Home > Extended technique

Examples include:

• added electronics or MIDI control
• unusual bowing technique: double stops and multiple stops, sul ponticello, sul tasto, Col legno
• breath technique or articulation: multiphonic s, tonguing or flutter tonguing, continuous breathing or circular breathing, trumpet half-valve playing, humming while blowing, blowing a disengaged mouthpiece or reed, unusual mutes
• Sprechstimme ( speech-singing)
• prepared pianoA prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings. The first composer to use it extensively was John Cage, who is often credited with inventing the instrument. Cage himself said he was g
• Unusual harmonicIn acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. For a sine wave, it is an integral multiple of the frequency of the wave. For example, if the freqs, including multiphonics
• glissandi
• String microtones (vertical and linear)
• exaggerated tremoloTremolo is a musical term with two meanings: A rapid repetition of the same note, or an alternation between two or more notes. A rapid and repetitive variation in pitch for the duration of a note. This is more usually called vibrato. A fuller discussion o
• exaggerated brass head-shakes
• activating keys or valveA valve is a mechanical device that regulates the flow of fluids (either gases, fluidised solids, slurries or liquids) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. There are a number of names for particular types of valve: Ball cock,s without blowing
• tapping or rubbing the soundboard of stringed instruments
• alternate fingerings

Well known performers and composers who use a notable amount of extended techniques include:

• composerA composer is a person who writes music. The term refers particularly to someone who writes music in some type of musical notation, thus allowing others to perform the music. This distinguishes the composer from a musician who improvises. However, a perso Sofia Gubaidulina
• vocalist Joan La Barbara
• vocalist Shelley Hirsch
• vocalist and composer Meredith Monk
• composer and multireedist Joseph Celli
• pianist and composer David Tudor in his own work and in the prepared piano techniques of Cage and the New York School
• cellist and improviser Frances-Marie Uitti
• rock flautist Ian Anderson
• composer Robert Erickson
• trombonist Stuart Dempster
• bassist Bertram Turetzky

See also: List of pieces which use extended techniques