From the Practice Studio – Expressive

Technique: Dynamics
Posted on November 2, 2021
By Brad DeRoche

Brad DeRoche is an active concert and recording artist. He holds a Doctor of Musical
Arts in Classical Guitar Performance from Eastman School of Music and records for
the Centaur Label.
He serves on the board of trustees for the Guitar Foundation of America and is
currently Professor of Music, Music Department Chairperson and Director of Guitar
Studies at Delta College.

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Introduction

From the Practice Studio is a series of posts designed to improve our practicing. In
my many years of experience as both a performer and educator, I noticed that most
of us “students of the guitar” often approach learning technique in a haphazard or
unstructured manner. Because of this, I developed a somewhat unique approach to
practicing expression and other techniques that I found helpful for both myself and my
students. My approach is to systematically apply most of the common and practical
expressive concepts and articulation marks to our current technical drills. This way,
we are practicing not only control over the movements of a particular scale or
arpeggio, but also the expression that would typically accompany it in a piece of music,
thereby eliminating the disconnect between technical and expressive playing. The
goal of these articles then, is to help us to improve how we structure our technique
practice and help make us more expressive, artistic musicians. So, let’s get out our
instruments and work through some ideas together….

Expressive Technique: Dynamics

I personally believe in structured practice, and that includes organizing our approach
to learning expressive techniques. So, let’s start by examining how we apply dynamics
to our technique exercises. Most technique books offer very little information
describing (or prescribing) practice approaches with dynamics, yet it is absolutely
critical that we use dynamics in every piece of music we perform. It is one of the most
important elements in creating an interesting artistic interpretation of any piece of
music.

The physical aspect of dynamics involves string displacement: the further the string is
stretched or displaced before release, the greater the energy that will be put into the
top of the guitar upon release, and the louder the sound. My recommendation is to try
to push the string inward toward the body of the guitar as much as will allow, rather
than pulling upward (away from the body), or sideways (across the body). This is
similar to the concept of rest stroke, or apoyando, but pushing the string inward can
be applied to either rest stroke or free stroke. There will always be a certain amount
of movement sideways in order to release the string, but again, focus on moving the
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string inward toward the body as much as you can. If the finger approach angle is
approximately 45 degrees to the string, it will allow the player to both push the string
inward toward the body, and pull the string across before releasing it from the fingertip,
without touching the other strings. Players will need to experiment with the angles in
order to produce the tone and dynamic levels they are satisfied with.

To begin, let’s assume that there are at least eight different dynamic levels that we
must have control over. There are far more actual dynamic gradations that can be
made, but having at least eight, clearly distinct levels will be enough for most
applications. The dynamic levels are: ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff.

Exercise 1: Appling the above dynamics to an arpeggio. Play a simple PIMA arpeggio
a few times at the quietest (ppp) level until you are comfortable and satisfied with the
sound and physical movement. Next, apply the same process, but make it just one
notch louder (pp). Then, one notch louder to p, and so on until you are playing at fff.
Finally, go backward from the loudest dynamic level to the quietest. It’s a very simple
exercise that should take no more than one minute. For more advanced players, apply
this to one of the Giuliani 120, or Villa Lobos Etude 1, first measure, or any other
arpeggio pattern you are currently working on. This exercise is designed to make us
aware of at least eight different dynamic levels in our playing. I also believe it is
important that we think in terms of “pianissimo” or “mezzo-forte” or whatever level we
are currently working on while we are playing this exercise. This helps us to have a
better understanding – and control over – our physical technique when we apply it to
a real piece of music. In other words, don’t just start quiet and play louder and louder
until you can’t go any further. That’s another exercise, we’ll get to that in a moment.

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Exercise 2: Use the same eight dynamic levels in a scale. Let’s start with a one octave
scale pattern. Any major or minor scale is fine, I have chosen a C major scale for the
sake of simplicity. Begin by playing the scale, ascending and descending, at the ppp
dynamic level. Repeat several times until you are comfortable playing at this dynamic
level. Then, play it again, this time at the pp dynamic level. Proceed in this manner
until you have played it at all eight dynamic levels: ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and fff. For
a more advanced technique, apply this same concept to two and three-octave scales.

Next, let’s work on gradually increasing and decreasing the dynamic level, using
Crescendo and Diminuendo.

Exercise 3: In this exercise, we are going to start from our quietest dynamic (ppp) and
grow gradually louder until we are playing at our loudest dynamic level (fff). Let’s apply
this over the same PIMA arpeggio (or more advanced patterns if you are so inclined)
as in the first exercise. Get gradually louder from the beginning of the measure until
you reach measure two. Diminuendo in measure two. Do this exercise several times.
Be sure to keep the tempo steady as you get louder and quieter, there is a tendency
to speed up as we get louder, and slow down as we get quieter. That is another
exercise we will get to in an upcoming article, but for now, keep it steady. Next, make
the crescendo last over two measures and the diminuendo also over two measures.
Finally, expand to four measures of each. This will give you control over gradual
crescendo and diminuendo.

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Exercise 4: As in the previous exercise, we are going to start from our quietest
dynamic (ppp) and grow gradually louder until we are playing at our loudest dynamic
level (fff), though this time in a scale. Let’s apply this over the C major scale pattern
(or more advanced patterns if you are so inclined) as in the second exercise. Get
gradually louder from the beginning of the measure until you reach measure two.
Diminuendo in measure two. Do this exercise several times until you are comfortable
controlling it. Next, play a two-octave scale, apply the crescendo to the entire two-
octave, ascending scale. Then, apply a diminuendo over the descending two-octave
scale . Finally, expand to three-octave scales if you are able. This will give you control
over gradual crescendo and diminuendo in a scale pattern.

Finally, let’s practice Subito, or sudden, dynamic changes: sub. p or sub. f.

Exercise 5: Using our PIMA arpeggio (or Giuliani/Villa Lobos, etc.), start by playing
one measure of arpeggios at a quiet dynamic level, p, for example. Then, at the
beginning of the second measure, suddenly change (subito) to f for one measure.
Repeat the procedure several times until you gain control of the physical aspect of it.
This sudden change would be marked sub. p or sub. f in a score. Practice this exercise
several times, then decrease the number of beats between each dynamic change until
you are changing every beat.

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Exercise 6: Using our one-octave C Major Scale, start by playing the ascending scale
at a quiet dynamic level, p, for example. Then, as you descend, suddenly change
(subito) to f for one measure. Repeat the procedure several times until you gain control
of the physical aspect of it. Next, start with f for the ascending scale, followed by sub.
p for the descending scale. Remember to keep your tempo steady as you change
dynamics. When you are comfortable with a one-octave scale, expand to two and
three-octave scales.

In closing, these exercises are just a starting point for our study of dynamics on the
instrument. What is important, I believe, is that we consider all the possible dynamic
markings, and apply them to our standard technical drills. In this article I have shown
how to apply dynamics to both arpeggios and scales. However, this same procedure
should be applied to block chords, tremolo, slurs, and other areas of our technique.
Improving as an artist requires the use of our creativity when working on technique,
but we should also be structured and organized. Using a practical approach, such as
the one described above, allows us to make consistent progress toward the goal of
being more artistic and expressive in our practice and performances.

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