Exploring Campanella Fingering
Campanella is an Italian word for “little bell.” On guitar campanella fingering is the idea of playing a passage that could be played with multiple notes on a string across several strings. Check out this scale run for instance:
Instead of playing the scale with three notes on the second string, what if we played it like this:
The advantage of going across the strings like this is that the sound is very open, almost harpsichord like–It’s often a lot more legato than playing a straight scale. Neither of the styles of fingering a piece is better than another. How a piece is played is a very individual thing. I like Campanella fingerings, so I try to use them a lot. When you first approach a new piece, it’s your job to try out several different fingering possibilities and settle on one that achieves your desired effect with the least amount of effort.
More Satie | Christopher Davis, guitarist
[…] value. Obviously we can’t hold down a pedal on the guitar, so a reasonable solution is to use campanella fingering. Playing the melody all on the same string just doesn’t get as nice of an effect to my […]
Bob Vasquez
You mention that “Neither of the styles of fingering a piece is better than another.” However, isn’t one of the objectives of campanella fingering to achieve a little bell-like sound to add color to a particular phrase? In such a situation where you want a particular sound would suggest that one style is better than the other for that particular phrase. Just saying.