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 (for instance, Hector Berlioz’s use of col legno in his Symphonie Fantastique is an extended technique) 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 (use of fists and arms on the keyboard, playing inside the piano), John Cage (prepared piano), 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.
Sprechstimme (speech-singing)
overtone singing (harmonic singing, or vocal multiphonics)
ululation
beatboxing (vocal percussionists)
growling
screaming and shouting
whispering
panting
whistling
hissing
clucking
barking
sucking
playing with a plectrum or pick
playing with percussion sticks, mallets, or other objects
bowing on the "wrong" side of the left hand fingers
bowing behind the bridge
bowing non-string parts of the instrument
exaggerated vibrato
snap pizzicato, also called Bartók pizzicato
tapping or rubbing the soundboard of stringed instruments
string scrapes with finger, nail, or object
percussive effects on body of instrument
tapping on the fingerboard
"seagull" harmonic effects
detuning a string while playing
preparation
resonance effects
using a bow
playing with percussion sticks, mallets, or other objects
playing on crossed strings (called "snare drum effect" on guitar)
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 basss, as played with a pick.
percussive effects, such as drumming on a string instrument body
palm and finger muting ("pizzicato")
tapping on the fingerboard
string pops and slaps (fingerboard instruments)
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.
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 (whistling, singing or talking into the piano)
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
multiphonics
harmonics
pitch bends ("lipping")
noisily activating keys without blowing
combination of a mouthpiece of one instrument with the main body of another, for example, using an alto saxophone mouthpiece on a standard trombone.
flutter-tonguing,
double buzz
breath noises
blowing a disengaged mouthpiece or reed
singing through the instrument while playing
internal muting
key or tone-hole slap - percussive sound made by slapping a key or keys against their tone holes
singing through the instrument while playing
exaggerated brass head-shakes
noisily activating valves without blowing
pitch bends ("lipping")
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 (e.g. plumbing parts)
breath noises
slap tonguing
blowing a disengaged mouthpiece
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 2 or more cymbals one on top of the other to change the sound properties of the instrument
bowed vibraphone, cymbals, and gongs
resonance effects (e.g., cymbal played on a timpani; cow bell struck against a bass drum, etc.)
pitch bends on mallet percussion
harmonics
custom-built percussion mallets, occasionally made for vibraphone or tubular bells (and other pitched-percussion in increasingly rare circumstances) which feature more than one mallet-head, and so are capable of producing multiple pitches and difficult chords (though usually only the chords they were designed to play). 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 meta into a tub of water, creating a glissando.
placing a cymbal on a timpani head
added electronics or MIDI control
Turntablism, such as scratching records or otherwise manipulating a record or turntable platter, often done in combination with a DJ mixer, to create unique sound effects and rhythms
Using a "kill switch" on an electric guitar to create quasi-scratching rhythmic sounds.
Circuit bending: DIY experimenting with electronic keyboards and electronic toys.
playing electric instruments unplugged, or amplifying acoustical parts of normally electronic instruments (e.g. finger noise on the keys)
exploitation of inherent equipment "defects" (e.g., deliberately driving digital equipment into aliasing; exaggerating hum or hiss coming from speakers, acoustic feedback, key click on a Hammond organ etc.)
unusual harmonics
glissandi, tuner glissando
Bill Laswell
Michael Manring
Jaco Pastorius
Mark Sandman
Mike Silverman
Bertram Turetzky
Yusef Lateef
Tom Cora
Helen Liebmann
Rohan de Saram
Frances-Marie Uitti
Tara Bouman
Walter Boeykens
Guy Deplus
Roberto Paci Dalò
Eric Mandat
Sean Osborn
Michel Portal
William O. Smith
Suzanne Stephens
Evan Ziporyn
Drums and percussion
Burkhard Beins
Han Bennink
John Bonham
Bryan "Brain" Mantia
Keith Moon
Steven Schick
Ruth Underwood
Ian Anderson
Ian Clarke
Robert Dick
John Fonville
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Kathinka Pasveer
Maggi Payne
Carlos Salzedo
Marianne Smit
David Amram
Hermann Baumann
Anthony Halstead
Giovanni Punto
David Pyatt
Barry Tuckwell
Heinz Holliger
Yusef Lateef
Henry Cowell
Richard Bunger Evans
Alan Hovhaness
David Tudor
Peter Brötzmann
Ornette Coleman
Mats Gustafsson
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Sam Newsome
Evan Parker
Ned Rothenberg
Skerik
John Zorn
Stuart Dempster
Vinko Globokar
John Kenny
George Lewis
Christian Lindberg
Miles Davis
Håkan Hardenberger
John Cale
Alexander Balanescu
Tony Conrad
Graeme Jennings
Niccolò Paganini
Michael Urbaniak
Paul Zukofsky
Bradford Reed
Extended technique Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA