D02 Classical guitar lesson 09

[Mike Modjeski]

Thanks Rachid

Has anyone else been working on lesson #10? I hope to post what I have thus far tomorrow night, though is isn't much yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions for working thru such a piece? So far I've just been concentrating on the first half, though I have gone completely through it a couple of times.

[Robert Goodwin]

Hi Mike,
I have been working on the Rondo for almost two weeks. At this stage I am a little worse at it than I was by the third day. That's because I know it well enough now that I lose concentration on the score but I don't know it well enough to play it through without reading it. For me, there aren't any identifiable 'hard' spots. I can mess up any part of the piece equally well, even that repetitive theme that runs through the whole piece The one I have played innumerable times already. I do think it's useful to pick a musical phrase and play it till you can do so with no hesitations or mistakes. The problem with that is that the transition from one musical phrase to another can change how you start into the phrase compared to playing it in isolation.

I don't intend to post another video until I can play it properly. That will be mostly so I can get some feedback on how it sounds to other ears.

By folding the 'white' part of each page and using clothespins to hold everything I can just get all four pages on my stand with a couple inches over on each side. I have pretty much stuck to the 'short-day'/'long-day'/'skip-a-day-a-week' schedule. By now I know I make most progress on those long days. Being an old man (in three months I turn 70) I am cautious about overdoing it but the long sessions definitely are the ones that make the most progress.

Best regards,
Bob G.

[Mike Modjeski]

Thanks for your input Bob. I'm at about the same point on Rondo, with the same results I was going to post what I have thus far but I can't really play it through yet without significant delays.

Something interesting about Rondo; i listened to Mr. Delcamps rendition a couple of times before starting and then began working on it. During the time I've worked on it I've developed my own mental soundtrack of how I expect it to sound. I listened to Mr. Delcamps version again last night and realized how varied a piece can sound according to how it is expressed. My daughters piano teacher is very big on expressiveness in playing.

I like the clothespin idea except I just taped them together. Before I was just doing two pages at a time.

I'm just about to the point where I can play Chaconne through. I took some lessons from a guitar teacher who had named his daughter Chaconne. She has become quite an accomplished guitar player herself. Chaconne Klaverenga is her name. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2FoTeyX-PU

[Robert Goodwin]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the link. Chaconne seems to be a total package: beauty, skill, and artistic expressiveness.

I agree about the need to make the music your own. In my mind, Rondo has a somewhat different emphasis and timing from Mr. Delcamp's version. I am ashamed to say I haven't actually looked at the other pieces in lesson 10 yet, I have just been so charmed by Rondo.

I learned trumpet beginning when I was ten. I dropped it after high school when I went into the Army. I think some of what I learned there is helping with learning guitar. One thing I recall is that I made most of the increase in quality of tone and coordination by working on a piece I already knew well and then concentrating on quality instead of simply learning new music. I am going to try that with the exam piece since I know it fairly well by now but have a lot of room for improvement in terms of quality.