27

55/100

Trying to get this movement up to speed.

68

A little bit of the introduction from Carnaval de Venecia

43

This is the excerpt I promised myself I would make a recording of in yesterday’s post. This is where the Preludio and the Danza blend together. ‘Attacca’ is the musical direction.

With these lighter strings, I tend to feel that my guitar is tuned kinda low. Although, I know they are turned to 440.

71

Want please with my playing so I sat on this recording for a couple of days.

Day 11

Feeling kind of sick, like I’m coming down with something. I hope this is not the case, but I really feel very weak and my throat is a little bit sore.

This is an excerpt from Harold Blanchard’s Innocent Meandering. I only listened once, and the recording itself seemed a little bit buzzy, as if I had distortion turned on or something. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to make a better recording with this telephone.

60

Playing entire passages with pizzicato can be challenging. Tarrega also has minuet in E major that’s supposed to be played primarily with pizzicato.

23

This is an excerpt from Pavan No 1 by Luis Milan. In this video I stop at a scale that I am debating on whether to play with or without slurs. I think I like it with the slurs.

44

I had not planned on posting a video on Thanksgiving Day. I really thought I’d be too tired, or busy. However, I got good bit of practice in so I thought ‘what the heck’.

This is second of Luis Milan’s six Pavans. I realize that I have been focusing entirely too much on pieces that I am not very good at yet. I think that my time between now and when I play my final doctoral recital (on January 31, g-d willing), will be better spent on making the things that I’m already good at playing even better*.

Happy Thanksgiving!

*this doesn’t mean I won’t continue to spend way too much time on increasing my speed and making the very hard stuff less difficult in my practice. I’ll just be spending more time polishing up the “easier” stuff.

Day 6

My schedule has been busy and I’m not able to post as often as I did when I once had more time (before I had to move out of my house due to damages caused by Hurricane Michael). I am still amazed that I’m already at day 6 of what is my goal (100). I hope to keep a moment of posting a video at least four to six days a week. If I can do seven, even better!

Tremolo angle.

Recently at school, I had a discussion about the effect of playing straight on the strings vs playing with a more angled attack. In the first demonstration I am playing with a straight attack. This tends to bring a brighter sound. In the second example I am demonstrating a more angled attack. This sound tends to be a bit less metallic and is preferred for the right hand in general (not just tremolo). As discussed in a previous video, I believe my right hand could be less harsh and quieter in general.

Thumb and tremolo.

At the end of the video I only pluck with the thumb. This is something that will help shape the tremolo. I keep the left hand the same, but only sound the notes given to the thumb.

Day 3.

Trying to get better about posting videos with painful mistakes. Responsibility. Tarrega and Legnani here.