Very interesting Andres, thank you for providing context as well as lyrics in English. I know this song since I was a kid but never really knew what it was about. You look very comfortable, nice playing and singing!
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Hi Boris. Thank you for watching and commenting. The first challenge was getting the cadence right, the next one was being able to stop and restart at the no chord bars, the last one was changing from strumming to picking back and forth.
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Hola Andres,
Thank you for the rendition of Pueblito viejo. I hadn’t heard it before but my wife says rhat song is about the town of Soccoro (Santander) and my wife who is from there used to have to sing it at school.
Are you from Santander?
I have been travelling to Colombia for work twice a year since 2008 and just spent a 6 month sabbatical there travelling around by motorcycle. Such a fantastic experience.
Had to borrow guitars from people I met so that I could keep practicing during my sabbatical.
There’s so much fantastic music in Colombia.
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Hi Ian, thank you for watching and commenting. Nice you have a Colombian connection to add some images and feelings to the song.
The advent of the record industry in Colombia allowed the flourishing of then new composers and performers of music based on traditional rhythms that may be otherwise faded away. Now at 70+ years old Pueblito Viejo is kind of an anthem for Colombians. It’s not surprising for me that your wife sang it at school. For santandereanos Pueblito Viejo should be like El Bunde for tolimenses like my wife. I’m valluno meaning I’m from the Valle del Cauca. The picture at the beginning of the video is supposed to be Barichara in Santander. I haven’t been to Santander yet.
There’s a lot of Colombian music to explore. I regret having thrown away a book with about twenty scores of Colombian music I had bought when I was younger, just because at that time I was not fully capable of reading staves. It would have been a good companion for my guitar learning now.
Hi James, thank you for watching and commenting. Yes, it’s satisfying to see the time spent practicing yields fruits (in addition to the enjoyment of the practice itself).
Nice you got some scores of Colombian contemporary classical music for guitar.
I found this performance of the quartet:
Two very contrasting Colombian music styles the composer draws from. I would need tons of practice to do one of the parts and three buddies for the rest but it’s very inspiring to see the techniques used to produce the sounds.
I may get the other one in Kindle format.
I’m currently practicing this Colombian piece but it’s more like a dreamer one for now:
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I have a friend who is a producer of Colombian music in Bogota and has won many prestigious awards. Next time I’m there I can ask him about scores for some not too difficult Colombian music. Do you live in Colombia or abroad?
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Hi Ian, I live in Ontario, Canada. If you can check with him it would be good. Thanks.
I will ask him. I love Colombian music ( my favourite is vallenato) but I think it’s very difficult to learn the rhythms, especially as someone living in Europe and not having been brought up listening to that music. There’s so much great music in Colombia.
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Gracias a la vida (Thanks to Life) Cover
I played this song by Chilean singer and composer Violeta Parra at JGC OM 28. I first listened it in my teens from a cassette my late father bought in Chile during a work trip. The title of the album in the cassette could be translated in English as The Last Compositions of Violeta Parra. The album was recorded shortly before her death. On the album cover she’s holding a small guitar like instrument called charango. She sings and plays the charango for this song.
There are numerous covers of it. Joan Baez included it in an album she made of songs in Spanish in the 70s. The Joan Baez’ album has two titles, the one in Spanish is Gracias a la vida, that is the first track of the album, and the one in English is Here’s to Life. Some of the other songs included in Joan Baez album are a little heavy with political message of that time.
The transcription I played is from a songbook I have. The song doesn’t have a chorus and each of the six verses start with the same introductory phrase. The last verse has three additional bars. Violeta Parra ends the song singing the introductory phrase once more. The cover by Mercedes Sosa, that looks to be the one of the transcription I have, ends the song just by singing Gracias a la vida once more. I made three twists to the lyrics in Spanish to adapt it for a male singer.
The rhythm suggested in the songbook is called Argentine samba, that is a 6/8 rhythm. I had a hard time with this rhythm and instead of recording the video right after the OM, as I have been trying to do it recently, I waited till I felt a little more comfortable with it. In order to get more comfortable with it, I created a Guitar Pro practice file to play along the rhythm as per the songbook, my brother’s comments, and my personal feeling.
The A9 chord diagram shown in the Guitar Pro file above is the full A9 chord. The A9 chord I played is the one indicated in the songbook that doesn’t fret the sixth string and therefore I tried to avoid playing it.
If someone reading this is struggling with dark thoughts he or she can skip the next and last paragraph.
Unfortunately although Gracias a la vida can be felt as a hymn to the life and a reflecting realm of reinvigoration, for Violeta Parra herself may not have been like that and ended being more of a farewell. Some of the other songs of the album may hint about issues she was facing and led to ending a multifaceted artistic career in a tragic way.
Edit: YT link was updated because the video was reuploaded with a spelling typo in the titles fixed.
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