I had been absent from the AVYOP section for a while due to some homework that sprung out from my previous posts. Now I am up for more.
I’ve found trying to play some short basic versions of classical music pieces very satisfying, enjoyable, and a good complement to JustinGuitar lessons on other genres. I know @Silvia80 and @Jamolay are working diligently on the specific techniques required for this classical genre and I’m probably going to need to do the same at some point if I want to perform these pieces better and also try more challenging ones.
So far I’ve tried Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias, from the suite Chants d’Espagne, and George Bizet’s Habanera from the opera Carmen.
Asturias was in the finger picking section of a magazine I have. I had tried it before, but never sounded any good, maybe in part because I did not have access to a recorded version of the piece. No YT Music in the eighties .
When I was setting my guitar learning goals, I embraced the idea of revisiting the piece. This time I could easily access not one but several recorded versions of the piece and even watch some guitar masters play it.
Encouraged by some success getting a recognizable sound playing it, I searched for tutorials in YT and found an enhanced but still looking within my reach version in the Skyguitar YT channel. I’ve been handwriting the piece using JustinGuitar Blank TAB and Manuscript paper. Eighteen bars copied so far.
Here are the first twelve bars of seventy that I can play decently now. Some day when I am able to flap my thumb like a hummingbird flaps its wings I’ll be able to play the score version of this piece at full speed. For now it is very satisfying being able to play these twelve bars at about half speed (60 b.p.m. Instead of 108 b.p.m an internet source informs). Although is not completely correct musically, when I practice with the metronome, I practice playing the time signature of 3/4 at 120 b.p.m for two bars as if each beat was an eighth note to get a beat on each sixteenth bass note.
The Habanera tutorial is in the same YT channel than Asturias. It’s just the main motif played twice, It’s marked as being easier than the easier version of Asturias, but for me it has been harder because of the different contrasting note durations, the inclusion of triplets and legatos (that I play as combined hammer-ons and pull-offs), and the bass accents simultaneous with some of the main melody notes. Although I may have go by just following my ear feeling, I worked with the metronome for a more accurate note duration. I followed the advice of my brother and worked first the main melody without the bass accents. I’ll later add them.
I saw my index finger getting extended when I flex my pinky. This had been brought to my attention with my Pink Panther Theme post, but I haven’t been able to fix it. My brother who worked as registered massage therapist while finding his way to live from his musical degrees told me is a muscle reflex. I have to work on that. I don’t have that reflex in my right hand.
It is my first time recording my guitar videos with an iPhone, my first time using an external microphone for that and my first time adding text to a video (technical minutiae in the YT video description).
Ana Vidovic in the following YT video provides some tips for playing Asturias that can be also useful for playing other musical pieces and songs:
Watch THIS before playing Asturias
Edit: YT link has been updated a couple of times because the video was reuploaded with some spelling typos in the titles fixed.