Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Music Honours

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

First Supervisor

Kristian Borring

Abstract

Canadian jazz guitarist Lenny Breau (1941-1984) has long been revered for his innovative style and stellar approach to technique on the instrument. In his short career, he developed a reputation for emulating musical traits typically only associated with the piano. A key technique that allowed him to achieve this was his signature take on artificial harmonics, a guitar technique involving the displacement of a note by silencing a string’s fundamental frequency and isolating one of its overtones. Breau thoroughly explored this technique as a soloist over a range of jazz repertoire, but he was rarely heard playing outside of this context.

This study evaluates the applicability of artificial harmonics as a solo accompaniment technique for guitar in the context of popular contemporary music. This was achieved through a nine-week personal experiment, utilising a practice-led methodology to explore how Breau’s approach could be adapted to suit a pentatonic framework. The framework was then applied over a selection of folk music repertoire with tonic-centred harmony to create original arrangements which embody potential uses for artificial harmonics over similar repertoire.

This dissertation examines two distinct applications of artificial harmonics known as ‘chime chords’ and ‘harp harmonics’. Experiments revealed both to have potential uses and barriers for contemporary guitarists seeking to incorporate harmonics into their musical language. Excerpts from written arrangements of Skinny Love by Bon Iver (2007) and Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright by Bob Dylan (1963) accompany these discussions to contextualise the techniques and serve as the artefacts of the practitioner-researcher’s practice. Both arrangements are attached to this paper in full as musical score and in audio form, for the reader to supplement their understanding of the concepts being discussed.

A major finding was that the practicality of the many potential contemporary musical applications of artificial harmonics was offset by technical barriers, which restricted the technique’s usefulness in practice. Further, exploration revealed that in a pentatonic application of harp harmonics, the risk of musical ‘dead space’ – unintentional note double ups which make the harmonic redundant – is higher, which can be remediated by changing left-hand shape mid phrase, a concept not seen in Breau’s method. This research seeks to contribute to the extant literature on advanced guitar techniques, as a resource for players wishing to expand their knowledge of artificial harmonics.

DOI

10.25958/sdkn-mm23

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