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Classical Finger-Style Question

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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
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I'm curious to know where the song, "Cavatina" falls in the easy to hard scale. Mostly curious about the one guitar arrangement as done by this young lady. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSECkRnpsDE&list=PLC66716CBBB0A0179&index=49
I've seen tons of duets with one guitar doing the arpeggios and one doing the louder notes and bass notes. Sort of a melody line, I guess. I imagine each one of them to be much easier than the song done at once.

I do almost no finger-style guitar at all. I enjoy listening to it, but just have not taken the time learn it. Too much to learn. If a song like this is not too unreasonably difficult to get down, than I might give it a whirl. It's looking undaunting to me right now, though. I tried a few passages...oy!

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Ana Vidovic is a superb musician, but why does she always play so fast? I play it in my shows; it always goes down well.

The arrangement is by John Williams (the world's leading classical guitarist, not the guy who wrote the music to Star Wars and other stuff) and published by IMP; and you should be able to pick it up on Ebay or your local music shop fairly easily.

Difficulty level - it's in the Grade 8 books for London College of Music and the Royal Conservatory Toronto. The format in those books is notation only, so anybody looking for a Tab version needs to keep looking. That makes it not the world's most difficult piece, but challenging.

Could you play it yourself? Yes, it needs a fair bit of patience but so long as you're happy with playing 9th position arpeggios you can get there.

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
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Topic starter  

Thanks for the Intel, Alan. I'll certainly look for the John Williams this morning. I don't imagine it to be a heard search.

Grade 8 just sounds tough. It also sounds like a lot of material from grade 1 through Grade 7, and one's just got to assume that there is a nugget or two in there for Classical Finger-Style. I think I'll look through the GN pages for an "easy" lesson or two before I bite of something from the challenging department.

I can still play with the melody line on my electrics for some good, clean fun. :mrgreen:

Say, you've posted many clips in the past of efforts you and your fellow musicians have done. Is your Cavatina effort out there anywhere?

Again, Alan, thanks for the intel. Over a decade of detailed advice is quite a nice thing for you to do. 8)

Edit: I found this. https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/scarborough-fair-easy/
Looks like a nice, easy bit to get my fingers used to moving like that. Sir Arthur Itis may disagree. We'll see. :)

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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(@alangreen)
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Joined: 22 years ago
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You're welcome. No, my Cavatina isn't out there; must do something to fix that.

I'm having one of those weeks where two students have busted their wrists, one lesson got cancelled because "I have to go to a meeting at the School", and a whole session next Friday has had to be rescheduled because "We're going down the church for Harvest Festival" so I'm looking to do more performance work to reduce my reliance on the School stuff - recordings will be very much on the agenda.

http://www.twitmusic.com/alangreenguitar - my recordings for students.
http://www.reverbnation.com/alangreen - my regular stuff.

The Scarboro' Fair lesson is a good one - singing over fingerpicked arpeggios, multitasking in action :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@rparker)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5480
Topic starter  

I had not noticed the difference in tempo until you mentioned it. It's indeed quicker. More energetic, but less emotional or soulful. (lack of better word)

I forgot to mention that I stumbled upon a Jazz number that ended up being easiest to do sans plectrum. Nina Simone's "Sinnerman". Pretty much the same thing ad nauseum, though, but it did give me enough of a notion to look in to it. My finger motor-skills are pathetic, but so was my strumming 10 years ago.

Sorry to hear what sounds like a sudden drop in lessons. Kind of takes a nip out of that extra money bin.

I've been doing a ton of recording the last few years. Nothing decent, but I've learned a great deal by doing it. A wide range of stuff, too, but still very much guitar centric. I dove into the DAW world head first and have not come up for air since. I have not posted much, but I'll pm a link when I do. Mostly all original songs, which means it's doubly bad, but I've learned a ton doing it. I need to re-read 2-3 of David's books beginning with the song writing one.

Nice playing, btw. I listened to the wedding samples and the "free three" so far. nice, indeed.

Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin


   
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