D02 Classical guitar lesson 09

[Ed Butler]

Tom - very well done. You are way ahead of me - just getting into lesson #9 this week. Just took my first lesson and learned that the metronome, at least right now, is not helping with the way my brain works. It worked better if I had the teacher play some measures slowly then I tried to match that playing and sound and from there we slowly increased the matching speed. At least for me, it felt like I was playing more musically than mathematically.

Ed

[Tom Wimsatt]

Thanks Ed. I'm sure you'll make some headway now that the exam is out of the way.

It sounds like you have found a great teacher! I am sorry I pushed the metronome solution. This shows there's no substitute for getting help from someone who knows how to play and teach.

[Tom Wimsatt]

My attempt at A Canoa Virou, I am finding this one difficult.

[Colin Bullock]

My attempt at A Canoa Virou, I am finding this one difficult.

Very passable first attempt. The odd glitches should smooth out with the usual concentrated practice. I can’t recall playing this one so can’t make any detsiled comments, if I get time after the exam I’ll have a go.

[Tom Wimsatt]

My attempt at A Canoa Virou, I am finding this one difficult.

Very passable first attempt. The odd glitches should smooth out with the usual concentrated practice. I can’t recall playing this one so can’t make any detsiled comments, if I get time after the exam I’ll have a go.

Thanks Colin.

[Ed Butler]

Hi Tom - I liked it, even for a first attempt there seemed to be few rough areas. I focused on the right hand/fingers and they were in a constant nice, smooth flow.

Ed

[Tom Wimsatt]

Hi Tom - I liked it, even for a first attempt there seemed to be few rough areas. I focused on the right hand/fingers and they were in a constant nice, smooth flow.

Ed

Thanks Ed. This one was a hand-full. A relaxed grip and fingers seemed to be key with this one. Otherwise my fingers would "tie up" and stumble towards the end of the piece. Hitting the 1/16 "D" note pair (example - measure with proper tempo was also tricky.

[Ed Butler]

I am using the A Canou Virou and the Ejercicio pieces for my June post. I need to keep in the habit of posting thru the summer

[Tom Wimsatt]

Sounds good Ed. Maybe you can get some suggestions and help from your instructor on figuring those pieces out. This batch was one of the tougher ones in my opinion.

[Ed Butler]

Tom - the more I struggle with the A Canou Virou the more I admire you playing of the piece. At least to me, it seems like a quantum jump in needed skill to play this piece than any of the others for D02.

Ed

[Tom Wimsatt]

Tom - the more I struggle with the A Canou Virou the more I admire you playing of the piece. At least to me, it seems like a quantum jump in needed skill to play this piece than any of the others for D02.

Ed

Ed, you are absolutely right. This piece (I still cannot play it right) is the most difficult one we've been assigned yet. By the way, this was last year's Exam Piece I went back and listened to some of last year's exam submissions (big mistake) and found some people played it almost perfectly.

This one will likely take a long time to learn to play well. Perhaps your teacher has some ideas on how to get this one mastered.... But I am now really working on the boxed areas. You may do this already, but I didn't when I started working on this one. I think that was a mistake... I used to assume they were meant to "confirm" a difficult passage, so to speak. I now think maybe they're meant to indicate: "these are difficult, master these first"...

Hang in there!

[Ed Butler]

Tom - you are right, but I am curious about the first box, I am not sure of the difficulty unless it is the damping. My teacher and I are going through the Bridges book 2 by the Royal Conservatory for my training.

[Tom Wimsatt]

Ed, you are probably good at hitting chords.

You are supposed to mute the D string when hitting the note pair. At first I had trouble hitting the note pair without buzzing strings.

[Tom Wimsatt]

Ed, I checked out your book noted above.

From the "look inside " feature, on the bookseller website, it looks pretty cool. Let us know how you like it. I'm always on the lookout for new (modern) references for learning to play.

[Colin Bullock]

Tom - you are right, but I am curious about the first box, I am not sure of the difficulty unless it is the damping.

I think it is the combination of damping onto a none adjacent string + the pinch movement. Remrmber, what is hard at this level might not be after practice at the next level eg the next box along which is a common interval shape. Also, difficulty varies with player, we each find some things come more naturally to us than to others.