Extended technique Information & Extended technique Links at HealthHaven.com

Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox or "improper" techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments.

Although the use of extended technique was uncommon in the common practice period (c. 1600 - 1900), extended techniques are more common in modern classical music since about 1900. Extended techniques have also flourished in popular musics, which are typically less constrained by notions of "proper" technique than are traditional orchestral music. Nearly all jazz performers make significant use of extended techniques of one sort or another, particularly in more recent styles like free jazz or avant-garde jazz. Musicians in free improvisation have also made heavy use of extended techniques.

Most contemporary composers strive to explore the possibility of different instruments, cooperating with musicians in order to expand the "vocabulary" of given instruments. This undoubtedly increases the diversity of instrumental colors for contemporary pieces. However, some extended techniques are exceedingly difficult to master, or require instruments in uncommonly good condition; instruments are sometimes custom made to explore extended techniques.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Vocal

Main article: Vocal extended technique

Sprechstimme (speech-singing)
overtone singing (harmonic singing, or vocal multiphonics)
ululation
beatboxing (vocal percussionists)
growling
screaming and shouting

[edit] String instruments

Main article: String instrument extended technique

unusual bowing techniques: sul ponticello, sul tasto, col legno
microtones
exaggerated tremolo or vibrato
snap pizzicato, also called Bartók pizzicato
tapping or rubbing the soundboard of stringed instruments
unusual fingerings^{[clarification needed]}
altered tunings (scordatura)
prepared guitar
tapping on the fingerboard
"3rd Bridge", a guitar technique using the part of the string between the nut and the stopping finger; see Xenakis' cello piece Alpha nomos for a similar effect.
bowed guitar

[edit] Piano

prepared piano, ie introducing foreign objects into the workings of the piano to change the sound quality
string piano, ie hitting or plucking the strings directly or any other direct manipulation of the strings
whistling, singing or talking into the piano
silently depressing one or more keys, allowing the corresponding strings to vibrate freely, thus creating a kind of reverb effect
percussive use of different parts of the piano, such as the outer rim
microtones
use of the palms of the hands or the fists—or indeed other body parts—to strike the keys
use of other materials to strike the keys

[edit] Woodwind or brass instruments

overblowing
exaggerated brass head-shakes
activating keys or valves without blowing
combination of a mouthpiece of one instrument with the main body of another, for example, using an alto saxophone mouthpiece on a standard trombone.
turning the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument upside-down and playing as normal.
microtones
breath technique or articulation: multiphonics, flutter-tonguing, continuous breathing or circular breathing, brass half-valve playing, humming while blowing, double buzz, blowing a disengaged mouthpiece or reed, unusual mutes. Also, breath attack where the instrumentalist doesn't produce a note, but makes an airy, wind-like sound through the instrument.
playing and singing together

[edit] Electronic

[edit] Other instruments

Main article: Experimental musical instrument

keyboard technique involving the fist, flat of hand, arm, or external device to create tone clusters
unusual harmonics, including multiphonics
glissandi, tuner glissando
rudimental or "dynamic" double bass on the drum set, using hand rudiments such as double stroke rolls and flam taps and playing them with the feet
stacking 2 or more cymbals one on top of the other to change the sound properties of the instrument
custom-built percussion mallets, occasionally made for vibraphone or tubular bells (and other pitched-percussion in increasingly rare circumstances) which feature more than one mallet-head, and so are capable of producing multiple pitches and difficult chords (though usually only the chords they were designed to play). These mallets are seldom used, and percussionists sometimes make them themselves when they are needed. When implemented, they are usually only used once or twice in an entire work, and are alternated with conventional mallets; usually they are used only when playing a different instrument in each hand.
Playing the electric or bass guitar with a bow. See Bowed guitar

[edit] Notable composers

[edit] Notable performers

[edit] Guitar

[edit] Harp

Carlos Salzedo

[edit] Voice

[edit] Saxophone

[edit] Trombone

[edit] Cello

[edit] Violin

[edit] Flute

[edit] Bass

[edit] Drums and percussion

[edit] Other

Bradford Reed

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Stuart Dempster's The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms, ISBN 0-520-03252-7.
Patricia and Allen Strange's The Contemporary Violin, ISBN 0-520-22409-4, and other books in The New Instrumentation series.
Bertram Turetzky's The Contemporary Contrabass ISBN 0-520-06381-3.
Michael Edward Edgerton's The 21st Century Voice, ISBN 0-8108-5354-X, and other books in The New Instrumentation series. Scarecrow Press, 2005.

[edit] External links

Woodwind Fingering charts
New Sounds for Flute by Mats Möller
Guide How to Prepare a Guitar on hypercustom.com
The Orchestra: A User's Manual by Andrew Hugill with The Philharmonia Orchestra. Includes definitions, descriptions and video interviews of extended techniques for most all common orchestral instruments.
oddmusic A website dedicated to unique, odd, ethnic, experimental and unusual musical instruments and resources.
Audio Interview to Margaret Leng Tan: Through the silence. John Cage in Memoriam 1912-1992, La Biennale, Venice, 2007. Toy and Prepared Piano

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