Francesca Naibo
Am I Right? Exploring Guitar Handedness Through Improvisaton
The research is focused on the exploration of the symmetries and asymmetries that characterize the guitar in its form, its postures, its technique and the movements that the guitarist can act to produce sounds on it.
Starting from a unique perspective, such as that of left-handed guitar playing, the research studies the involvement of the hands in traditional and contemporary performance practice, as well as all the different technical postures and approaches typical of the world of the guitar, which spans from the academic world of the classical guitar to the DIY field of rock, punk and similar non-academic genres of the electric guitar.
The goal of this research is to amplify the technical-expressive possibilities of any guitarist, no matter what posture and technical approach they started from, in order to integrate all the possibilities that being left-handed or right-handed automatically excluded from the instrumental options at the beginning of the learning process. A study of how composers have explored the unusual and non-traditional possibilities of the guitar constitutes an important basis for this exploration.
New guitar gestures are being explored, seizing on the presence and coordination of two limbs that can undermine the concept of the “strong hand”. Hence, this work creates a fertile ground for sound research, leaning on the natural instability that arises from the reversal of habits and performance practices. Sound travels through controlled commands and imprecise gestures, questioning the subtle border of acceptable sound. This innovative approach will be applied to the field of free improvisation, giving the guitarist a broader number of options to choose from. The research is based on traditional instruments, as well as left-handed models of various types (classical, acoustic and electric), with the aim of providing results of wide application and interest for improvising practices, the guitar world and guitar didactics.
photo credits: Roberta De Min