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Practising without a guitar
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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Practising without a guitar
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Hi Amigos, I don't really have a great amount of time to practise. A Sunday afternoon is my main free time. Today, things didn't go too well...I wasn't really in the mood, so after a couple of hours I just packed it in and did something else. However I made a good improvement, because while I was doing something else, I had a couple of phrases humming around my head which just suddenly "clicked". Now, to me that is a far greater improvement than anything I can do farting around with my fingers on the guitar. Unless something makes complete sense to you phrasing-wise, compás-wise and feeling-wise...then you can tickle them strings till the cow's come home and not get anywhere. Rafael, the brilliant Flamenco guitarist who now lives in Oxford turned me on to that. He said (on Bulerías) " You've got to sing your falsetas, feel them...when you are walking down the road you hum them, with your feet walking in two's and your fingers snapping in 3's. Feel it with your body..." It's so true, (for me anyway) that my progress is at least 50% thinking about the stuff and the other 50% actually practising with the guitar. Once you know what you want to play, and how you want to play it, then it's just a matter of trying to get the fingers to follow, which may require a bit of work, but not as much as just playing blind, thoughtless exercises, and you learn a lot more from it. Just as an experiment, how many fast picado enthusiasts out there can actually sing or mouth or hear in their head the exact picado they are trying to do? Or do they need the guitar to give fingering and audible clues as to how it actually goes? (I know Mike likes this kind of stuff... ) cheers Ron
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Date Mar. 27 2005 20:54:52
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: Practising without a guitar (in reply to Ron.M)
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Ron, that's true, you have to be 100% sure about the phrase musically and rhythmically or else you ain't got nada. Usually if you are having an unexplained difficulty it will come down to rhythm. Another aspect of this is uncertainty about which fingers go where. Anything on the guitar, if you are having a problem, you should check to see if you actually know which fingers go where, the sequence, how much pressure you really need, etc. The body can do much more than we give it credit for, but we have to program it with correct information. I do a lot of mental practicing, and that includes intervals, arpeggios, and the locations of notes on the guitar.
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Date Mar. 27 2005 21:18:31
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Guest
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RE: Practising without a guitar (in reply to Ron.M)
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You've got to know how to lilt a tune before you can fiddle it.
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Date Mar. 27 2005 21:42:14
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ToddK
Posts: 2961
Joined: Dec. 6 2004
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RE: Practising without a guitar (in reply to Ron.M)
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Great points.. I sing to myself alot. If i'm alone, i sing out loud. the phrases take on new meaning after you have sung them alot. When you sing, your personality comes through instantly and naturally. I think this is a way of "Internalizing" a phrase. And it doesnt really have to be connected to the guitar. I think the point is to have the phrase, wether you sing it, or tap it out on a table, or whatever. I think many people get locked into visualizing everything as a shape or pattern, or fingering. This is bad in a way. It locks you in. Its better to leave melodies in the air, and not always try to connect it to a key, position, etc etc... When the vision is complete in your mind, and you can sing it, then sit down and transcribe it. I often write falsetas in a midi editor. This lets me follow my ear, and not my fingers. We often fall into the same habitual positions when picking up the guitar. Instead of letting your brain and ears spin melodies, we follow pre'determined scales and such. Its good to break out of the confines of the guitar once in a while. I wrote the last falsetta in my Alegrias in a midi editor. Took me about 20 minutes to write it. Took two weeks before i could play it right.:) You'll notice that falsetta is fairly different as far as prhasing and positioning. There's a couple of grips that were totally new, that i hadnt encountered before. Ramble Ramble Ramble..... TK
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Date Mar. 27 2005 21:50:20
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Ricardo
Posts: 14952
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: Practising without a guitar (in reply to Ron.M)
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Sorin, don't feel so bad man! Bach wrote polyphonic music, and it is almost impossible to comprehend the two or more voice melodies as separate entities while listening once, much less playing them together on one instrument. You can focus on one voice or another, or sit back and enjoy the harmony created by both parts while letting your fingers worry about it. That is the beauty of Bach and polyphony. Think about piano players. They can learn Bach linearly, one hand at a time, or vertically, both hands together. That is hard stuff. Guitarists have to do it all vertically, that is just the way it is. If you want to "understand" your Bach piece better, go back and learn just one voice, like the bass line. Record it. Then learn another voice and play it over top of the bass line. You will be surprised how simple the music really is broken down like that. Ricardo
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Date Mar. 29 2005 3:46:13
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: Practising without a guitar (in reply to Ricardo)
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Ricardo, you're doing good, man. When I get enough skeelz, I'm going to learn that piece. Gigs will go by fast when I'm playing pieces that long! :) Isn't it a beautiful piece? You could cop a lot of that for some falsetas por solea por bulerias :) I have a friend who is an accomplished CGer and I think a good flamenco player too--his name is Craig Alden Dell. He concertizes, plays the Aranjuez with orchestra, and has a couple albums out. Here was his response to my question, which is harder: "Hey Miguel, It has been my personal experience that all things considered, the Chaconne would be. Of course, things are relative too, like, to play Flamenco at Vicente Amigo's level compared to a [particular classical guitarist] or etc., then I would say that Flamenco is the more difficult. One thing that is quite challenging in the Flamenco genre is the mastery of the rhythms to the point where physicality is transcended and Duende steers the player to a place of sheer improvisational genius outside of technical limitations. This would be to attain the height of what can be reached within the human experience and therefore considerations of levels of difficulty fall by the wayside. However, the reason the I feel that all things considered, Classical guitar is the "harder" of the two is because in a concert setting I've noticed that it is much harder to maintain the level of silence needed to distinguish the attack of right hand for the Classical guitar in contrast to that silence, as compared to the attack rendered by the apt Flamenco guitarist which glorifies the acceptance and even encouragement of all manner of percussive noise indigenous to the form. In other words, total technical clarity is a must with one and not even so much as a consideration with the other. Although one should be clean in either style, an almost "noiseless perfection" of execution must be present before the Classical player can even be considered in the running, whereas this isn't even part of the criterion of Flamenco guitar. I really adore the "heart" aspect of Flamenco which happens simultaneously with a good player. To attain this with Classical guitar is a much greater challenge in my opinion. So much must first be in place before the heart is revealed if at all. You obviously have a pretty congruent network of folks to spend your day with. This is great!! I'd like to be there! Until later, - Craig"
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Date Apr. 2 2005 16:24:45
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