What I like to play: fun intermediate pieces for classical guitar

Optimistically speaking I'm an intermediate level guitarist.  OK so I'm not an optimist, but I'm trying to be more optimistic!  Pieces at my level can be pretty boring - studies meant to teach various skills - ugh.   I've found it hard to find pieces that interest me enough to put the work in to learn them.  I don't think I learned a single piece by Sor, Carcassi, Carulli, etc. up till recently... (I haven't been struck by lightning yet either).

Regardless, here is a list of pieces I thoroughly enjoyed learning in case they would interest you.  Some of them I learned quite soon after I started learning guitar, but I still enjoy them now.  They are all short and melodic (at least I think so).   I have to give credit for some of them to my guitar teacher, but most of them I heard someone else play first...either at our local guitar society or on Delcamp...

Rose in the Garden by Carlo Domeniconi
Sepia by Thierry Tisserand
Vals de Primavera by Thierry Tisserand
Slow Blues by Alexander Vinitsky
Pavane #1 by Milan
Un Dia De Noviembre by Leo Brouwer
Evocacion by Jose Luis Merlin
Birds Flew over the Spire by Gary Ryan
Royal Plum Pudding by Andrew York
Simple Study #6 Leo Brouwer
Mad World   (Originally by Tears for Fears)
Valse Choro Francis Kleynjans
Nocturne #2 by Mertz
Giuliani op 50#17

And here are the pieces on my current wish list for next year (after I've finished the level 3 pieces I've been working on forever)

Promise  Yvonne Bloor
Wild Mountain Thyme (Scott Tennant arrangement)
Pagina de Radio (Pujol)
Arabian Dance (Tchaikovsky - arranged by Kossler)
Joropo (Jose Luis Merlin)
Testament de Amelia  Llobet
Prelude in D major Cello Suite Bach

And maybe one day...
Home Andrew York
Julia Florida  Barrios

Maybe you'll hear something you will enjoy learning too 😊

Focusing Power...

Recently a number of things came together for me as a result of my latest attempts to overcome performance anxiety... 

- I participated in a challenge to improve a single discrete skill.  This involved practicing that specific skill every day for a month and recording it weekly.
- I made myself 'perform' for others several times a week, including in person to my teacher and a friend, online by Skype/Zoom, in 2 guitar circles, and at an open mic.
- I got expert advice on performing from my teacher - most notably by practicing pieces unbelievably slowly to activate different types of memory.
- I read a number of articles on ways to address performance anxiety - the piece of advice that most resonated (particularly now I am getting some experience performing) was to change expectations.  I had always considered that the only acceptable performance was one where I played to the best of my ability - any mistake would set me on a downward spiral to disaster.   The article pointed out that this was unrealistic - particularly at the beginning.  The goal instead should be to recover from mistakes and keep playing!  The other thing it said was to develop a mistake recovery plan and practice it (deep and steady breathing was suggested).

Why am I listing these things?  because it reminded me of something my guitar teacher said when I grumbled to him about falling apart when trying to play for others.  (Honestly I don't need to tell him this - he experiences it on a regular basis in lessons!)  Getting back to the point, he asked me whether I had made addressing this deficit my specific focus.   And now I think I understand.  It's not something you work on occasionally.  It's something you address systematically and often over a period of time in multiple different ways,  continually analyzing and applying the results forward.  And this article talks about focusing on a process rather than a goal - interesting.

Have I conquered performance anxiety? Of course not.  However I am more often than not managing to play through mistakes and keep going.  (Hopefully this will eventually translate into better performances).

Journaling...

I've recently been participating in challenges that are posed by the online guitar school I subscribe to (classicalguitarcorner.com academy).   The latest one was "scales".  Which scale?  Well, any scale you are working on -  you post the scale, what your focus will be, and a one minute (or less) video of you playing the scale at your starting point.   I picked a 2-octave G scale in 6ths with a goal of legato shifting because I have to learn it.  It's hard, so I try it for a few days, get back to where I was last time, then give up!  The motivation to keep working on it in the scales challenge was the requirement to post an update video every week for 4 weeks... 

What happened?  Fear of exhibiting no progress on the weekly videos caused me to practice it each day for around 10 minutes.   And I not only conquered those awkward intervals above the 12th fret, but got the whole thing up to tempo - yeah!  Which got me thinking - maybe I need to do something similar to make me apply concentrated daily effort to other gnarly challenges, like that D# slur in Adelita - or maybe almost any part of Adelita come to think of it - i.e. some personal accounting. 


I  wasn't thinking to do weekly videos though.  Instead I decided to try dot journaling (AKA bullet journaling) - much more attractive to us female types than a spreadsheet (it used to be called a diary in my day,  and had lines, not dots, but what the heck).  And it doesn't require logging in to fill out!   I've seen some absolute works of art online - but my journal is rather more prosaic and pretty much reflects my usual state of mind (scattered).   I am finding coloring in those little pink squares can be quite satisfying...  I started out thinking I would list all the things I need to practice, but I'm refining it as I go on.  I've seen it needs modification - there are not only the larger chunks (practice running through that piece!  learn that section!) but also smaller challenges, like practicing a single shift.  And there needs to be a spot for notes, such as 'moving the thumb makes that work.' So maybe I'll rearrange things on the next page.  Finally I might get a journal that already has the lines connecting the dots!

I've found just glancing at it before I start practicing gives me a good idea of what I might have been missing out on, it remains to be seen whether it will actually make me practice the tough stuff 😆

Performance Anxiety - again

I'm coming to the conclusion that learning to deal with performance anxiety is like painting the Forth Bridge...  Why the Forth Bridge? - anecdotally the painting process never stops - once you reach one end, you just toddle back to the other end and start again - ad infinitum.



