[hank alrich]

Neil wrote:

On 12/8/2014 3:04 PM, John Williamson wrote:

Hmmm... I was under the impression that to compose well for a particular
instrument, you had to be able to play it, or at least get it to make a
sound. Certainly you need to know, for instance that it's nearly
impossible to get a 3 or 4 note chord out of a single bowed instrument
and that any guitar chord with more than two notes is, at best, a very
fast apreggio (Or a *very* capable player). Maybe I'm out of touch.

OK... please explain this comment! Are you suggesting that an arpeggio
has to contain more than two notes, or that one can't pick more than two
strings at a time? AFAIK, neither is the case! ;-)

I think what John is getting at is that intelligent use of a library
representing a virtual orchestra's worth of sources requires that one
understand the range and capabilities of every one of those sources.

In the case of guitar, if using a plectrum, one cannot excite all the
strings simultaneously. Therefore, to some degree, any guitar chord
played with plectrum is a type of rapid arpeggio. Overlook that and
one's virtual guitar doesn't sound like a guitar; it sounds like a fake
guitar being imitated by a keyboard player who does not understand why a
guitar sounds as it does.

If played with fingers instead of plectrum, and if there is a finger for
each note of the chord, we now have a different type of result from
playing a chord on guitar. This is obvious to experienced guitarists
with any degree of intellectual curiosity for their instrument, but it
may be less obvious to someone whose idea of a "musical instrument" is a
MIDI controller.

Given that every instrument in the orchestra has something unique
attending the way it works, absent the expereince of each and the
knowledge of how to fit one's concepts into the parameters offered by
each instrument, one is likely to produce the equivalent of digital
musical gibberish. That's a great way to **** up a great song, that
could have been better represented by a vocal and one instrument in the
hands of a decent player.

--
shut up and play your guitar * HankAlrich.Com
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