Topic: guitar : why not play "raw" upper G B E strings?

I wonder why, if I play the main notes of the guitar (EADGBE Mi La Ré Sol Si Mi), the 3 upper strings are not played without finger touch.
(I'm not english native so hard to explain : no fret touch at all expected if I play those "raw" notes for strings).
Therefore, I wonder if the chosen strings are always the best "naturally playable" in every chord situation.
We certainly have to be careful when we play, but I was expecting, at least when played alone, that the guitar chose in priority the easiest way.

Is there a guitarist explanation?

Last edited by robisme (20-11-2022 19:10)

Re: guitar : why not play "raw" upper G B E strings?

Hope these ideas help out.

On the lower right of the guitar frets, if you click the small down arrow, it opens some extra settings for adjusting playing.

You can select 'open strings' to favor playing those instead of fretted notes.

Not certain how the engine calculates for 'scale' etc., esp. with atonal music - classical/flamenco is likely at the heart of the logic, and perhaps other guitarists with their own fingering techniques/styles may find it possibly a little intriguing initially, to get their playing to seem like it's being reproduced satisfactorily by their hands.. that's the same with any tool like this.. it cannot play like you, without you kind of getting quite detailed about all the functions and editables.

Also in that down arrow menu, try 'thumb' so that bass strings have less pluck and sound more like a thumb is being used for those strings.

Palm mute is also there.

Also, bottom right (and on keys) you can press to select a range on the neck which is your target hand placement. You can make it so the hand sits on higher frets and tries to play notes upward from those positions - with quite noticed differences in timbre of those notes.


A performance can be played with most desired expression, to a good extent, esp. if becoming accustomed to using the key-switches to alter fret range while playing if needed.

/// Maybe - for zoomed in MIDI editing, it could be a good thing in future updates, to expose a user control for explicitly setting any notes in MIDI to exact frets (and some other exact conditions).. ///

Also, if using a DAW and editing your MIDI, you may be able to automate all kinds of extra detail to your liking.

One of the things I love about the DAW 'Studio One' for example, is 'Sound variations' - their system makes assigning 'differences' to sections or just notes both instant and simple.

For example, in piano roll, select a note(s), and in a list of available differences (sourced from Pianoteq's internals), click 'palm mute' or other.. and for just the selected note(s) or section it will apply.. it can be as simple or complex as almost any nylon guitarist could wish for, with any of today's guitar editing systems IMHO.

There is random generation of finger/fret noise (which I find very realistic) - and I tend to export more than one audio file (or bounce many tracks) and select among the final ones which have the best random finger noises, but that's an extra routine which may or may not appeal to others to try out.

Pretty impressed with this 1st release - but if one thing is certain, it is that it will be improved even more in time

Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments)  - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors