D04 Classical guitar lesson 01

[Zafar Haq]

Hi,Binh NguyenKhac,
Well done for submitting these two assignments.
Dave, already observed few points for your assignments.
I'll say good tempo,rhythm,melody.Good both hands coordination.Your left hand fingers are responding to difficult parts efficiently.
Good audio,video,lighting quality.
Keep it up for the rest of exercises.

[DaveMoutrie]

Hi,Binh NguyenKhac,
Well done for submitting these two assignments.
Dave, already observed few points for your assignments.
I'll say good tempo,rhythm,melody.Good both hands coordination.Your left hand fingers are responding to difficult parts efficiently.
Good audio,video,lighting quality.
Keep it up for the rest of exercises.

Thank you Zafar, your words of encouragement are very much appreciated, you keep up the good work too.

[Binh NguyenKhac]

Thank you for posting Binh, well done - it takes some courage to post for the first time.
There is quite a lot to talk about here.

Posture - The classical guitar is normally supported on the left leg and held at an angle of at least 45 degrees. You appear to be holding it roughly horizontal and on the right leg.

I tried traditional posture before but could not play in this position due to my low back pain. I feel natural and relax in horizontal position.

Allegro There is lots of damping in the base for this piece which of course makes the piece much harder to play. These are indicated by an astrix (*).

The first damping is at the start of bar 2 and this means that the open A string must be damped with the thumb at the beginning of this bar. There is a similar example in bar 6 where again the open A string must be damped. In the last 3 bars ie bars 9,10,11 there is an asterix (*) against each of the base notes. This means that for each base note played the previous base note must be damped with the thumb.

In addition, JF has stated that in the Allegro the melody is in the base and many students have taken this to mean that the piece should be played with thumb rest stroke throughout, though as this has not been explicitly stated it could be a matter for personal preference.

You absolutely right, I read the score again and I totally didn't notice the damping part. My bad. And I have a question though: "Does damping have rules? Who and which decides some notes must be damped and other notes don't need ? And as a guitar listener and player, if you listen to an audio song, can you recognize if some one who does use damping and some one doesn't?

Bretonneuse

The first 7 bars of this piece are rushed. Each of these chords consist of minims and should last a full 2 beats. Again you have missed the base damping throughout this piece. I like the rallantando at the end though.



I would suggest that you listen to JF's version of both these pieces and compare it with your recording.


Good luck and keep practicing. I look forward to hearing you play again.

Spot on, my tempo in first 7 bars are rushed. I need to practice my damping technique more. Thank you for honest feedback, Dave. I appreciate that.

[Binh NguyenKhac]

[media]https://youtu.be/FhyQBWwUW6w[/media]

Hi, Dave. When I re-watched your video I found something amazing. At the end of your video (at 0:42), in your last two chords, two notes are not played at the same time but separately and continuously, which sounds great and add color to the song. How do you play like that, I really like that part! Love to hear from you.

[DaveMoutrie]

Thank you for your comments Binh,

This is one piece that I really need to re submit as I have the RH fingering wrong - repeated use of the same finger rather than alternating.

As far as arpeggiating chords is concerned I guess it is just a question of playing one note after another rather than playing them all together. It is largely a matter of personal taste, but I think I probably arpeggiate my chords rather too much.

[abel]

To Binh NguyenKhac;

Very nice. I love it.
Greetings.

[Colin Bullock]

My Submissions, warts and all.
I've decided against multiple takes, so this is how it is. Having a few problems warming up the fingers after summer, lh tips are a little uncomfortable.

APOYANDO 15


APOYANDO 16


Damp


Allegro opus 50


Bretonneuse

[DaveMoutrie]

My Submissions, warts and all.
I've decided against multiple takes, so this is how it is. Having a few problems warming up the fingers after summer, lh tips are a little uncomfortable.

