The Unorthodox Guitar

Book excerpt: The Unorthodox Guitar: A Guide to Alternative Performance Practice is a comprehensive resource for experimentally minded guitarists and composers wishing to write for or perform on the instrument in new ways. The book focuses primarily on unconventional approaches to guitar performance, which include alternative tunings, extended techniques, instrumental preparations, electronic augmentations, and issues related to performing and recording with a computer. Embracing all guitar types-nylon, steel-string acoustic, and electric-techniques and examples are culled from a broad range of musical genres, including blues, contemporary classical, country, folk, jazz, rock, and non-Western idioms. While the writing offers a treasure trove of possibilities for experimental improvisation, it is oriented towards formal composition, and to that end details the controllable dimensions of the techniques and preparations at hand, along with strategies that might be adopted to notate them. Conventional guitar amplifiers, effect pedals, and pedalboards are examined, along with a discussion of analog signal chains, rig design, and best practices for the preservation of tone. In addition, possibilities afforded by the addition of a computer to the guitar rig are explored, including signal processing, sensor augmentation, and score following. The writing is paired with a companion website that contains an abundance of audio, video, and software materials to supplement the ideas presented. This information is intended to serve as a guide, reference, and source of inspiration for those wishing to compose and/or perform on the instrument in innovative ways.