This is a major milestone for my guitar journey. When I started, exactly 6 months ago, on August 23rd 2020, I promised myself I will be able to play Spanish Romance in 6 months. I had no previous experience with the instrument (barely knew how to hold it), and no musical experience whatsoever. I was a complete and total beginner. And Spanish Romance is not a very easy song, on the contrary.
So, after 6 months, I’m happy to report that I am actually able to play Spanish Romance. It’s far from perfect, and I will tell you all the problems that I still have with it in a paragraph below, but the main goal was achieved. This in itself gives me a lot of confidence to push forward, not to mention the satisfaction and the good feelings I get just by being able to produce harmony. Now, let’s see the update details.
Practice Time
I kept it steady at more than one hour and 15 minutes every day, so this area is functioning ok. I’m on a slightly changed schedule, meaning sometimes I skipped the morning practice, because logistics. We’re still in a de facto lockdown in Valencia, which means I had to stick with my morning rituals, which are including a daily morning walk just to get my coffee. This walk alone adds up 10-15 minutes, which sometimes I simply don’t have available, because I’m oversleeping or have work related commitments. But I usually more than make up for that part in the afternoon and evening sessions.
Practice Bits
I keep the same structure: in the first part of the day I practice scales, at noon technique and during evenings I try to learn new songs. A minor change here too: I focused a lot on practicing just Spanish Romance, and only learned just one other song (another Sting cover which I hope I’ll be able to play in about a month). But now that the goal was achieved, I can move forward and add more new songs in the evening practice.
I also practiced a bit more on the acoustic (steel) guitar as well, where I introduced a few more chords and chord progressions. Still not confident enough to pair my voice with the guitar, but this might be one for the following month. I will most likely choose a song on the acoustic guitar, not on the classical one.
Gear And Paraphernalia
Not much to report on this front, all static, didn’t buy anything new, so I’m using the same setup. The good news is that I’m starting to get the gist of both the acoustic amp and the USB interface. The bottleneck now seems to be the laptop, which simply can’t record quality video at higher sampling rates. Although the USB interface, a Focusrite 2i2, can sample up to 180khz, I have to stick to much lower levels, like 48khz. In real life this limitation is not even perceptible, but higher sampling rates are adding more depth and crisper details to the sound.
Overall Status
This month was clearly a good one, I had this feeling many times during practice. Like I wrote in the previous update, sometimes I practice without thinking I’m making any progress (while I obviously make consistent progress), but this month I had a clear perception of improvement.
I don’t know if this translates yet in the way that I’m playing (see below the flaws for this rendition of Spanish Romance), but I’m feeling more comfortable, more at ease. There were days in which I actually played, like I actually communicated with the instrument with the goal of making music, and not just moving my fingers and hand along the fretboard. It’s a very, very nice feeling.
Spanish Romance
This song is by far one of my all time favorites and I really wanted to be able to play it. I first learned the first part, which only has one difficult barre chord, and then moved to the second one, which consists almost entirely on barre chords.
Obviously, I started to learn the song way before this month, probably in the second month of my journey, so it’s safe to say I practiced it for at least 4 months. It’s funny how difficult the only barre chord of the first part seemed back then. I still remember the frustration of the first few weeks – because I think it took me a few weeks, if not a good couple of months, to make that barre chord sound reasonably well. It’s funny now, because, in comparison, the barre chords of the second part are way, way more difficult.
In the rendition that you’ll see above there are a few major flaws:
- the tempo is uneven overall, and really choppy in the middle section
- I wronged a couple of notes and missed (or didn’t play loud enough) a few others
- the base section, which has to be played every 3 notes on the upper E string, is almost non existent
But, in the grand scheme of things, I find these flaws acceptable for my current level. I will keep playing this song just because I like it so much, and, just because the pressure of the “6 months deadline” is off, I will most likely be able to add the missing parts and improve the ones that I’m still doing wrong.
All in all, good progress. I really look forward to the next update.
I'm a geek, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Hive you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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Well done! Very mellow and sweet. What a beautiful audition! I'm waiting for some Paco de Lucia covers in the near future. :)
He he, thanks kid! Paco de Lucia is now, for me, as far as the Earth is from Mars. Maybe some day, who knows, but for now I'm focusing on putting one step in front of the other. Keep it up too, in whatever endeavors you're immersed in these days :)
Thank you. But Paco might not be out of your reach after all, keep this in mind. This was a very pleasant audition. Yousician has some Spanish Romance challenges too. I completed some of them sometime ago, in a land faraway. I recommend playing those tunes too, in case you have time for them. They're very good for the heart, sometimes. :)
Impressive mate! Keep it up!! Playing a piece start to finish is no mean feat!
Thanks, appreciate the encouragement words :)
Your left hand is looking really good. Nice form and finger movement. You're doing the right things.
Thanks, appreciate the encouragement words. The thing with this piece is that the second part has some really weird chord shapes, which are putting the left hand a t work, as you observed. But the most difficult part, at least for me, was the fingerpicking pattern, it's playing very fast all the first three strings, with a focus on the thin E. I think it took me about a month to get the gist of it.
From watching your performance there appears to be a lot of upward movement on your right hand. It seems you are plucking up more than plucking across the string. I think making an adjustment to plucking across the strings will likely make the right hand execution of this piece much easier to perform.
Here's a link to Segovia playing a technical piece emphasizing the right hand. His performance is crazy fast but you can get a good idea of how to hold your right hand and and how little movement it takes to pluck each note
Thanks for posting this, I know exactly what you mean. Segovia is famous for promoting nails into classical guitar playing, and, along with them, a more direct way of plucking, which results, it's true, in less effort and movement of the hand over all, because all motion is carried by the upper side of the fingers. I don't have nails, though, or at least not the amount needed for this time of plucking, so what I do is plucking with a combination of flesh from the top of my fingers and a bit of nail. I would say 70% flesh, 30% nails. This specific type of plucking requires a different movement, I'm almost pressing the strings to the inside of the guitar.
Here's a very detailed video explaining the differences:
If find the video quite interesting and very informative. As I was studying the classical guitar my teacher was definitely an advocate towards the Segovia method and while we worked on pieces by Sor, Tarrega, Carcassi and others I was totally unaware that these composers advocated having no nails on the right hand. As noted in the video unless your nails are trimmed to the flesh there are instances where depending on tonal and dynamic preferences all flesh or some nail as in your case can be applied which makes for a broader scope of tone and dynamics as a result.
Such great tools we have available today truly expediting are ability to hone our skills and broaden our knowledge base.
I learned years ago that Steve Howe from Yes doesn't have nails on his right hand. I believe much like with the left hand finger tips a slight callous builds aiding the fingertip in striking the string.
Great progress!!
Thanks!
Nice guitar!! Great finger picking, well done !BEER
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