{"id":2191,"date":"2015-02-05T11:11:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T11:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/?p=2191"},"modified":"2025-08-06T10:57:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:57:24","slug":"l215-expressive-use-of-tempo-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/l215-expressive-use-of-tempo-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Expressive use of tempo changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expressive Tempo Changes on Guitar<\/h2>\n

Learn all about expressive tempo changes on guitar in this free classical guitar lesson.<\/p>\n

There are two fundamental components of music. Rhythm, and pitch. In this lesson, we are going to look at how changing the rhythmic element in a piece can be expressive.<\/p>\n

Before you go a changin\u2019\u2026<\/h3>\n

A steady rhythmic pulse in a piece of music gives coherence and direction. Without any semblance of a pulse, rhythms lose their meaning. As a generalization, classical guitarists have sub-par rhythmic skills, and this underdevelopment comes, in part, from playing a solitary instrument. More often than not, we classical guitarists play solo repertoire and therefore have very little, save perhaps a metronome, to keep us strictly in time. Many other instruments live in a predominantly ensemble based world and develop a stronger sense of rhythm. I came to these conclusions during my doctoral research on sight reading, and even though musicianship, in general, is improving amongst classical guitarists, rhythm is still lacking.<\/p>\n

I am going on this little tangent about the steadiness of rhythm because it is crucial to establish the ability to play \u201cin time\u201d before we start to manipulate timing to be expressive. All too often, poor rhythm is defended as being \u201cexpressive\u201d or \u201cmusical\u201d\u00a0 when in fact the performer cannot actually execute the rhythms as written. Sometimes this issue originates from a student imitating a recording, where the performer has already decided on some expressive rhythmic tools. By using the recording as a base for the piece, instead of actually reading the rhythms written on the score, the student\u2019s version strays further and further from the original instructions from the composer. To be succinct about it: unless you can play in time, any expressive use of rhythm will lose its effect.<\/p>\n

Timing is, \u2026 , everything.<\/h3>\n

If you are at the point where your rhythm is steady, the next hurdle is knowing where to implement expressive rhythmic changes. The good news is that, more often than not, the score will indicate places to change tempo. Composers put a great deal of though into their scores and reading their markings should be taken with as much seriousness as if you were to have a private lesson with the composer. So, let\u2019s look at some of the most common types of tempo\/rhythm changes that you will find in a piece of music. There are others that you might find in a musical dictionary, but in my experience, many are rarely used.<\/p>\n

Ritenuto<\/i><\/h4>\n

Often abbreviated as rit.<\/i> and sometimes, to be specific, riten.<\/i><\/p>\n

To hold back and slow down rather suddenly<\/p>\n

Ritardando<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\n

Also abbreviated as rit.<\/i><\/p>\n

A gradual decrease in tempo<\/p>\n

Rallentando<\/i><\/h4>\n

Abbreviated as rall.<\/i><\/p>\n

Rallentando<\/i> and Ritardando<\/i> mean essentially the same thing, however, as Ritardando<\/i> has the same abbreviation as Ritenuto,<\/i>which makes Rallentando<\/i> a more effective term to communicate the gradual slowing of tempo.<\/p>\n

Fermata<\/i><\/h4>\n

Indicates a hold or a pause on a particular rest, note or place in the music. The fermata<\/i> tells the performer that the rhythm should be extended longer than its normal duration, however, the exact amount of time is left up to the discretion of the performer.<\/p>\n

Accelerando<\/i><\/h4>\n

Abbreviated as accel.<\/i><\/p>\n

A gradual increase in tempo<\/p>\n

Pi\u00f9 mosso<\/i><\/h4>\n

More movement or faster<\/p>\n

Meno mosso<\/i><\/h4>\n

Less movement or slower<\/p>\n

A piacere<\/em><\/h4>\n

Literally means \u201cas you like\u201d and indicated that the performer may manipulate the tempo with discretion.<\/p>\n

Tell me what to do!<\/h3>\n

All of the aforementioned markings are very useful directions to add expressivity to the score. However, they are only half the story. There are always places in a piece of music which lend themselves to rhythmic changes with an expressive goal.<\/p>\n

One of the most reliable places to manipulate the rhythm successfully is at the beginnings and ends of phrases. Because a phrase has a complete musical idea within its boundaries, pulling or pushing the rhythm at the end of the phrase will not disturb the contents of this \u2018idea\u2019. In fact, pulling back at the end of a phrase can often have the effect of punctuating the music and giving it a clearer structure. As guitarists, our fingers don\u2019t need to take breaths like a woodwind player or a singer, as a result, our playing can become breathless. By marking in the phrases and pulling back at the end of the phrase, or simply adding a little \u2018breath\u2019 of a pause, we can give our interpretations a lot more clarity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been robbed!<\/h3>\n

Pulling and pushing is all well and good, but our music often sounds good when it is balanced. The term that is used for a balance between pulling and pushing is Rubato<\/a>. <\/i>It literally translates to the word \u201crobbed\u201d and the idea behind it is quite simple: If at any point you speed up the music, then you must balance again the music with a slowing down. Similarly, if you take some speed away (i.e. you have \u201crobbed\u201d the music of some speed) you need to give it back by speeding up again.<\/p>\n

The most famous practitioner of the \u201crubato style\u201d was the Polish pianist, Frederic Chopin. He was said to be able to maintain a steady pulse in his left hand, while freely pulling and pushing the rhythms in the right hand.<\/p>\n

In essence, the idea is to create an elasticity in the music. One that serves long winding melodies by taking away the rigidity of bar lines and metronomic rhythms.<\/p>\n

Too Much of a Good Thing<\/h3>\n

It might be a little too fun to start deploying all of these new found toys in your music. But, just as a word of caution, aim to be selective with these tools as using them too much can make the interpretation sound predictable, or worse, sound disconnected. I like to think of these types of effects as dessert. Just the right amount can make the meal a wonderful experience, but too much will leave you feeling a bit ill\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Fermata<\/i>, hold me.<\/h3>\n

The last expressive tool we will look at is the Fermata<\/i>. This funny little bird\u2019s-eye marking is telling the performer to hold the note, or chord. It doesn\u2019t tell you how long to hold it for, it just tells you to hold, so you are going to need a bit of decision making when these come up. They will often appear at the end of a piece to give a sense of finality, or the end of a section to give a clear division between one section and the next. Sometimes they will be used on particularly expressive notes, moments or climaxes in the music where the composer wants you to linger for a short while.<\/p>\n

I approach the duration of a fermata<\/i> by taking into account the material that came before it and the point in the music where it occurs. Sometimes they are held slightly longer than the normal duration, and sometimes they really can be drawn out. For instance, at the end of a twenty minute piece you would probably give the fermata<\/i> a long duration as it is the final point of a very long journey. On the other hand a fermata used halfway through a short piece, might just require an extra little sustain to make the musical effect work nicely. In the end, it is up to you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expressive Tempo Changes on Guitar Learn all about expressive tempo changes on guitar in this free classical guitar lesson. There are two fundamental components of music. Rhythm, and pitch. In this lesson, we are going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[41,42],"class_list":["post-2191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-lessons","tag-classical-guitar-musicianship","tag-tempo-changes"],"yoast_head":"\nExpressive tempo changes on guitar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about expressive tempo changes in this free classical guitar lesson. 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