D03 Classical guitar lesson 08

[Goran Penic]

Stewart very good.

Dear All
As you will see, if you have the time to watch my videos,...
...
Ned

Ned, very nice performance.
I see a great progress in your playing.

[RossStep]

Marko, Coen, Mark and Richard all pieces well played. No. 9 was especially good.

Marko, I read your description of playing the rest stroke by flexing the middle joint while keeping the tip joint tense. Check out Kevin Gallagher's method at http://www.guitar69.com/videos.html on a video of Lagrima Part 1, about 3 minutes into it.

Goran, nice Valse, both takes had good moments. The strong G at the end of the sections sometimes over powers the delicate melody, but good momentum all the way through. No. 9 was very well done, good feel and tempo.,

Jeff, good Valse. I Iiked the tempo, I think vibrato on the melody would add something more.

Stewart I liked the Valse. There's something to be said for a slow dance once in a while. But, I have to admit I'm trying to play it a little faster too.

Ned Good work on No.9. I'm still working on it, so I can appreciate your progress.

Ross

[Goran Penic]

Hi all,
Thanks for your comments.

Ejercicio V2


Youtube


for watching

[Mark Bacon]

Youtube


The staccato chords are a little tricky. You've got to get your fingers on them quickly while they're ringing or else you get some buzzing.

[Goran Penic]

Mark, I can't see your Video. You set this video Private.

[Giuseppe Gasparini]

Hello Goran, this is perfect Ferrer

[Marko Räsänen]

Very good, Goran! I have no complaints, nor suggestions whatsoever

Here are my second takes of the Valse and Ejercicio. Valse has a few buzzing melody notes
I tried to play the pieces in more expressive manner according to romantic period, but I may have gone to excess with rubato. Please let me know your opinion. I also added some reverb to the recordings to make them more "airy" and hopefully more enjoyable to listen to. To compensate for that I had the microphone closer to the guitar than usual to remove some the dull reverb of my recording room.

Anonyme_Valse_take2.mp3

Ejercicio9_take2.mp3

Ross, that was an interesting video link of Kevin's apoyando technique! I used to do rest stroke similarly to him as well (and still do occasionally when I'm not paying attention), and as I said, there is nothing wrong with that. However the downside is that you need to start the picking motion a little early because of the extra delay caused by the tip joint movement, and that may be difficult when you need to play with the thumb at the same time, or in a fast piece in general. The finger with the tip joint movement will easily be delayed. To be fair, I don't think it has to be either or, but various degrees of tenseness, that can be used for various purposes and effects.

[Mark Bacon]

Mark, I can't see your Video. You set this video Private.

Ooops! Fixed. Goran!

[Giuseppe Gasparini]

Congratulations Marko Räsänen, Valse and Ferrer, the best I've heard

[Marko Räsänen]

very much Giuseppe!

[Mark Bacon]

Marko,

Indeed, the reverb is pleasant-effective but not overdone!

The Valse is a funny piece-we all play it slower than indicated, with the exception of Goran (then again, Goran always seems to be the first of the group to get a piece up to speed-Good job, Goran!). I'm not sure if it's because we all like it so slow or if we're just working up to the indicated tempo. That said, your performance was very good, but at such a slow tempo those few buzzed or short melody notes become more noticeable (probably only to us though, and not the public/non CG players!!). For the purposes of the lesson I'll work towards the posted tempo but were I to ever play this piece at a gig I'd be tempted to go slower. That gets us into "correct" interpretation though: could one (or a couple) indeed Waltz so slowly? Possibly, but it'd likely lose the characteristic bounce associated with the step. We're all students here so I'm just guessing!

The Ferrer piece is my favorite so far of all of these lessons, and your performance is certainly one of the finest on here. My suggestions are very minor but I think you're more than capable of making fine tuning improvement-you've got great technique! In measures 5-7 the high notes could take a slight backseat to the downstemmed melody notes, it what makes those measures sound a little different. The 'B' section starting at measure 17 is fantastic-the slight rubato and volume swells are perfect. There's something beautiful about the way you play measures 26-28!!! Lastly, listen carefully to how you revisit the theme in the last few measures. It sounds (feels??) different than it does at the beginning of the piece. It's probably because you think you're in the home stretch and "made it". (my gosh, does any of this even make any sense? I need more coffee!) It's much more confident playing. In fact, I bet that's how you always sound when the camera's off!

Well done!
Mark

[Jack Jarrett]

Goran and Marko youv'e set some high bars! Good work.
I have so little time and many excuses for not being as involved as I'd like, so here is another posting to keep myself up to date. I'm flabbergasted at how I can play the assignments so well at times, and yet when I have time to record, my concentration vanishes and I am lucky to get one usable piece. I am also practicing for a little gig,for some friends, and have been spending time trying to get my repertoire at a point where I won't just crash and burn in front of them!The Ferrer piece and the Waltz are amongst those, and I am thinking I have a long way to go before I am confindent to play them for others. The real issue for me is to figure out how to relax my mind and get to the place where I am when I can play effortlessly.I think that is the most difficult aspect of playing CG!


Youtube

Thanks for watching!

[Marko Räsänen]

Thanks for your excellent comments, Mark, and yes, it makes perfect sense to me!

