A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as and , the plectrum is often called a guitar pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In , the plectra are attached to the jack mechanism.
Plectra wielded by hand
Guitars and similar instruments
Guitar picks are made of a variety of materials, including celluloid, metal, and rarely other exotic materials such as turtle shell, but today delrin (a synthetic thermoplastic polymer) is the most common. For other instruments in the modern day, most players use plastic plectra but a variety of other materials, including wood and felt (for use with the ukulele) are common. Guitarists in the rock, blues, jazz and bluegrass music genres tend to use a plectrum, partly due to the use of steel strings wearing out the player's fingernails quickly, but also because a plectrum provides a more "clear", "focused" and "aggressive" sound. Many guitarists will also use the pick in combination with the remaining picking-hand fingers simultaneously, to combine the different advantages of flat-picking and finger picking. This technique is called hybrid picking, or more colloquially in country & bluegrass genres as "chicken pickin'".
A plectrum of the guitar type is often called a pick (or a flatpick to distinguish it from fingerpicks).
Non-Western instruments
===Plectra from around the world===
Plectra in harpsichords
In the historical period of harpsichord construction (up to about 1800) plectra were made of sturdy feather quills, usually from or . In Italy, some makers (including Bartolomeo Cristofori) used vulture quills.Jensen 1998, 85. Not all bird species suffice; Wolfgang Zuckermann observed in 1969 that "quill from birds such as goose or chicken have given this material a bad name, since feathers from these fowl are not satisfactory for the purpose." Aside from crow and raven, he mentions condor, eagle and turkey as good sources for plectra. See Wolfgang Zuckermann (1969): The Modern Harpsichord, New York, October House, p. 61. Other Italian harpsichords employed plectra of leather.Hubbard 1967 In late French harpsichords by the great builder Pascal Taskin, peau de buffle, a chamois leather-like material from the hide of the European bison, was used for plectra to produce a delicate pianissimo.
Modern harpsichords frequently employ plectra made with plastic, specifically the plastic known as Polyoxymethylene. Some plectra are of the homopolymer variety of acetal, sold by DuPont under the name "Delrin", while others are of the copolymer variety, sold by Ticona as "Celcon".For a discussion of these plastics, see [1]. Harpsichord technicians and builders generally use the trade names to refer to these materials. In either of its varieties, acetal is far more durable than quill, which cuts down substantially on the time that must be spent in voicing (see below).This reflects what is probably the mainstream view; however, the builder Grant O'Brien has suggested that if cut properly, a quill plectrum will last indefinitely, and he mentions harpsichords from the historical period whose quills have lasted intact to the present. The correct form of voicing, O'Brien suggests, involves tapering, so that a plectrum will display constant curvature at the moment it is maximally displaced in plucking.
Several contemporary builders and playersHendrik Broekman ([2]), Tilman Skowroneck ([3]), Keith Hill ([4]). have reasserted the superiority of bird quill for high-level harpsichords. While the difference in sound between acetal and quill is acknowledged to be small,See Skowroneck, op. cit., Broekman, op. cit., and for a particularly skeptical view, what difference may exist is held to be to the advantage of quill. In addition, quill plectra tend to fail gradually, giving warning by the diminishing volume, whereas acetal plectra fail suddenly and completely, sometimes in the middle of a performance.
Voicing harpsichord plectra
Normally, voicing is carried out by inserting the plectrum into the jack, then placing the jack on a small wooden voicing block, so that the top of the plectrum sits flush with the block. The plectrum is then cut and thinned on the underside with a small, very sharp knife, such as an X-Acto.Kottick (1987) As the plectrum is progressively trimmed, its jack is replaced in the instrument at intervals to test the result for loudness, tone quality, and the possibility of hanging.
Voicing is a refined skill, carried out fluently by professional builders, but one that usually must also be learned (at least to some degree) by harpsichord owners.Source for all of this section: Kottick (1987)
Etymology and usage
"Plectrum" has both a Latin-based plural, plectra and a native English plural, plectrums. Plectra is used in formal writing, particularly in discussing the harpsichord as an instrument of classical music,The affiliation of "plectra" and "plectrums" with harpsichords and guitars, respectively, is vividly discussed by The Guardian columnist James Fenton: while plectrums is more common in ordinary speech.
See also
- Crosspicking
- Fingerpick
- Flatpicking
- Guitar pick
- Hybrid picking
- Mezrab (plectrum)
- String instrument
Notes
- Hubbard, Frank (1967) Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Jensen, David P. (1998) "A Florentine Harpsichord: Revealing a Transitional Technology" Early Music, February issue, pp. 71–85.
- Kottick, Edward L. (1987) The Harpsichord Owner's Guide. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
External links
- The discovery of delrin as a harpsichord plectrum material; a collaboration between builders and technologists. Harpsichord, vol 4, no. 2 (1971), pp. 18–19. On line at [7].
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