D01 Classical guitar lesson 05

[Jean-François Delcamp]

Hello everyone,
Please start by downloading the latest version of volume D01.
If you are new to the course, please read this message to familiarize yourself with the conditions for participating in the lessons. You should also read the first message in lesson 1, where you will find advice on how to make the most of your study time and on the methods of practising that I recommend.



First we will study some technical exercises from volume D01.
These exercises will work upon the technique of simultaneous rest strokes (apoyando) with the thumb and index finger, and also with the thumb and middle finger.
The rest stroke is a way to play the string with a finger movement which plucks the string and then continues to move until it comes to rest on the adjacent string. Working on this technique will allow you to discover the best position for your plucking hand (the right hand if you are right-handed).
If you are already used to plucking the strings with free strokes, the simultaneous rest strokes with the thumb and a finger will seem difficult to you, even impossible. But be assured, with patience and perseverence, this difficulty will be resolved in 30 minutes. I know from experience that the first tries are truly discouraging, particularly for adults. It is for this reason that I wish to reassure you in advance, take heart, you will be able to do it.
Page 26 : Jean-François Delcamp - Polyphony
Page 58 : Jean-François Delcamp - Rest stroke, number 15.






Finally, we'll look at 4 simple tunes, pages 27 to 28. These tunes will work upon the technique of simultaneous rest strokes (apoyando) with the thumb and index finger, and also with the thumb and middle finger.
Antonio Cano-Curriella : Leccion I (Rest stroke)
Pascual Roch : Exercices de simple alternation
Anonyme : Donne-moi la fleur (Rest stroke)





I ask you first to work on all these exercises and tunes for a week and then to upload your recordings of:
Jean-François Delcamp : Polyphonie, numero 2 (Rest stroke)
Antonio Cano-Curriella : Leccion I (Rest stroke)
Pascual Roch (1860-1921) : Exercices de simple alternation (Rest stroke)


Good luck!


I thank Geoff (GeoffB) who has helped in the translation of my lessons into English.


Jean-François

---

Exam Qualifying submissions:

Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Bill Davis
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Scott Fountain
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Brian Hunker
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Barbara DiNenno
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Ben Spurr
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Archit Junnarkar
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Theresa S. Sedlock
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Halil Akaydin
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Teodora Despotovic Kosanovic
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Edna Lopez
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Eddy Sung
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Shelby Brown
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Paul Shepley
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

Erik Baselier
Polyphonie
Leccion I
Exercices de simple alternation

[Barbara DiNenno]

I have a question about Leccion 1.

Does the thumb damp the bass note as notated by the star with a p? And if so, how and when do you accomplish that? It is happening on a different string at the same time the thumb is plucking a new string. I don't see hoes the thumb can damp a string at the same time it plucks another string???

Thanks

Barbara

[Marko Räsänen]

Hi Barbara,

I will quote myself from this same thread last year

[...] the "proper" way to damp with the right thumb is to do it after you've played the next note. If the 5th string (A) is ringing, and you play the the 6th string (E) next, simply land your thumb on the 5th string after playing the 6th. The other way round is a bit more difficult, as you need to lift your thumb over and back the 5th string after playing and land on 6th. This will ensure a continuous bass, where it's needed.

Also, take a close look at the first video in this lesson : "Polyphonie n1", and especially professor Delcamp's thumb, to see how it's done in practice.

[Bill Davis]

Hi Barbara,

I will quote myself from this same thread last year

[...] the "proper" way to damp with the right thumb is to do it after you've played the next note. If the 5th string (A) is ringing, and you play the the 6th string (E) next, simply land your thumb on the 5th string after playing the 6th. The other way round is a bit more difficult, as you need to lift your thumb over and back the 5th string after playing and land on 6th. This will ensure a continuous bass, where it's needed.

Also, take a close look at the first video in this lesson : "Polyphonie n1", and especially professor Delcamp's thumb, to see how it's done in practice.

Thanks Marko. I was wondering about this as well.

[Barbara DiNenno]

Hi Barbara,

I will quote myself from this same thread last year

[...] the "proper" way to damp with the right thumb is to do it after you've played the next note. If the 5th string (A) is ringing, and you play the the 6th string (E) next, simply land your thumb on the 5th string after playing the 6th. The other way round is a bit more difficult, as you need to lift your thumb over and back the 5th string after playing and land on 6th. This will ensure a continuous bass, where it's needed.

