the pursuit of love (found poem)

A chord will emerge from the guitar
       either quickly or slowly;
 notice whether any part of the sound
 dies off sooner, or lingers longer, than another.

This is basic information
             that you won't get
       if
someone is playing whole songs;

 listen 

for basic volume and 

presence;

a chord will emerge
from the guitar

either


quickly

or                               slowly;


                     listen for some degree of separation:
 that is,
    you may be able to hear each note.
Or        not:
the        sound may be fuzzy or cloudy
 and lack focus;

 most chords will last
 six

to                      twelve

seconds;

 that gives you a sense of systemic sustain:

 pay attention
        to
    the quality of sound --
that is,
               whether it's                   warm,
 sweet,            tinny,            rich,        live,
fundamental,                 shallow,           breathy,           open,
 held back,                and/or
has           lots of                            overtones;

 is there compliance of response?
That is,
                      do you have to push the guitar
             or
does it respond easily                  to your touch;

 listen

to whether the sound
is
bass-heavy          or treble heavy,

 or well balanced;

 and whether the strength/presence of each string is even;

 and whether there are any  wolf               tones
 (i.e., problematically louder or quieter notes)

 and whether the guitar really plays in tune or         not;

 and whether the sound is good close-up,
and/or from across the room
 (you'll need a playing/listening partner for this);

 and whether            the guitar sounds      different
depending on               whether you're listening
from in front        of it
or
 from off to the side.

Some guitars      will astonish you
with how narrow
 their area of projection              is;
 and whether or not
                  the guitar
 has good dynamic                        range;

 that is,  
whether can you get different quality of             sound
from playing very softly,
 softly,
 medium,
harder,
and/or
really hard;

 if you repeat          these exercises
with             different chords
up and down the             neck
 you'll get a sense           of how evenly
 (or not)
 the guitar plays on       the whole fingerboard;

 be on the lookout for      tonal bloom;
that is,

whether the sound comes out
immediately
at full volume or
 
whether it integrates
and gets louder before it begins to wane;

 finally,
 you get to notice
               and decide
whether and how much
 you like or dislike
 any of these qualities of tonal response
 in the guitar you're playing.


                          Ervin Somogyi












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