Classical Guitar

Subject Code and Name:

MUSI10017 Riffs：Guitar Cultures&Practice 1

Student Number: 835093

Student name: Wei Dai

Tutorial time :Tuesday 2:15pm-4:15pm

Tutor’s name: Adam May

Outline the major difference between classical and flamenco guitar styles.Consider musical aspects such as tone, technique and repertoire in addition to contrasting musical approaches.

Nowadays, lots of people are not able to tell the difference between a classical guitar and a flamenco guitar. Both of them are just different versions of the famous Spanish guitar and they look extreme similar.However, there are quiet some unique differences that result classical guitars and flamenco guitars to differ from each other such as different tone, technique and repertoire when contrasting musical approaches.

The greatest difference between a classical guitar and flamenco guitar is the tone even though they both have nylon strings. Back to the 19th century, classical guitar was purchased by the upper class^[1]. As rich people’s toys, classical guitars are often made with spruce tops and rosewood or mahogany backs and sides to enhance sustain.If a guitar is made from cypress wood, it is much cheaper for people to afford and this cheaper guitar is referred to as a flamenco guitar^[2]. Because of the characteristic of the wood such as density and durability differs.Classical guitars made by high-quality wood produces a loud, rich,deep sound box, and it is designed for solo performance with individual notes.For most classical guitars,they have a mellow bass sound but also a clear,soft high tone with a long decay. Unlike the resonant sound on a classical guitar, flamenco guitars are built for “cutting through the sound of dancers stomping their feet”^[3]. They responds quickly,but do not have the great sustain of sound on a classical guitar, flamenco guitars do have a much sharp sound that it die off quickly after they are played in order to facilitate the fast beat that flamenco music has. Furthermore, flamenco guitars are generally lightweight due to the cheap wood they are made by, so they do not have the same deep strong bass notes as the classical guitars. But they have a much higher, brighter trebles that is a bit more percussive and more austere than classical guitars.

Secondly, either classical guitar or flamenco guitar has its own unique techniques for specific style of music.However, the major difference between flamenco techniques and classical techniques is the use of right hand. Flamenco guitar style is fast and short.Because of the flat neck relief and the low action on a flamenco guitar, this makes flamenco players much easier to perform those fast right hand techniques such as rasgueado.Rasgueado is a strumming technique done with outward flicks of the right hand fingers, as well as the addition of a “golpeador” it allows players to finger tap on the soundboard near the stings^[4].These two techniques are widely used on flamenco guitar.In music example “Buleria 1”,the use of rasgueado and golpeador is able to produce a percussive beat rhythm with a sharp strumming sound that is suitable for the style of flamenco music.As already stated, technique on classical quite differs from flamenco style.In classical guitar, right hand is developed as a control to the tone production.As a solo instrument,classical guitarists aims to produce a good tone as well as sustain the sound.Most of them use thumb accompanies in the bass while other fingers are used to play the melody.Unlike flamenco’s fast speed, classical guitarist cares about the smooth of the sound.They uses rest-stroke and free-stroke to give more colours to tone of the guitar. Rest-stroke is a right hand technique that the finger pluck the string lands on the next string, and free-stroke allows the finger continues going until the energy is dissipated^[5]. Rest stroke is useful for melody playing, because it offers a louder brighter single note voice also only needs a small movement that easier for player to control. Free stroke is mainly used in chord playing as it gives equal sound to all the strings.However, these two techniques are often combined to provide different expression for audience to hear.