Also, take a close look at the first video in this lesson : "Polyphonie n1", and especially professor Delcamp's thumb, to see how it's done in practice.

Thank you very much.
Barbara

[Bill Davis]

Hi All,

Happy New Year!!!

Please find my videos for your review. Thank you for taking the time to watch them and provide any feedback that will help me get better.

Thank you!
Bill

Jean-François Delcamp - Polyphony
[media]https://youtu.be/eguTzZTxeVc[/media]

Antonio Cano-Curriella : Leccion I (Rest stroke)
[media]https://youtu.be/Txugw_KvoFw[/media]

Pascual Roch (1860-1921) : Exercices de simple alternation (Rest stroke) #1
[media]https://youtu.be/Fvrd2yiJ_oE[/media]

Pascual Roch (1860-1921) : Exercices de simple alternation (Rest stroke) #2
[media]https://youtu.be/_gbGDqSY3Qg[/media]

[Marko Räsänen]

Hi Bill,

A couple of things you could pay some attention to:

In Cano-Curriella piece you seem to tilt your hand every time you play a bass note with your thumb. Ideally your hand shouldn't move at all, just your thumb (mostly from the wrist joint), although practically the vertical hand position will change when playing higher strings with thumb.

In the alternation exercises you are overdoing the finger movement before the actual stroke. Your finger should always momentarily stop on the string, displace the string, then release it (like with bow and arrow). That first stage is called 'planting', and it's purpose is to increase the accuracy and ultimately to aid in timing and tone. If the stroke begins before the finger makes contact with the string, you lose the finer control of the stroke. Also, you cannot play very fast if the distance traveled by the fingers is greater than needs to be. For the purpose of maintaining legato articulation the stop on the string must be very brief. Just enough to give you control of the string before the actual stroke.

[Scott Fountain]

Happy New Year Everyone,

Here is my lesson 5 submission, thanks for watching

Polyphonie 1
http://youtu.be/I_p1XKCU12g

Polyphonie 2
http://youtu.be/ehGimHrWZ48

Exercises De Simple Alt 1
http://youtu.be/QvdeURwtsuw

Exercises De Simple Alt 2
http://youtu.be/8RsHo9Hb5zg

Leccion 1
http://youtu.be/6bZWBuvSnk0

[Scott Fountain]

[quote="Bill Davis"]Hi All,

Happy New Year!!!

Please find my videos for your review. Thank you for taking the time to watch them and provide any feedback that will help me get better.

Thank you!
Bill


Antonio Cano-Curriella : Leccion I (Rest stroke)
[media]https://youtu.be/Txugw_KvoFw[/media]


Sounds great, Bill! You knocked it out of the park, I think Leccion sounded awesome

[Theresa S. Sedlock]

Hi Bill,

All in all your videos are good. I did, however, notice that in the first video, polyphonie n2, you played your i finger quite a few times without alternating to the m finger. Hopefully, my lesson 5 will turn out as good as your's did. That's it for now....Happy New Year 2014 !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bill Davis]

Hi Bill,

All in all your videos are good. I did, however, notice that in the first video, polyphonie n2, you played your i finger quite a few times without alternating to the m finger. Hopefully, my lesson 5 will turn out as good as your's did. That's it for now....Happy New Year 2014 !!!!!!!!!!!!

Theresa,
Good catch. I now notice in bar 13 the m finger is used. Funny how you can assume it's the same all the way through a song. Lol. Thanks!
Bill

[Bill Davis]

Hi All,

Happy New Year!!!

Please find my videos for your review. Thank you for taking the time to watch them and provide any feedback that will help me get better.

Thank you!
Bill

Antonio Cano-Curriella : Leccion I (Rest stroke)

Sounds great, Bill! You knocked it out of the park, I think Leccion sounded awesome

Thanks Scott! You are too kind. Bill

[Bill Davis]

Hi Bill,

A couple of things you could pay some attention to:

In Cano-Curriella piece you seem to tilt your hand every time you play a bass note with your thumb. Ideally your hand shouldn't move at all, just your thumb (mostly from the wrist joint), although practically the vertical hand position will change when playing higher strings with thumb.