APOYANDO 15
[media]https://youtu.be/rVkF93XGg64[/media]

APOYANDO 16
[media]https://youtu.be/bVYceA3ovZg[/media]

Damp
[media]https://youtu.be/3zMiiKQC4iY[/media]

Allegro opus 50
[media]https://youtu.be/pZln4VecYlU[/media]

Bretonneuse
[media]https://youtu.be/nAG2TZnRWh8[/media]

Thank you for sharing Colin, I enjoyed listening to your submissions. It's always going to be a little difficult to get back into the swing of things after a bit of a break and D04 is quite challenging. I hope you don't mind if I make a few comments.

The exercises are in deed challenging and you play them well, just one comment on these -
exercise 47 page 126.... when JF demonstrates this exercise you can see that the fingers of his left hand are held almost flat against the strings so that they are damping the strings that are under them. You also appear to damp the strings, but your LH fingers do not appear to be flat against them.

Allegro - It's the dampings in this peice that make it challenging, especially in the last line of the music where there is a damping after every single base note. You have made an excellent job of this.

Bretoneuse - nice fast glisees, one or two stutters and the odd wrong note, but overall good - just needs a little more practice.

Keep up the good work Colin, I look forward to hearing you play again.

[Colin Bullock]

You also appear to damp the strings, but your LH fingers do not appear to be flat against them.

Dave
Thanks for the comments, very helpful.
When I damp higher adjacent string I find it is the soft pad opposite the nail that mutes the string so I don't need to go flat. Having said that, I need to watch that I don't get buzzes, so maybe need to practice that exercise loud to make sure.

Yes I did find damping in the final line of the allegro very tricky to get the thumb to do what it should.

Yes, practice

[Chu Bun]

Colin,
Nice work on the Allegro piece. On the Bretonneuse, there is often a hesitation on the first beat, and the first notes are also significantly louder than the rest of the measure (...TA..ta..ta...TA..ta..ta etc). I often run into the same problem when sight-reading difficult passages. My brain will gives more preperation time and emphasis on the notes it considers more difficult.

[Chu Bun]

I tried traditional posture before but could not play in this position due to my low back pain...

You may want to try a guitar support like the one used by the professor. You can sit naturally and still position the guitar at a 45 angle.

Does damping have rules ... can you recognize ?

I believe when random note(s) are added to a chord, it may add unwanted color/harmonic and muddy up the sound. For example, on the Bretonneuse piece, the 3rd measure is Am chrod. The D from the 2nd measure does not belong to the Am chord and should be damped.
"Can we recognize it?" most likely not, but I think it is obvious to people with formal training.

[Colin Bullock]

Colin,
On the Bretonneuse, there is often a hesitation on the first beat, and the first notes are also significantly louder than the rest of the measure (...TA..ta..ta...TA..ta..ta etc). I often run into the same problem when sight-reading difficult passages. My brain will gives more preperation time and emphasis on the notes it considers more difficult.

Thank Chu, you are right the concentration of reading leads to a blocking out of other aspects, but that is such a basic one that I should t really miss it. Will watch in future.
I also noticed that in the allegro the bass line can get lost in the last line, because I'm concentrating on the damping.

[JohnEllis]

Hello everyone, I'm submitting my attempt at the exercise portion of Lesson 1, and hope to post recordings of Allegro and Bretonneuse this week, as Lesson 2 has started. I've been reading all the feedback and trying to apply it to my playing, but find the damping challenging still.

https://youtu.be/utoLqhEl3vI

and

https://youtu.be/NyoiZuvQ2rY

Comments welcome.

================================
MOD EDIT:

[media]https://youtu.be/utoLqhEl3vI&feature=youtu.be[/media]

[media]https://youtu.be/NyoiZuvQ2rY&feature=youtu.be[/media]

[Colin Bullock]

Comments welcome.

John
firstly, I've edited your post to allow the videos to play back in the forum. Have a look at how it's done compared to just putting the link in.

Both exercises are very clear and well played. Some of the damings are very tricky but your's sound good.

[JohnEllis]

Colin,
Thanks for the edit and the comments.
I agree that damping is tricky, especially as I have always just let the strings ring for the most part. It's a new technique to me, and it will take a while to incorporate it smoothly into my playing.