Tony’s Title

For Masters Research students…

Here are our first draft titles for my ‘interest area’ in guitar construction, playing and composition:

• Does the shape, form or structure of a guitar have an effect upon someone’s emotions when performing?
• Musical instruments and performance: a case study of guitar shapes and varied  performances.
• Can a guitar’s design have an effect upon its usability?
• Does the individuality of each guitar affect its performance?
• How can different guitars make one feel and play differently when playing them?
• Playing guitar: between performance and emotion?

  To what extent (and how) might     guitar design and construction influence playing and song-composition moods and styles?

1. 

   James says:

   9 juin 2023 at 4 h 34 min

   Dear Tony,

   It’s interesting to explore how guitar design influences playing styles. I never thought of this question. Thanks for the inspiration.

   Best wishes,
   James
2. 

   tjolley says:

   15 septembre 2023 at 13 h 17 min

   Thanks, James! Sorry it took me so long to reply to your comment!

   Actually, with a bit of time on my hands I could just be tempted to have a more than half-serious look at this Q. I find it interesting in princple, but I find it strangely comforting that although I am far from a ‘good’ guitarist, even I can ‘feel’ something that does not come from me that is in the proverbial ‘mix’ somewhere when I play / compose with a different piece of wood in my hands.

   I’m sure that this phenomenon is ‘as old as the hills’ – after all, the top violinists crave getting their hands on a Stradivarius from the Master’s Cremona workshop – and I’m sure that has nothing to do with the price of the instrument, but rather the sound and the ‘feel’ that ‘speaks’ to them and affects them and their playing in some special way.

   As I said, I find it interesting that at my basic level, even I can feel something of a parallel. I have a cheap Ibanez acoustic-electric,ultra-thin body, ‘classical’ guitar (just 270 Euros) and when I’m in a melancholy mood it feels as if it is ‘calling’ me and when I set my fingers to fretboard they go to places I’d never thought of going. It’s beautifully ‘odd’!

   Best,
   Tony