In the alternation exercises you are overdoing the finger movement before the actual stroke. Your finger should always momentarily stop on the string, displace the string, then release it (like with bow and arrow). That first stage is called 'planting', and it's purpose is to increase the accuracy and ultimately to aid in timing and tone. If the stroke begins before the finger makes contact with the string, you lose the finer control of the stroke. Also, you cannot play very fast if the distance traveled by the fingers is greater than needs to be. For the purpose of maintaining legato articulation the stop on the string must be very brief. Just enough to give you control of the string before the actual stroke.

Hi Marko,

Thank you for your feedback. I greatly appreciate your explanation. I am very thankful for everyone's feedback because it is how I improve. I see exactly what you are saying about the thumb in leccion I. I was not using my thumb effectively to sound the bass. You were right I was moving my wrist to assist in plucking the bass note. Looking back at the video I was using my wrist as a crutch to pluck the string to maintain more control. But I never noticed that until you mentioned it. Thanks! I will work on that.

In the alternation exercises I also see what you mean by overdoing the finger movement. It's funny to watch it now. Again, I never noticed it until you mentioned it. I think I understand what you mean by stoping, displacing and releasing. I think I was overlooking that sequence in an effort to make sure the strings sounded. But I can see how this will hurt me down the road if I don't correct it now. I will work on that sequence and a shorter finger stroke.

Again, thank you for taking the time to provide me with your valuable feedback.

Bill

[Brian Hunker]

Hi Everyone. Happy New Year.

BIll :
You are sounding great on these videos. Especially on Leccion 1 your timing and phrasing was excellent. I am going through a similar difficulty as far as not moving my wrist when I play notes with my thumb. It's tough, but I think that is precisely what the Polyphonie exercises are designed to work out. I feel many times more confident in my thumb rest stoke after having completed lesson 5.

The only other thing that I would suggest is that you maybe try to relax your a and c (pinky) fingers when you are not using them. From the videos it seems you have a tendency to pull them in close to your palm when alternating i and m. I don't know if it's that important, but I read that it is good to eliminate any muscle flexion in all RH fingers when are not being used.


Scott:
Very nice work here! Congratulations on completing (what I found to be) a very difficult lesson 5. This is a somewhat subjective tip, but you might want to try moving the default position of your RH a bit closer to the sound hole. Currently you tend to set up your RH very close to the bridge and the sound is a bit twangy. If you like it that way, that's cool. Lately I have found several sources who recommended that the default RH position be just over the edge of the sound hole towards the bridge.
Also, what happened to the repeats on "Leccion 1"? I know that the repeats in this piece made me have to spend 2 extra days practicing this piece (cause I kept flubbing notes when I tried to make my video)! But I think observing all the repeat signs, and sticking with it until you are confident enough to repeat each passage on video, is good preparation for when we will encounter longer pieces of music. For me the repeat signs revealed a significant weakness that I realized I could either address right now... or suffer with later.

[Bill Davis]

Happy New Year Everyone,

Here is my lesson 5 submission, thanks for watching

Polyphonie 1
http://youtu.be/I_p1XKCU12g

Polyphonie 2
http://youtu.be/ehGimHrWZ48

Exercises De Simple Alt 1
http://youtu.be/QvdeURwtsuw

Exercises De Simple Alt 2
http://youtu.be/8RsHo9Hb5zg

Leccion 1
http://youtu.be/6bZWBuvSnk0

Hi Scott,

. After reading Marko's review about my wrist movement to help pluck the bass string I noticed you had used just your thumb and it looked great compared to my wrist action. I really need to work on that. I had a really hard time with my 'a' finger too. It was hard to get it to hit the string right and then make a decent sound.

Just a few things I noticed that were not technical, just little things. You didn't follow the repeat signs in the music for Lession 1. Both the first 8 bars and second 8 bars are repeated. The same was true in the alternation exercises #2. Although you did repeat the last one (bars 7 & 8 ), which uses the 'a' and 'm' fingers. Also, I am not sure if you can upload a better video quality so it would be easier to see your finger movement. It was blurry in the alternation exercises. Bill