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Extended technique

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.[1]

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.

(speech-singing)

Sprechstimme

(harmonic singing, or vocal multiphonics)

overtone singing

ululation

(vocal percussionists)

beatboxing

growling

screaming and shouting

whispering

panting

whistling

hissing

clucking

barking

sucking

Bill Laswell

Michael Manring

Jaco Pastorius

Mark Sandman

Mike Silverman

Bertram Turetzky

List of notable pieces which use extended techniques

; New Sounds for Woodwind, second edition, translated by Reginald Smith Brindle. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0-19-318611-8.

Bruno Bartolozzi

; The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms, The New Instrumentation 3. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0-520-03252-1.

Stuart Dempster

Michael Edward Edgerton; The 21st-Century Voice. The New Instrumentation 9. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2004.  978-0-8108-5354-6.

ISBN

; Acoustic Artistry: Tapping, Slapping, and Percussion Techniques for Classical and Fingerstyle Guitar. Private Lessons (Musicians Institute). Milwaukee: Musicians Institute Press/Hal Leonard, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4234-0571-9.

Evan Hirschelman

Linda L. Holland and Evan Conlee. Easing into Extended Technique, 5 vols. [Ridgefield, Wash.]: Con Brio, 1999.

Thomas Howell; The Avant-Garde Flute: A Handbook for Composers and Flutists. The New Instrumentation 2. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974.  978-0-520-02305-5.

ISBN

Ruth Inglefield and Lou Ann Neill; Writing for the Pedal Harp: A Standardized Manual for Composers and Harpists. The New Instrumentation 6. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985.  978-0-520-04832-4.

ISBN

J. Michael Leonard; Extended Technique for the Saxophone. Wayland, MA : Black Lion Press, 2004.

; Contemporary Instrumental Techniques. New York: Schirmer Books, 1976. ISBN 978-0-028-72100-2.

Gardner Read

; A Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. ISBN 978-0-837-11884-0.

Gardner Read

; New Directions for Clarinet, revised edition. The New Instrumentation 4. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-520-03379-5. Reprinted, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2013.

Philip Rehfeldt

; Contemporary Techniques for the Bassoon: Multiphonics. Bowling Green, OH: ADJ·ective New Music, LLC, 2014. ISBN 978-0-615-99938-8.

Jamie Leigh Sampson

; The Contemporary Guitar, revised and enlarged edition. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN 978-1-442-23789-6.

John Schneider

; Contemporary Percussion. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-816247-6.

Reginald Smith Brindle

Patricia and Allen Strange; The Contemporary Violin. The New Instrumentation 7. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.  978-0-520-22409-4.

ISBN

; The Contemporary Contrabass, new and revised edition. The New Instrumentation 1. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-520-06381-5.

Bertram Turetzky

by Anne Lanzilotti. Extended techniques for strings. Includes masterclass videos and notation suggestions.

Shaken Not Stuttered

by Ellen Fallowfield

Cello Map

Woodwind Fingering charts

by Mats Möller

New Sounds for Flute

Guide How to Prepare a Guitar on hypercustom.com

by Andrew Hugill with The Philharmonia Orchestra. Includes definitions, descriptions and video interviews of extended techniques for most all common orchestral instruments.

The Orchestra: A User's Manual

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