Romance, classical guitar

"If you have built castles in the air put the foundation under them immediately !"

-Romance

Miro' Museum, Barcelona

Our first concert piece: Romance. A piece made famous by the Spanish guitarist Narciso Yepes who recorded it to become the soundtrack of a french movie "Forbidden games"....It was the first great guitar classic launched by a movie...the last one I can think of is Stanley Myers' Cavatina.

To play Romance, we will first focus on the right hand (the hand responsible for sound fabrication...literally). The right hand (from now on RH) will be playing an arpeggio.

arpeggio=playing the notes of a chord successively rather than simultaneously

Use a guitar tuner to tune your guitar. You can always use your ears as backup.

804Kb
Click here to see
or right click here and chose save target to download

Windows Media file (.wmv)

In the following video you can see and hear the difference between a chord and an arpeggio.

265Kb
Click here to see video
or right click here and chose save target to download

Windows Media file (.wmv)

Romance is based on an arpeggio. The model of the arpeggio during the piece will never change. the arpeggio is made of two basic parts:

1.22MB
Click here to see video
or right click here and chose save target to download

Windows Media file (.wmv)

Work on the model and get your RH oiled - To oil: Verb, to put oil into a machine to make it work more smoothly-. Do not play faster than necessary. You are playing too fast if you make mistakes. Nobody is hurrying you. Focus on sound and simply make sure that every string is projecting the sound you like. Practice this model 3 minutes at a time. Then rest and repeat for 3 more minutes. Do this a total of 3 times on your first practice session.

.

Romance, staff 1 Click here for TAB

Windows Media file (.wmv)

Video 1

Click on the image to see video
Click here for download Analysis:
Finger 2 moves from the A to the G (portamento, marked by the line bonding the 2 notes). The key here is to achieve the position change with the left arm. Watch the video closely and notice how the hand presentation over the strings remains the same while the position on the fingerboard changes. Forget the rest stroke! It is primitive. Rest stroke is a special effect, not a way to play 50% of the notes in a piece. The way you make a note stand out is by means of fijación. The main melody in Romance is the highest notes of the arpeggio. Use different degrees of fijación to bring the melody out. The exercise and all its combination must be a part of your daily practice.
IThe underlined words, link to the technique pages explaining these concepts.

OVER 40 Classics for all levels. See the complete list here

The complete masterclass is in the members section