Villa-Lobos étude diamond shaped note
In the first étude from the 12 études for guitar by Villa-Lobos, what are these diamond shaped notes?
Additionally, what are these circled notes (G, B and E) below those diamond notes?
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The diamond shaped notes are harmonics (played by touching the string but not pressing it down), and the G,B and E refer to the string the note is to be played on.
Diamond means harmonics, as already stated - although printing 'harm' is a bit of a clue. There are several different ways to produce harmonics on guitar, and here, the composer states it's using open strings, probably the most fundamental way, by touching the string at particular node points, and plucking with the other hand.
Not sure the letters refer to the strings played though, as C is not early in the harmonic sequence found on the G string, or E on the B string, for starters.
The various publications of Villa Lobos' works are notorious for their non-standard and differing methods of notation, especially for harmonics. The publication I own gives an editorial for each piece which explains how each harmonic section is played.
If I remember correctly, these harmonics are notated so the written letter is the string and the notated note is the fret - that is, the note that would be produced if the string was fully pressed at that fret. This is a different pitch (and note) to what is literally written.
For example the final harmonic, written as a E-string 5th-fret A, is played as an E-string 5th-fret harmonic which is an E-pitch note.
A quick search lead to this publication in which the editor explains what he does to make the notation easier to read (including removing unnecessary sharp/flat symbols and correcting what they believe to be notation/printing errors). I haven't studied it to see if I agree with their changes, but it has a different notation for that section:
www.scribd.com/document/380158958/Villa-Lobos-Guitar-Etudes-pdf
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