Guitar Augmentations: Composition and Community

Researcher: Katalin Koltai

The Open Frets Guitar is an augmented guitar design developed by Katalin Koltai. It uses a passive system of movable, single-string magnet capos, allowing access to all combinations of fretted notes. The system enables the radical modification of open strings and transforms the guitar fretboard into an adaptable space. Freeing pitch access from the physical limitations of the left hand creates a significant shift in ‘guitar thinking’ and reveals previously hidden resonances within the instrument.

These revelations reshape notions of guitar idiomacy, including textural homogeneity, pitch mapping and fretboard access. The project adopts and unlocks these new affordances through three research methods: composer–performer collaboration, arranging existing non-guitar works and participatory work with communities.

Current composer–performer collaborations within the project have generated numerous new compositions with extended idiomatic features. These collaborations include the premiere of a new guitar work by Hans Abrahamsen in a joint lecture-recital with the composer at the Academy in 2025; an Artist-in-Residence project with the Ars Nova Ensemble (France) focusing on the creation of new works by Benoît Sitzia, Deirdre McKay and Gregory Vajda; and a 2021–22 collaboration with György Kurtág on arranging selected works from Játékok (Games) for piano. The project also encompasses collaborations with David Gorton, Scott McLaughlin, Gráinne Mulvey, Georgi Sztojanov, Samu Gryllus and Máté Balogh.

In a broader context, the project aims to make augmented instruments more approachable for composers, performers and communities. This includes developing avenues for knowledge exchange and methods for articulating the affordances and vocabularies of new instruments. The extended affordances of the Open Frets Guitar enhance fretboard accessibility, enabling ‘low entry-fee’ participatory music. By transforming the fretboard into an adaptable space, an extended pitch content becomes playable with basic plucking skills.

Next in the project, a series of workshops with people with diverse access needs will be conducted, in order to inform case studies exploring how new technologies can support communities with different accessibility needs. In this context, the project establishes methodologies to assess and enhance the accessibility features of new instrumental designs more broadly.