I am composing etudes on articulation for guitar, in order to see how

current literature of articulation studies could be extended in a creative and

productive way. Thus, you and I gain more insight on occurrences of articulative
strategies on guitar and become better at expressing musical ideas as close as
we intend to.
Regardless of style and structure, t echnique level of the instruments

tend to develop in their historical timelines as musicians continuously try

to advance in their skills, and in order to balance the technical
development, musical means of expression need to be enriched
correspondingly. While this is an observable fact, it is not so smooth to
grasp the elements that constitute expressive means in general since
every instrument has its own physical features defining means of
musicality. In other words, every kind of musical expression needs specific
applications required to sound what is intended depending on the
instrument.
For classical guitar, a relatively young and intricate western music
instrument, it can get tangling for its players to show what they exactly
mean due to its richness, which doesn't consist of only color but also
consists of the intricacy of its system. Due to its physical structure and
tuning, there can be puzzlingly different ways of, let's say, playing the
exact same chord, allowing the musicians enough field to build their
interpretation in unique ways. The same richness of its system, however,
might make articulative strategies confusing. For instance, a note could be
muted in different ways depending on the sharpness of a staccato, an
open string might be damped with the palm of the hand because all
fingers are actively in use, or a note of a chord could be kept sustaining by
using the harmonic resonance of other strings in advantage. In order to
facilitate these techniques and even take them further, I decided to
compose etudes on articulation, allowing guitarists to increase their
sensitivity and skills with a musical work, rather than exercises purely
based on finger movements.
Although the word 'articulation' means a lot to humanity in many
fields, it gets quite distinct meanings in various circumstances. When
searched in Wikipedia, it gives a list that the word has a meaning in the
fields of linguistics, engineering, music, sociology, botany and, literally, so
on. In music, it still has almost the same variety of meanings depending on
instrument, and even musician. In Harvard Dictionary of Music (Apel, W.
(1973). Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press.), the definition of the word is given as;

"A term used to denote (or demand) clarity and distinct rendition in
musical performance, whether vocal or instrumental. Correct breathing,
phrasing, attack, legato, and staccato are some of the aspects involved.
See Phrasing and Articulation."
Under Phrasing and Articulation, it is followed as;
"Terms used to describe clear and meaningful rendition of music (chiefly
of melodies), comparable (though not only) mean of achieving this goal is
the separation of the continuous melodic line into smaller units varying in
length from a group of measures to single notes. Properly speaking,
phrasing refers to separation of a melody into its constituent phrases,
whereas articulation refers to the subdivision of a phrase into smaller
units. Often, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the two, partly
owing to vagueness of the term "phrase." Moreover, in practice the term
"phrasing" is often applied to what is properly termed "articulation."
While the definition gives us logical clues to a degree about use of
articulation in music, it still needs distinction between phrasing and
articulation, which Herman Keller actually provided before (Keller, H.
(1966). Phrasing and Articulation. S.l.: Barrie and Rockliff.) ;
"It is rare musician... to whom the difference between phrasing and
articulation has become entirely clear. In particular, violinists are almost
invariably accustomed to speaking of this or that "phrasing" of a passage,
identifying bowings with articulation. But the words "phrasing" and
"articulation" have basically different meanings: phrasing is much like the
subdivision of thought; its function is to link together subdivisions of
musical thought (phrases) and to set them off from one another; it has
thus the same function as punctuation marks in language. "He who
phrases incorrectly is like a man who does not understand tea language
he speaks." said Chopin to his student Mikuli, Hans con Bulow expressed it
similarly: "In music, we must punctuate, phrase, separate: we must play
the piano, not babble." The function of musical articulation, on the other
hand, is the binding together or the separation of the individual notes; it
leaves the intellectual content of a melody line inviolable, but it
determines its expression. There is, therefore, as a rule only one possible,
thoughtful phrasing, but there are several possibilities of articulation."
Keller's approach to difference of phrasing and articulation makes it
clearer and gives more precise information about what articulation, by
itself, is. And in this study, Keller's definition of articulation will be used.
Furthermore, in order to prevent the study from going beyond its possible
limits, the word will only be perceived and focused as types of connections
between consecutive notes, such as legato, staccato and their

combinations in different voices, and, for specific case of guitar, control of

the sustaining strings, either by damping or prolonging them.
The reason I chose to compose pieces instead of studying existing
literature is because I want to contribute to the literature of guitar and,
more importantly, encourage other classical musicians to compose music.
I believe that one doesn't need to be specifically educated to be a
composer in order to express himself in his own musical language. Even if
not to be played in performances, music creation allows the musician to
get to know more about the instrument and its expressive possibilities,
and to comprehend better the meanings that composers intended even
though there is nothing stated on the score.
The process of learning music includes years of practice with the
relevant literature as varied as possible. There is no possibility of
invalidating the expressions and ideas gained from involvement with such
literatures since principles of learning work in a cumulative way for the
mind. Music students are generally, but not always of course, taught to
realize their thoughts and knowledge gathered so far on upcoming studies
for years, and due to the admitted difficulty of breaking down habits, the
tendency has the risk of being kept for the rest of their career. Although I
have started my musical studies privately while I was in secondary school,
I was 19 by the time I officially stepped into an actual conservatory. With
being unclear about the reasons, I somehow gained the 'ignorant' courage
of composing and arranging between those two peaks of my life. And
today, I find it intriguing to have the same courage to improve and
motivate myself as well as all other musicians.

Methodology of this study will be held in four stages;

Scanning of existing literature of etudes
An innovation aimed study means nothing without having a pool of
foundational data. To gain this, all the etudes, which are generally accepted
(played in competitions, concerts, recordings or appeared in methods and
publications) and have emphasis on pre-defined means of articulation in will be
collected.
Electing the relevant motives and phrases
Phrases that emphasizes the techniques of

Applying compositional tools to the found techniques

Composing the etudes