Strum Stretch

• Feb 19, 2020 - 17:23

How have you used stretch? It seems that a natural strumming pattern in a bit uneven, free tempo or rubato. What are the limits to stretch. I was just wondering, as I sit here strumming on my tuba.


Comments

In reply to by Rockhoven

They are simply arpeggios and glissandos, not strums. There's strum markings in the symbols palette of the master palette (and the technique exists for plucked strings instruments only and basically is a fast arpeggio), but those don't play back, while arpeggios and glissandos do.
I beliebe I explained this to you already in another thread?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Someone said to use the arrows in arpeggios and glissandos. they don't sound like arpeggios to me. I posted extremely fast arpeggios in that thread and they don't come near this sound. I have strummed all kinds of string instruments. The arrows that run alongside the chords sound like strums to me. But they are different from what i have seen in written classical guitar scores and tablature. In classical, I believe the symbol runs down alongside the chord but is s squiggly type. In Tabs, it's like the page you posted. brackets and arrowheads, not arrows.

But you guys know more than I do. Got anything to add, subtract or correct?

In reply to by Rockhoven

Arpeggios and glissandoes and totally separate things. Arepggios tell you to take the notes of a chord that are written as if they shoujld be played simultaneously, and instead playing them one at a time, but rapidly so it kind of sounds like you almost played them together. This is essentially what a guitar does when you strum it. Tubas can't play multiple notes at once so it's completely moot.

A glissando is something that connects two notes not played at the same time, and says to slide from one note to the next.

In reply to by Rockhoven

For an instrumentalist playing a chord on a fretted, stringed instrument (like guitar) a "strum" can produce an arpeggio. Arpeggios are notated with the wavy and/or straight vertical line(s).

On guitar, a glissando is sounded by playing a note and then sliding from one fret to another - so not really a "strum" at all.

Traditionally, a chord arpeggio sounded on a piano does not involve "strumming".
The term "strum" is usually reserved for stringed instruments (excepting piano) and so, by extension, "strumming" on a tuba would be regarded as being non-sensical (in more serious music circles).

In reply to by Jm6stringer

I've actually played these instruments and read the music. I understand a gliss and I have read and played arpeggios. A strum is a distinctive sound that is produced on stringed instruments. With Musescore, I can certainly strum a tuba, not actually, but I can notate it and play it back for hearing, as I've shown in a previous post. What you are calling an arpeggio, the straight arrows running down or up alongside the chord are strums as far as I'm concerned. Arpeggios are slower. You can't even make that sound on a piano. It might belong to a class called Arpeggio, but it's a distinctive species of arpeggio that we should call, or I would call, a "strum."

Spose, you insist that these are arpeggios, then where are the symbolic markings for strums? It's an important question, because I can think of only a few sounds that became so popularized in the 20th century. Synths and strums. You hear simple chord strumming at the opening of L&M's "A Day in the Life." That was not even as common a sound before the 60's. Except in Folk music. Before that is was all horns, and trombone s and tubas, and the players outright refused to even try to strum those instruments. But NOW all this has changed. I'm gonna pull the shirttails outta my knickers and strum my tuba all day long.

In reply to by Rockhoven

A strum is an arpeggio but an arpeggio isn't always a strum.

If you want to notate an arpeggio with precise timing you need to write out the notes one after another. You can also adjust the stretch value of the arp symbol in the inspector but it's not going to be clear to the musician what timing you want.

BTW I can make that strum sound on a piano ;)

In reply to by Rockhoven

OK, I thought you said you were literally strumming your tuba, which to me suggested you weren't understanding the term. I guess you really meant, you were listening to MuseScore play a strum on a chord notated for tuba? Indeed, you can notate all sorts of impossible-to-play-in-real life things that MsueScore will still playback because it isn't hampered by the same physical limitations as real instruments.

As for strum versus arpeggio, I don't really understand the distinction you are making, unless it's just one opf speed. Or are you saying you believe an apreggio would be played differently from a strum even on the same instrument? I don't know that you'd find many who agree with that interpretation - an arpeggio really is the same as a strum. Maybe you are confused by the fact that the word but not symbol) "arpeggio" is also used to describe something rather different, where the notes of a chord are played very dliberately one at a time in rhythm. These are never notated using the arpeggio symbol, they are simply written out in full using the actual notes and rhythms. But when the arpeggio symbol is used in piano or harp music, it is treated in exactly the same way as strums in guitar music.

I have no idea what you mean in saying strums or arpeggios weren't common before the 20th centruy. That's simply not true at all. They are used extensively in th literature for piano, harp, guitar, lute, and so forth, going back to the Renaissance.

Anyhow, all that said, I don't understand if you actually have a question, or are reporting a problem, requesting a feature, or what?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've read the classical repertoire for guitar. I was referring to the 20th century and recorded music. Sure, strums have been around forever, but the most accurate recordings of strums are audio recordings. In the guitar repertoire, I always read arpeggios as noted, note for note. Whenever I came across vertical lines next to chords, I never though "arpeggio: but "strum" which I think are two very different things, though they might belong to the same category. But I think that anyone who strums a tuba is not a purist.

In reply to by Rockhoven

Yes, the arepggios that are notated note for note are meant to be played as such. But again, the line next to a chord is also called an arpeggio, even though it means something different. Two different uses for the same word. The word "strum" is a guitar-specific version of the same thing, but on other instruments (eg, piano) the word "arpeggio" is used instead for the same thing. Again, just a different use the word arpeggio, to mean something different from the meaning you have in mind. Just like the word "bar" can mean different things depending on context (what British people and jazz musicians call the thing other musicians call a "measure", or a place to get a drink).

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