The Volume

It’s going to sound crazy: it’s true for all instruments, even on kalimba, but the volume of the sound you produce radically changes the way you perceive music.

Have you ever seen thee symbols?

Music-box.it

There are in every score, especially the orchestral ones, to better regulate the volumes of each individual instrument.

Everyone who starts playing an instrument tends to play each note at the same volume, because they focus on what to play or not how.

You don’t know what you’re missing!

But playing loud or low doesn’t just affect your performance: if you strain your thumbs a lot in the learning phase, you will realize that you will strain your mind a lot more. In addition, playing very loud requires so much effort that it is not easy to play notes very quickly, for example.

So playing loud doesn’t have any advantages?

On the mnemonic plane it allows you to learn faster: I read an article a while ago in which it was said that the high volume activates the development of various neural links in the brain and this allows you to learn first.

I think that soon I will write something about how to learn a song faster!

But let’s go back to talking about volumes: playing low or loud is like talking with a high or low voice, amused, angry or sad. When you have learned your song well, when you can perform it without confusing the notes or forgetting the songs, then it’s time to talk about dynamics. Dynamic means not only the volume with which to play a "part" of a song, but also where to put the accents. It's the choice of each individual author or musician, based on the effect he wants to produce in the listener. Accent means which note sounds louder than the others.

If you choose well which notes to emphasize, where to exaggerate with the volume, where to be softer, where to slow down or accelerate (have you ever noticed that at the end of many tracks there is a slowing down? It serves to give more emphasis to the ending without leaving the listener in awe).

Take some time to make these choices: if you are playing a cover, listen to the original song and ask yourself what the author wanted to communicate by playing with a certain tone; if you are composing a song, think about the effect you want to create. I want the listener to relax or to find himself trapped in some virtuosity? Do I want him to focus on every single note, or do I want him to be impressed with a certain moment of the song?

Maybe you are not playing anything, an exceedingly simple and monotonous song, but every repetition you play with different volumes and speeds: you will surely be able to amaze those who listen to you and yourselves!