Extended technique


In music, extended technique is unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds or timbres.
Composers’ use of extended techniques is not specific to contemporary music and it transcends compositional schools and styles. Extended techniques have also flourished in popular music. Nearly all jazz performers make significant use of extended techniques of one sort or another, particularly in more recent styles like free jazz or avant-garde jazz. Musicians in free improvisation have also made heavy use of extended techniques.
Examples of extended techniques include bowing under the bridge of a string instrument or with two different bows, using key clicks on a wind instrument, blowing and overblowing into a wind instrument without a mouthpiece, or inserting objects on top of the strings of a piano.
Twentieth-century exponents of extended techniques include Henry Cowell, John Cage, and George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet, which has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary American works for string quartet, frequently plays music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments.

Examples

Vocal

Bowed string instruments

Plucked string instruments

  • using a bow
  • playing with percussion sticks, mallets, or other objects
  • playing on crossed strings
  • snap pizzicato, in which a string is pulled away from the fingerboard until it snaps back and strikes the fingerboard
  • string scrapes, a technique especially associated with electric guitar and electric bass, as played with a pick
  • percussive effects, such as drumming on a string instrument body
  • palm and finger muting
  • tapping on the fingerboard
  • string pops and slaps
  • preparation of a guitar by inserting screws or pieces of metal in the bridge or between the strings
  • detuning a string while playing
  • "3rd bridge", a guitar technique using the part of the string between the nut and the stopping finger; see Xenakis' cello piece Nomos Alpha for a similar effect.

Piano

  • prepared piano, i.e., introducing foreign objects into the workings of the piano to change the sound quality
  • string piano, i.e., striking, plucking, or bowing the strings directly, or any other direct manipulation of the strings
  • resonance effects
  • silently depressing one or more keys, allowing the corresponding strings to vibrate freely, allowing sympathetic harmonics to sound
  • touching the strings at node points to create harmonics
  • percussive use of different parts of the piano, such as the outer rim
  • * slamming piano lid or keyboard cover
  • microtones
  • use of the palms, fists, or external devices to create tone clusters
  • use of other materials to strike the keys
  • pedal noises

Woodwind instruments

Brass instruments

  • singing through the instrument while playing
  • exaggerated brass head-shakes
  • noisily activating valves without blowing
  • pitch bends
  • combination of a mouthpiece of one instrument with the main body of another, for example, using a French horn mouthpiece on a standard bassoon
  • flutter tonguing
  • circular breathing
  • double buzz
  • half-valve playing
  • unconventional mutes or other foreign objects in the bell
  • breath noises
  • blowing a disengaged mouthpiece

Percussion

  • rudimental or "dynamic" double bass on the drum set, using hand rudiments such as double stroke rolls and flam taps and playing them with the feet
  • stacking two or more cymbals, one on top of the other, to change the sound properties of the instrument
  • bowed vibraphone, cymbals, and gongs
  • resonance effects
  • pitch bends on mallet percussion
  • harmonics
  • custom-built percussion mallets, occasionally made for vibraphone or tubular bells which feature more than one mallet-head, and so are capable of producing multiple pitches and difficult chords. These mallets are seldom used, and percussionists sometimes make them themselves when they are needed. When implemented, they are usually only used once or twice in an entire work, and are alternated with conventional mallets; usually they are used only when playing a different instrument in each hand.
  • striking a gong and then inserting the vibrating metal into a tub of water, creating a glissando
  • placing a cymbal on a timpani head

Electronic

Organ

Playing on stops that are partially drawn.
Manipulating stops while holding one or more notes.

Other instruments

Notable composers

Notable performers

Bass

Bassoon

Cello

Clarinet

Drums and percussion

Flute

Guitar

Harp

Horn

Oboe

Piano

Saxophone

Trombone

Tuba

Trumpet

Viola

Violin

Voice

Other