Getting Different Tones on Classical Guitar

Part of the Video Series How to Play the Classical Guitar

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Learn how to get different tones with your classical guitar by moving your playing hand across the strings in different places in this free video clip on how to play the classical guitar.

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Video Transcript

Getting Different Tones on Classical Guitar
Okay now we are going to go over a few of the techniques that people use when trying to really spruce up the pieces that they learn. The first thing you can do once you’ve learned a piece and are pretty good at it and you want to you know, maybe add some color. I’m just doing a regular old C chord in my right hand here. You can move your fingers down towards the bridge. You’ll notice when I do that not much moves; just a little bit of movement from my shoulder and you can bring it right down here. My hand stays in the same position and you just play down here. It produces what they call Ponticello sound which is a very thin sound. It’s a lot thinner than say up here. And it gives a lot of color, it’s nice for darker passages and things like that. Like maybe a Minor chord and things like that and the opposite of that you can play what a lot of people ask for Dolce. Which is very sweetly and I’m going to play the same C chord up here and you play it over the neck and it’s kind of a harp kind of sound; it’s very sweet, it’s very bold. It’s not incredibly pronounced so it is going to be a subtle effect if you are playing with other people and you won’t stick out much but it is a very sweet and nice sounding thing. I’m going to let you hear it as opposed to playing normally which is the average tone right over the rosette which has the nice bright effect; a pronounced sound versus up here a nice mellow sound and a nice thin sound. So those are just a couple of little things that they ask for in music that can really spice up your playing.

About the Expert

Expert: Chris Harold King has been playing classical guitar for over 10 years. He is currently pursuing an advanced degree in music theory and teaches lessons to students of all ages. Read More