I'm working on a guitar-duo arrangement of an orchestral piece which features a muted, staccato bassline. I'm notating the bassline as "pizz.," with a bracket to show where the performer releases the mute. Two questions:
- Is it possible to have a pizzicato bassline AND non-pizzicato lines in the treble? Is that standard practice in classical guitar?
- If so, how should I notate that?
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
There isn't a 'standard' notation, but there is one that will do: the broken (or dotted) slur - a device invented by Bela Bartok when he wanted to indicate a phrase in a non-legato passage. I'd use a broken slur line across the pizzicato line, and put the "pizz" notation right below that slur - that should make it clear to the performer that only the bass line is pizzicato.
It'll also be helpful to have the stem direction on the bass line opposite that of the non-pizzicato part, but I'm guessing you already know that.
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I'll try it. Thanks!
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
