A good system to vary the rhythmics, is surely the stop. With this technique you can enhance the rhythm with some percussion notes or chords. The stop technique is obtained by slightly releasing the pressure of the fingers of the left hand on the strings while the strings are being picked. You should release the pressure of the fingers, but without leaving the strings. In fact the fingers must be placed on the strings themselves, so that when they are played they can be stopped. You must also pay attention to the fact that the volume of a stopped note is much lower in volume than a played note. Initially this can cause some sound problems. There are two systems that can be used to avoid this. In the first case, it is necessary to pick harder on the stopped notes than notes played normally. The other system uses a pedal or rack compressor. The compressor is able to compress and therefore stabilize the audio signal. Obviously this is not the place to talk about effects. If you want, you can consult the section dedicated to the effects. Playing without amplification, everything remains under your control.
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Ex #1 - We begin the analysis of the stop with quarter notes. A cut in a diagonal line indicates the note that is stopped. |
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Ex #2 - In this case the stop is performed using the upstroke. The technique is practically the same, with the obvious difference in the run-time. |
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Ex #3 - Execution of the stop on sixteenth notes. In this first case, we find the stop on the second, third and fourth sixteenths using normal picking. Remember to mark the stopped picking, so that you can give it more volume. |
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Ex #4 - An example of how the rhythmics can be varied using the stop. Here where the percussion sound of the stop comes from, identifying the rhythmic trend. |
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Getting to this point, we propose a series of very interesting studies on rhythmics. These will give you the complete knowledge of the basic formulas, something very useful for the execution of numerous rhythmic variations. If you still have some uncertainties, you can consult the rhythmic division section.
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