D01 Classical guitar lesson 04

[Christopher Langley]

Creative and well-timed playing, albeit with an individual flare, as per usual Chris. Holy smokes Chris, I can barely memorize one or two lines of music, at a time. I'll trade in my music stand to be able to memorize whole songs.

Judy

Thanks Judy, you make me feel good about my playing and ability to memorize, I sure do appreciate your kind feedback.

I can play all 25 songs from all the lessons thus far from memory.. I have what I call a "sticky" brain. Especially when it comes to music.

All I have to do is play-through the pieces every so often to keep them somewhat fresh, which I enjoy doing in between learning sessions. I do take the effort to memorize them from the get-go.. It's very different playing from memory than off the sheet for me. Much smoother, but that's just my experience. For some I'm sure it's dead opposite. Maybe some are more aural and others more visual.

I remember the sound and rhythm of the piece, my fingers mostly remember where to go more than I do, once I get going which might be why I watch them. Haha! It's almost like watching a player piano.. and if I think to hard about it.. my hands will stop working.

We have 10 minutes of material across all 25 songs, if anyone is curious

Looking forward to seeing some more submissions! It's so interesting how everyone progresses differently and takes different paths, all towards the same goal! Neat.


P.S. Judy, some while back I said that you should maybe not let your smallest finger joints to go lax when playing rest strokes.. I no longer believe this to be true after watching my own right hand close, you have to use the small joints when playing free strokes, but for fast rest strokes I find relaxation of that first joint to actually be quite critical to playing nicely. Forgive me for my poor advice, I'm glad to see you didn't listen. HAH!

[Robert Drechsler]

We have 10 minutes of material across all 25 songs, if anyone is curious

Only 10 minutes?? i thought we played already hours cause i cant remember off the songs

[James A. Showalter]

Wow. Great submissions by all and fantastic commentary.

WRT memory and such I am finding at this age great difficulty remembering anything short-term. I can however, tell you my phone number from way back when the prefix started with an alphanumeric such as HO5-#### for Homestead 5 - ####.

I also find it very interesting watching this group develop guitar/music talents. Robert was brave going 2nd after his last hiatus but I expected Judy to go 1st only because I suspected Chris would not. I will submit as soon as I can get each piece recorded which won't take long but the standard has already been set by each of the 3 who have submitted so far. There is fret buzzing, rhythm transition difficulty and artistic license in each of these submissions. But each shows a portion of growth in what we are all learning which is how to play. I think excellence is measured in many gauges and all of the submissions have a shot of it. Keep up the good work.

James

[James A. Showalter]

OK classmates, here are my submissions to Lesson-4:

La Cucaracha


Allouette, Gentille Allouette


Lundi Matin


Lundi Matin posed the most difficulty for me so if I were to apply artistic license and play it an alternate way this is what I would do:


And lastly but most lively, Cadet Rousselle


I'm looking forward to your review and any comments.
James

[William Byrd]

OK classmates, here are my submissions to Lesson-4:

I'm looking forward to your review and any comments.
James

Nice work James. If I were to point anything out, it would be on Allouette, Gentille Allouette. You played the first four measures twice in the beginning of the song. It is only meant to be played once, and then repeated after playing measures 5-9. It sounded good however.

Bill

[William Byrd]

OK classmates, here are my submissions to Lesson-4:

I'm looking forward to your review and any comments.
James

Nice work James. If I were to point anything out, it would be on Allouette, Gentille Allouette. You played the first four measures twice in the beginning of the song. It is only meant to be played once, and then repeated after playing measures 5-9. It sounded good however.

Bill

If there was a semi colon : at the end of measure four, that would indicate to repeat it, but since it didn't have the dots, you play through and repeat at the end.

D.C. al Fine
Da capo
(lit. "From top") Tells the performer to repeat playing of the music from its beginning. This is usually followed by al fine (lit. "to the end"), which means to repeat to the word fine and stop, or al coda (lit. "to the coda (sign)"), which means repeat to the coda sign and then jump forward.

Bill

[James A. Showalter]

Bill,
You are absolutely correct. I can't believe I actually made the mistake. I must have been thinking Cadet Rousselle when I played it. It could be a further evolution of the short-term memory deficiency that I mentioned earlier. Let's hope not. Thanks for enlightening me.
James

[Staffan Strömberg]

Here are my recordings for lesson 04.

La Cucaracha


Alouette


Lundi matin


Cadet Rouselle

[Staffan Strömberg]

Great playing everybody!

Watching the other submissions, I realize I did a couple of mistakes.
I forgot the da capo on Alouette, and didn't get Cadet Rousselle quite right.

Here are some comments on the other persons who have submitted their work so far.

Judy: very nice, but perhaps a little bit slow. Also, you are not alternating between i and m 100% of the time.

Robert: good job posting so early. My criticism would be that you're stumbling a little and could also work on your speed.

Christopher: excellent work, you are really up to speed on la Cucaracha.

James: good job, though your rhythm and timing could be better. But I totally agree with you that everybody in the group has shown great progress since we started.

/Staffan

[William Byrd]

Here are my recordings for lesson 04.

Very good submissions this month Steppan!

Glad you caught your error on Alouette, Gentille Alouette and Cadet. You are correct in saying that we are all showing growth and improvement. This is a very long road we are on. I'm just taking it two steps at a time...IM, IM, IM, IM, IM, etc.



Bill

[James A. Showalter]

Staffan,
Between your Allouette and mine we both have complete tunes.
Very nice.
James

[James A. Showalter]

There are new members in this group that I have as of yet not familiarized myself. To each of you, Welcome.

In this group you will find an assortment of talent and a lot of dedication. My goal as is true for all of us here is to develop better skills and technique for playing classical guitar. I think the Delcamp series of lessons is a wonderful gift to people of this mindset to learn this instrument at our own pace in a well thought structured format that if pursued will result in satisfaction of that goal.

I am looking forward to sharing this path with each of you.
James

[William Byrd]

Hello Classmates,

Here are my submissions for the month. As usual, I had a nemesis this month in the form of La Cucaracha. I realize my tempo is off, but I think you will see by my reaction at the end of this particular take, I was satisfied with the effort. I won't bother to mention the number of previous attempts.

Bill

La Cucaracha


Alouette, Gentille Alouette


Lundi Matin


Cadet Rousselle

[James A. Showalter]

Very nice presentation Bill.

It appeared to me that your control and rhythm improved through each submission. I am especially awed by the ability of yourself and the others that can submit Lundi Matin and have it sounding so musical.

Good job.
James

[Judy Verbeeten]

Here are my recordings for lesson 04.

Staffan, great tone and tempo. Well done.