Poore, Tom - Melencolia (on an engraving by Albrecht Dürer) - Video

[Tom Poore]

Wrote this almost 30 years ago. Just found it among some old papers. So I recorded it this afternoon. It’s a little left hand slur study, based on the pentatonic scale.



You’ll also find a link to the sheet music.

Tom Poore
South Euclid, OH
USA

[FHC]

Really enjoyed that Tom. Thanks for posting.

[Tom Poore]

Thanks.

Here’s something that surprised me. Did some ciphering this morning. There are 156 beats in the entire piece. At a tempo of 120—my target tempo—mathematically it should take exactly one minute and 18 seconds to play. So I checked my recording, which clocks in at 1:29. But if you take out the two second silence at the beginning, and stop counting two beats after the last chord, then you’ll get the actual playing time.

My recorded performance clocks in at one minute and 18 seconds.

Cool!

--Tom

[Tom Poore]

Got a Canon VIXIA HF R800 camcorder for Christmas, and I’m also learning how to work with iMovie. (The software has been sitting idle on my laptop since I bought it in 2013. Now seemed a good time to suss it out.) Tried them out with this piece. So I’m posting a video to replace my original audio post. Presumably the moderators will make the necessary adjustment to my initial post. Mod Edit: Duly done, Tom.


This is a straight through performance, using the sound from the camera. In the future I hope to learn how to sync a separately made audio recording with a video. That’ll improve the quality of both the sound and the playing.

By the way, the crash you’ll hear at the 1:06 mark is someone upstairs dropping something. I really need a quiet studio. Maybe someone will give me one next Christmas.

And sheesh, I need a haircut.

Tom Poore
South Euclid, OH
USA

[JayGuitar]

Very nice, thanks for posting.

[Tom Poore]

I took down the first YouTube video because the video quality was bad. I can’t edit my initial post in this thread. So here’s the new YouTube link:
Mod Edit: Video moved to 1st post on thread.

Originally I thought the poor video quality was due to the camera. It wasn’t. The problem was with iMovie. Apparently iMovie degrades the quality of the original video. I could find no way around this defect, so I gave up on iMovie. Instead, I used Shotcut, a free open source software. It does a much better job of retaining the quality of the original video.

A problem with Shotcut, however, is that you can’t do title and text frames. So how to work around this shortcoming? Well, I went back to iMovie, made my title and text shots, exported them to my desktop, and then imported them into Shotcut. Worked them into my video and, voilà, got the effects I wanted.

It’s a Rube Goldberg solution. But it worked for me.

By the way, I’m miffed at iMovie. Why on earth would anyone design a video editing software that degrades the video quality?

Tom Poore
South Euclid, OH
USA

[FHC]

Don't be mad Tom. Certainly don't let melancholy settle in

[Tom Poore]

Don't be mad Tom. Certainly don't let melancholy settle in

Problem now solved. I upgraded to the latest version of iMovie. Much better export quality. So now it’s on to learning how to edit together different camera angles and sync them to an audio track. In time I may become the Stanley Kubrick of guitar.

Tom Poore
South Euclid, OH
USA

[Frank]

Your composition Melencolia is absolutely beautiful and enchanting!!!! Thanks for posting it.

[Tom Poore]

Thanks for your kind comment. Basically, Melencolia is a left hand slur study. It’s not terribly difficult. There are no barres, no horrid left hand stretches, and the right hand is pretty straightforward. I wanted to write something accessible, yet musically effective.

If you view the video on the YouTube site, you’ll find a direct link to the freely available sheet music. It would be fun to hear someone else play my piece.

Tom Poore
South Euclid, OH
USA

[Lawler]

Nice piece and well played. In the YT notes you mention editing the Shearer method, Learning the Classical Guitar. I use it daily with students and know it well. Thanks for your work with it. The method would have been better if this piece had been included.