In classical guitar performance, this is a right-hand technique (also known as a rest stroke) where the thumb or finger plays “through” the string being plucked and comes to rest on the adjacent string. A rest stroke generally results in a thicker, fatter, louder tone than a “free” stroke, where the string is plucked, but the finger doesn’t come to rest on the guitar or string. Rest strokes are used almost exclusively for single-note scalar and melodic passages, as the finger coming to rest on the adjacent string can mute ringing tones – a problem for chordal passages. In some cases, rest strokes and free strokes are combined. For example, a bass line might be played by the thumb with rest strokes, while free strokes are used by the fingers to play chordal accompaniment. An example of this would be Villa-Lobos Prelude #1, where the thumb/bass part is often played with rest strokes for fatter tone and greater volume (the thumb/bass part on this piece has the melody).
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