C4, part 4

 

I've discussed C4 in these posts:

It's an unusual instrument, even in my world.   It's an 18-string Contraguitar.  It has a 4-inch nut, and is in a multiscale, or "fan-fret" configuration.  It also has a non-radiused fingerboard.  

Since its conversion about a year ago from a hybrid nylon/steel configuration to an all-steel configuration, I've been relearning it, and still am.  

Today while shedding it, I realized that I have to approach it on its own terms.  In other words, I can't simply pick it up and start playing it as if it were any other instrument.  I'm discovering that it requires a different approach and concept.  With that incredibly wide neck and the non-radiused fingerboard, it forces me into a new place with it.  A new place that requires its own approach.  That's not a bad thing; in fact, I'm finding that I like it.  It lands me in a different and new conceptual space. 

As such, I'm starting to realize that what I play or compose on C4 is markedly different from what I play or compose on other instruments.  Such that there are things that I think could only be realized or could only exist on C4.

And it seems that the more I can identify and verbalize C4 issues in blog posts, the more I learn about this instrument; the clearer it becomes to me as I relearn it.

No doubt there will be more to come.


-kk













 

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