Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 05/08/2014 18:11:41

Title: Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?
Post by: thedoc on 05/08/2014 18:11:41

Every wondered what makes a great guitar solo? Oxford's Dr
David Robert Grimes has been looking at the science behind
playing the guitar.
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1000830/)
or [chapter podcast=1000773 track=14.08.05/Naked_Scientists_Podcast_14.08.05_1002581.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/14.08.05/Naked_Scientists_Podcast_14.08.05_1002581.mp3)

Title: Re: Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?
Post by: RD on 05/08/2014 19:31:19

Q. Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?

One option is to feed the guitar-output down a tube into your mouth, so you can modify the sound in a way similar to speech ...

 [:)]

Title: Re: Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?
Post by: alancalverd on 06/08/2014 14:58:39

"They might do it intuitively....." No, we read the label on the packet, or talk to the bloke in the shop. There's a whole range of stuff of decreasing stiffness from classical via jazz to lightweight rock, with a range of structures and finishes  (steel, gut, round wound, flatwound, tape wound....).

Good classical and jazz guitar tuition includes vibrato techniques, as does any other string instrument.

Nwadays I play a fretless jazz bass with flatwound strings and no fixed pitches at all - the string equivalent of a bass trombone!

Title: Re: Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?
Post by: percepts on 07/08/2014 00:57:44

So which scientist or mathematician can provide the formula which describes this

or this

or any other guitar solo

Title: Re: Is there any science behind a good guitar solo?
Post by: alancalverd on 07/08/2014 06:45:27

Description is no problem - we have been using musical notation for hundreds of years. There is a standard notation for "bent" notes  (portamento) which isn't common for other instruments, though I came across it in a tuba piece this week, and both vibrato and tremolo are standard indications for stringed instruments.

In principle any sequential actions can be described by a predictive formula but it's a lot easier to write and read a series of explicit instructions, which is why we use notations rather than formulae where the sequence is long compared with the number of repeats: music, dancing, rally driving, aerobatics.....