Tips for Playing Polyphony on Guitar
To play multiple melody lines at the same time, or to play a single melody line over held out notes is a great guitar technique to develop, and one that is very challenging to approach. This is what would generally be considered polyphony on the instrument, and it is something that many players do not spend much time on. Those familiar with the classical style of guitar playing are the most likely to have encountered it, but obtaining an ability to improvise polyphony is something that players should strive for.
In general, the guitar is not really thought of as a polyphonic instrument, which is strange. Chords are obviously played frequently, but no one spends much time talking about having multiple melody lines going. The piano is an instrument that can easily produce polyphony, but on the guitar it requires a number of different techniques in combination to maintain.
The first, and most basic technique for polyphony is to use open strings. This is something probably all guitarists have experimented with at some point, and it is a good way to start playing around with polyphony. By letting an open string ring, you can have a melody line or even chords being played over what could be considered a pedal tone. If this technique is mastered, it can be used to subtly have melodies include open strings for added depth and layering.
The second thing that can help with playing polyphonically is mastering scales in different intervals and chords. If you can play through scales in groups of different intervals including triads and seventh chords, you can mix chord movement in with your normal single line melody playing, which can be a sort of fake polyphonic technique, or you can play the chords in separated fashion so that it creates true polyphony. This may be hard, but it is a good thing to know in general, so it is worth the time to work on it.
Another step in the road towards playing the guitar polyphonically is to use bars in your playing. Fretting notes with a bar frees up fingers, which can then be used to play additional notes. Find different chord shapes that can be played using bars and then work on using free fingers to run single line scales through the chords while as many notes as possible are still ringing. This can be a great thing to know for polyphony or just to be able to play harmony and melody at the same time.
The last basic tip is to work on is improvising through a scale with two melodic lines alternating and interacting. Pick a scale and try to get two separate melodic ideas going. Alternate between moving both lines at once by playing intervals and having one line stay still while the other moves over or under it. This will challenge you to be flexible with your fingerings and adopt new techniques that you never would have come across, so it is a good exercise in general.
Polyphony is a tricky technique on the guitar, but very possible if you use a combination of methods and take advantage of things that you can do. It is one of the more impressive things you can master on the guitar, and it will improve your overall command of the instrument quite a bit, so it can be very worthwhile to learn.
February 02 2010 01:39 pm | Guitar Technique