Regarding the Walz tempo, according to Wikipedia the tempo of the original (fast) Viennese Walz is 180bpm, as opposed to the slow (English) walz of 90bpm. And that's the count for a beat, i.e. a crotchet. The marked tempo for the G major Valse is 252bpm for a crotchet, which is insanely fast, and I doubt anyone could dance to it at that speed. I played the walz with nominal speed somewhere round 180 - 200bpm, although there are lots of ritards which makes it sound slower. The main two reasons though I don't play it at the marked speed is that in my opinion it starts to lose its time signature and starts to sound as 4/4 arpeggio with triplets, and it doesn't leave much room for interpretation (vibrato, variance in timing of notes etc.). I wonder if the tempo marking in the sheet is meant more for the purpose of technical exercise, and less as an actual performance tempo?

Ref Ferrer piece I very much agree with you about the high notes in measures 5-7. I never liked how they sounded in my performance, but didn't think of toning them down. It's partly the thick high tension strings I have in my cedar top at the moment that really bring the high notes out, a bit too much at the times, and I should keep in mind to control the volume better.

Measures 26-28 are my favourite part of the piece (and yes, the piece by itself is my favourite one of the course as well). I love that section musically and try to make the most of it. Major thirds played on 2nd and 3rd string low-mid-neck are in my opinion the most beautiful sounds the guitar is capable of, when played delicately, and everything else in my performance is kind of building to that chord. I meant the repeat of the theme in the end to sound (and feel!) different than in the start of the piece. There is an element of triumph into it, just as you suggested, but it's also done on purpose. I wanted to exploit the contrast of an exploding arpeggio after the softly played B note. I have played the start of the piece in a similar way, but I then find it problematic what to do with the B section and when revisiting the theme. I "locked down" to playing the piece this way quite early, as it felt like the right thing to do with it, although I've tried lots of minor variations (when not recording). The one I posted was clearly one of the best sounding tries.

Anyway, thank you very much for your positive feedback, Mark! It means a lot to me, and the feedback here in general has helped to build my confidence with my CG playing.

Jack, the problems with recording vs. regular practice are familiar to me as well. A simple solution would be to record all your practice (which is easy enough to delete after the session, unless there was something worth keeping). A big part of the recording problem is that you have decided that you need to produce something in this very session, which will inevitably make you nervous and cause you to lose your concentration. If you just keep your camera rolling throughout all your practice, you will soon forget about it and find your concentration. I also found out that for some reason recording just audio was a little bit easier than video. You should keep in mind that when you're cold you're unlikely to play well. Allow yourself some warmup time with the camera on. When I record more than one piece in a row, I always find that the first one takes the longest to get right, and the next ones will go much easier. You could trick yourself by recording something that you don't need to (for example a piece from a past lesson) first, so that when you get that right you'll be all warmed up, and can record your assignment with just few takes.

I think the gig for friends is a great idea! I had one during Easter, and although it didn't go nearly as well as practice, it wasn't too bad either, and the audience enjoyed it. In my opinion the key to stepping to the great unknown (the first gig) is not to expect it to be perfect and effortless. You will probably make some mistakes, possibly even lose track of where you were in the music, having to start again. And most importantly realize that you will survive the mistakes, and the next time will be much easier. I say do the gig rather sooner than later! Your playing will benefit from the experience, and I bet the recordings will feel much easier after that!

[Jack Jarrett]

Here are my 2nd attempts at the excercises.I took Marko's advice and recorded them until I got two takes I liked.I have some tempo fluctuations , but the empty room we are painting provided some natural reverb.

Ferrer; Excercise 9.mp3

Thanks for listening

Edit: Thanks Marko for my noting my submission error, obviously I have more going on than I can keep up with!

[Marko Räsänen]

Very good Jack! I liked both the pieces, although I think Mi Favorita is for D04? For further confusion the file names were mixed

Some quick comments:

Accords: Very good, but pay attention to the staccato marks in the first exercise. Playing those exercises up tempo is good practice for articulation.

Ferrer: There were some timing issues in bars 24&25 and 28&29. I'm not sure if you sped the tempo up in purpose, but the end result sounds ambivalent, as if only the crotchets were sped up. The theme was very well played with expression and you varied the way you played it, although maybe a bit on the slow side (although you should only play at tempo you feel comfortable at). Thinking of a gig for friends, the tempo is definitely not a problem in my opinion. Just that if you think you can go a bit faster, you should try that. For part B you should make accelerando and decelerando more gradual. Now they're bit too abrupt for my taste.

General: Your right hand looks very good now! You sound though as like you're playing without any nails at all in i and m fingers (and thumb). In accords the tone of your a finger sounds more crisp than the other fingers, as if you have longer nail in that finger. It's impossible for me to say whether you're growing your nails at the moment, or whether that is some technical issue with the right hand or nail shapes, and even what kind of tone / nail length you're aiming for? Please don't think that nothing's good enough for me Your playing is now much better than with your old hand position, the legato is better, and there is no "clutching at the strings" effect. Tweaking the tone is a minor detail compared to that! The fact that we're discussing the tone really speaks volumes about where's your playing now compared to where it used to be!

Keep up the good work and the struggle for time to devote for playing (I feel your pain there!)