically across a phrase
Playing certain passages loud and other passages soft isn’t so much a technique
as an awareness. Simply knowing that the front half of the phrase
should be soft and the second half loud makes you play that way naturally.
(For more about phrases, see the section “Breaking Down the Music:
Phrasing.”) What may be less obvious is which part of the phrase should be
soft. In Figure 10-1, the written music tells you through dynamic marks. A calland-response
exchange (where the first phrase makes a statement and the
second phrase answers it) is a typical situation where you use dynamics to
differentiate the two repeated phrases.
Track 55
Figure 10-1:
A call-andresponse
exchange
can benefit
from a
contrast in
dynamics.
174 Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro TEAM LinG
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