problems learning Recuerdos de la Alhambra for classical guitar

nickevan

Hi there
just wondering if anyone is learning this tarrega piece for guitar and is having difficulty with it - any suggestions etc. I just cant seem to get the tremelo right although I have the left hand fingerings down
Can anyone help?
Rgds
Nick

tomasrojo

@nickevan, I just came across your post while looking for something else. Did you ever get the help you needed with Recuerdos? If not, perhaps I can give you some advice. It's a piece I know well. What exactly was the RH problem you were having? Evenness of the notes as you played a-m-i, I assume?

cesarbart

hey, youll be hard pushed ot get help learning possibly the best peiece of classicla guitar ever. I have met and talked to john williams and asked him advice on hwo tok play it, he said to play it as one (the tremblo that is) while rotating to get the continous of it. so instead fo finger after finger
you rotate the hand with fingers in same position. I have a good speed but itll take loads of practice the get to the rigth speed.

Hope this helps.watch john williams on youtube and he shows how to do it i think.

tomasrojo

The main thing would be to practise even one bar of the piece that is easy on the left hand over and over again, very, very slowly, making sure that your right hand is immobile, apart from the fingers. The fingers themselves should move only very slightly, and you should pull from the knuckle. The rest of the finger is approximately rigid.

I used to sit in front of a mirror so I could see my fingers from the point of view of a teacher. I also used to sit right up beside a table so that if I lifted my fingers too much they'd strike off the table.

The main thing is to practise SLOWLY and give it plenty of time. It could take several years to get a good flowing technique.

stevejazzx

I find it relatively easy now although it those damn pull offs which are to very tricky execute in time while playing the tremelo. Also the rising moif in the closing section where the tremelo is on the g string with notes rising above it on the d string is quite tricky. Your nails shouldn't be too long (this is a common problem particularly if your nails are too curved) The previous talking about John Williams saying it is 'continuous' is quite right but I iamgine that is a consdieration for you've mastered the tremelo technique. If you think it's hard have a listen to some 4 fingered Paco tremelo...insane.
Also I don't recommend moving some of the high melody near the begining to the e string, I've seen people do this becasue the tremelo is easier on the top string. The sound is different, it rings too much - follow the original music.

tomasrojo

It's interesting that @stevejazzx says to follow the "original music".

According to this interesting article
http://www.stanleyyates.com/articles/tarrega/recuerd.html
the earliest manuscript we have suggests that Tarrega originally had the opening melody on the first string.

However, I agree with @stevejazzx that it is more effective on the second string. It also means that the piece is a better study for the purposes of learning tremolo properly.

stevejazzx

tomasrojo wrote: »

It's interesting that @stevejazzx says to follow the "original music".

According to this interesting article
http://www.stanleyyates.com/articles/tarrega/recuerd.html
the earliest manuscript we have suggests that Tarrega originally had the opening melody on the first string.

However, I agree with @stevejazzx that it is more effective on the second string. It also means that the piece is a better study for the purposes of learning tremolo properly.

Hmm that's really interesting becasue I considered that the opening Am position (with e on the d 2cd fret and the c&e played on the g&b strings was the standrd position thereby placing the melody directly onto the second string. I have also heard that Tarrega did not use nails (sor too I think!) - hard to imagine that these days. Would you say it's his best piece? I like his preludes...

tomasrojo

The a-minor as you describe is definitely how pretty much everyone plays it. Perhaps Tarrega himself revised the fingering at a later stage.

You're right about the nails; he didn't use them.

Not sure whether it's his best piece, but I'd say it's his most universally admired. I like a lot of his pieces myself. Capricho Arabe is very effective, and I like the way it modulates.

His best known piece of music must surely be that fragment of the Gran Vals that Nokia use as a ringtone!

tomasrojo

And 'La Alborada' is a very effective use of the idiosyncracies of the guitar.

I heard it in a recital recently. I'd forgotten how ingenious (and attractive) it was!