campanella

ripock

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Can someone give me an authoritative or at least orthodox definition of what the campanella style entails? By context, I can adduce that it is some fingerstyle technique, but what are the details?
 
No doubt others will chime in (pun intended!)

Basically the concept involves taking advantage of the re-entrant tuning of the ukulele, enabling one to use alternate strings for successive melody notes thereby allowing each individual note to "ring out" for as long as possible.

This also implies that each individually fretted note should be kept fretted for as long as possible, only moving the finger to it's new position at the last possible moment.

The system is probably most easily implemented on the shorter scale instruments, where a wider range of notes is available within one hand-span.

There are probably some other fine details for others to fill in.

Hope this helps in the meantime :)

:music:
 
There are some good threads and resources on the forum:

Guide to Campanella style

Free downloadable Celtic Campanella

I love the effect but I'm not very good at it. I love Camsuke's Campanella Waltz but there are still a couple of bars that catch me out - I hold down the fingers as much as possible to sustain the sound and then lift the wrong one.
 
Thanks everyone. It is now clear as a bell. Coincidentally I had ordered a CD of John King's music, which hasn't arrived yet, because a jazz guitarist with whom I correspond thought it would be up my alley. My docket is already too full with clawhammer, travis picking, etc...but I will definitely keep this in mind. At the very least I think I will have to play arpeggios with it.
 
ripock, you might also enjoy Samantha Muir's YouTube videos
 
It certainly does. A high quality soprano uke is exactly what is called for to play this style. Not having one though, forces me to stick to playing it on my concert uke, which seems to work very well for it.
 
...the concept involves taking advantage of the re-entrant tuning of the ukulele, enabling one to use alternate strings for successive melody notes thereby allowing each individual note to "ring out" for as long as possible...

You've been given good answers to your original question, but this is a bit misleading. The re-entrant tuning gives the ukulele player one additional tool for playing campanella style. Campanella can be played just as well with a linear tuning. Some of us play this style with both types of tuning. Remember, campanella is a guitar technique adopted by us ukulele players.
 
You've been given good answers to your original question, but this is a bit misleading. The re-entrant tuning gives the ukulele player one additional tool for playing campanella style. Campanella can be played just as well with a linear tuning. Some of us play this style with both types of tuning. Remember, campanella is a guitar technique adopted by us ukulele players.

Thank you for that insight. I admit I was unaware of this technique being used on guitar ... I'll bear it in mind :rolleyes:
 
It is not true that campanella technique is a guitar technique adopted by the ukulele.

Campanella technique was used long before the classical guitar existed. In fact it was used on instruments that were very similar to the ukulele. Some of them were even tuned in GCEA tuning just like the "modern ukulele". There are even roughly 500 years old tabs for those instruments which can be directly played with the ukulele.

Best Regards
Wilfried
 
Don't use campanella for the sake of campanella. It doesn't work musically for every type of music piece. That's where John king got it wrong sorry.
 
Since initiating this thread, that has been my conclusion as well. Currently I consider it an adornment such as legato, pizzicato, or trills. It works where it works. It is kind of like cinnamon: a little bit enhances the flavor, but too much makes it bitter and unpalatable. On a practical level, the one place that campanella seems to contribute to my style is in playing scales and modes. Since scales/modes span across all strings (or,at least, 3 strings in re-entrant tunings) it is a nice effect to use the cross-resonances of the appealing pealing bell sound of campanella by going back and forth between strings. It really breaks up the scale and makes it sound more musical and less linear.
 
Don't use campanella for the sake of campanella. It doesn't work musically for every type of music piece. That's where John king got it wrong sorry.

Would you be so kind as to elaborate on King's mis-application of campanella?

I'm not trying to be difficult, but if such an issue exists, I'd like to become aware of it so as to avoid contributing to the problem myself.

A video or sound sample would help to clarify, if possible to add one to a written description.

Thanks in advance. :)
 
...Campanella is but one path to this goal there are plenty of others. If you don't like King's arrangements, maybe you will be able to publish some books and videos of your own arrangements which get the same recognition as we see recorded in this obituary?

Thanks for that info and link Bill.

I am not experienced enough yet with campanella to have a qualified opinion as to what he did wrong, or did right, and merely just beginning to study his technique and arrangements via:

John%20King%20bk-lrg.jpg


https://www.fleamarketmusic.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=170

Which I am happy to use as a starting point, even if other folks consider him to be less than an optimal example of this style of playing.

I am ignorant of why one would avoid his techniques, and that was why I had asked the above question in my other post.

While it has not happened yet, I would caution other folks to not speak ill of the deceased, even if only out of respect for their contributions which might be esteemed by other folks. We all have our likes and dislikes and opinions can be expressed without putting down anyone or anything. Kindness is all that is required.
 
I just wanted to clarify my ambiguous post above. I wasn't agreeing that King had got it wrong. I was agreeing that campanella, like everything else, has a time and place. I have King's book, as well as Tony Mizen's, on campanella. As beautiful as those arrangements are, I had to admit that they don't apply to what I'm trying to do. That's all.
 
There are merits to all of your guys points above, but why does everything have to be absolutely either/or or all-or-nothing?

By default, I reject dogma and doctrine, and once I understand John King's style I will pick and choose how to use it FOR MYSELF and not according to the rules of some magisterium.

I have no intentions of joining an orchestra or symphony where they impose a hard discipline upon the musicians in the ensemble.

My music is for me, and I really dont care about 'the rules' as long as it makes a pleasing sound, and by golly that usually follows along with the study and application of Music Theory...unless one's intention is to create dissonant music, and do something completely different...

Nobody has to be 'wrong' here for all of us to find joy in the application of various techniques.

If mis-information is being distributed, we can have a civilized discussion, which I would prefer, and elevate the level of knowledge without anyone feeling slighted.

Thanks for reading, I will now step down from the soap-box. :)
 
Would you be so kind as to elaborate on King's mis-application of campanella?

I'm not trying to be difficult, but if such an issue exists, I'd like to become aware of it so as to avoid contributing to the problem myself.

A video or sound sample would help to clarify, if possible to add one to a written description.

Thanks in advance. :)

I rather explain verbally than try to type out my thoughts and what I know about music theory (both piano and guitar, and I'm sure for most western music and instruments) p m me
 
Would you be so kind as to elaborate on King's mis-application of campanella?

I'm not trying to be difficult, but if such an issue exists, I'd like to become aware of it so as to avoid contributing to the problem myself.

A video or sound sample would help to clarify, if possible to add one to a written description.

Thanks in advance. :)

I'd like to know this, too.
 
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