Day 9 - Recuerdos video

Learning Tremolo for Classical Guitar through Recuerdos de la Alhambra


Recuerdos De La Alhambra - video powered by Metacafe

This player does an admirable job of playing Recuerdos. Listen to him play without watching the video. He has the ability to play the tremolo well, but, gradually, you will hear the thumb and the a-m-i become more and more separate. Especially around the 3 minute mark of the video. This emphasizes the amount of endurance as well as conscious relaxation needed to play the piece. I would suggest a bit more rubato and some more dynamic changes in the piece to really bring the performance up a notch or two. Overall, though, a very good job.

With the smooth integration of the thumb and fingers in mind, I began my practicing today.

1 - A great technique for really being able to determine what you are doing is to mute all the strings with the left hand while practicing speed bursts (see day 6 for more info on speed bursts). By muting the strings, you can really hear whether your rhythm is even during the speed bursts. Remember to hear (in your head) an even rhythm before each speed burst. If you can't produce an even rhythm then slow down your tempo or take a break in your practicing.

2 - Yesterday, I spent some time doing speed bursts with the flamenco tremolo or p-i-a-m-i. I may incorporate this into my practice more later to see if that makes the p-a-m-i tremolo easier.