After a particularly discouraging personal performance in our orchestra in early April I determined to once again tackle this exasperating problem - this time simply by grabbing lots of opportunities to play for others - online, to a friend, my guitar teacher, to small groups of guitarists I know well, and yesterday in a small playing circle I didn't know so well.   Has it transformed me from a state of near panic (gripping the guitar with rigid cold sweaty hands like it might jump up and run away) into a confident performer?  Sadly, no.  However things have improved - although the physical symptoms have not disappeared, they have abated somewhat, and I have managed to play several times for my GT and other people.  Not particularly well, and with lots of fumbles plus the occasional outright wrong note, but mostly getting from the beginning to the end without stopping.  I actually thought I was doing a little worse yesterday, then recalled that we had to play completely cold with no warm up at all, so it wasn't so bad, considering.  And I didn't even stand out because everyone (even the more experienced players) were apparently suffering from the same problem! 

What did I do to even get this far?  There were 3 components:

First
I had help from my guitar teacher on preparing the pieces.  Specifically I've been working on the same 5 short pieces for the last 9 months - so I know them pretty well.  And GT had me play them super slowly - to the point where muscle memory failed and I was forced to think about the notes and what was coming up next.  I still find this surprisingly hard but it sure helps when you get brain freeze when trying to perform...

Second
I've been gradually ramping up the stress level and (hopefully) building up positive experiences -  it doesn't help to march out to play a masterclass first off, then crash and burn - makes things ten times worse the next time.  Experiences from low to high stress, for me that would be:

1. Recording self
2. Videoing self
3. Playing for a friend (ie a real person) who doesn't play guitar
4. Playing for teachers online (via classicalguitarcorner.com academy)
5. Playing for a nursing home Alzheimer's unit (I did this a while ago - the first time was excruciating, but after that it wasn't too bad - I could count on the audience not remembering the mistakes!)  I need to get back to it though because the performance practice definitely helped.
6. Playing for my teacher - really I should be used to this, but 'performing' for someone who is critically appraising my playing is the absolute worst stress...
7. Participating in playing circles with other guitarists (why guitarists? they hear the mistakes!)
8. Playing at a low-key open mic - there's a cafe near us where the open mic happens while people eat that's a distinct possibility. 
9. Playing at a higher stress open mic, like at our local guitar society or inviting a group of people round to a house concert
10. Playing in a masterclass... (just the thought makes me feel queasy).

I've reached #7 so far but I have a feeling it's going to be like learning to play the guitar - it gets exponentially harder...

Third

I had to make a commitment.  Each time there's an opportunity I would normally skip, I have to remind myself that this is the only way I'm going to get more comfortable (even while I'm busy making excuses to myself as to why I should pass).
So tonight, I'm definitely going to play something online.  For certain.  Definitely...  Well most likely anyway!

Guitar tuning by ear - starting points

Yep we all have electronic tuners -what would I do without my trusty Snark?  I'm generally pretty lazy and haven't spent a great deal of time trying to tune my guitar without an electronic aide, but I figured it was about time.  So I dug out the notes I may have written down correctly (or not) last time I thought about it.  I remember struggling with it but I couldn't make it sound right - but that was then, this is now.  Here's what I did:

First I used the electronic tuner to tune the A string.  I know, it involves using an electronic tuner, but I'm not about to start banging a tuning fork around - knowing me I might hit my guitar!   (Interesting note if you are in Botswana with no tuner - the telephone dial tone worldwide is an A!)  In any case I don't suppose it matters if the A string is in tune if you are just playing solo: the guitar should end up in tune with itself.

As harmonics are the way I've been tuning, I figured it might be useful to know the actual notes when playing natural harmonics.  It turns out it's based on the ratio of the fretted string length (from the nut) to the total string length.  Unless you want to memorize the frequencies of the notes, figuring them out might be a mite cumbersome.  As I only intend to use the 5th 7th and 12th harmonics for tuning, it's far easier to remember them.  So here they are:

• the 5th fret harmonic is 2 octaves above the open string
• The 7th fret harmonic is an octave plus a fifth above the open string
• The 12 fret harmonic is an octave above the open string

nb.  This can be confusing - remember the harmonic note is calculated not above the fretted note but above the open string.

And for extra credit:

• The 4th and the 9th fret are both 2 octaves plus a major third above the open string

So how could we use this to tune?  (Disclaimer, I'm not an expert - I just tried this a few times and got my guitar pretty much in tune.  There are other, more accurate methods but I figured this would do for a start).

1. 5th string.  Tune your A string to 440 Hz (or to "A" on the electronic tuner)
2. 6th string. Tune the E harmonic on the 6th string  (5th fret) to the E harmonic on the 5th string (7th fret).
3. 4th string.  Tune the A harmonic on the 4th string( 7th fret) to the A harmonic on the 5th string (5th fret). 
4. 3rd string. Tune the fretted note A on the 3rd string (2nd fret) to the A harmonic on the 5th string (12th fret).
5. 2nd string.  Tune the fretted E on the 2nd string (5th fret) to the E harmonic on the 5th string (7th fret)
6. 1st string.  Tune the open E on the 1st string to the E harmonic on the 5th string (7th fret). 

UPDATE: When checking this method results against the electronic tuner - it was good except for the G string was flat, so perhaps fine tuning of that string in particular might be needed.

Having got the guitar roughly in tune, I understand the next thing to do is to cross check using intervals in the key you will be playing in.  As I don't actually know how to do that yet, maybe that will be a future post.  For the moment I'm just cross checking using 5ths on adjacent strings because they sound pretty similar to my ears.

The beauty of this system is that you tune everything directly to the A string.  Unlike the method I was shown when I first picked up a guitar: i.e. tune each string relative to the next one using 4ths, so that small inaccuracies get compounded as you tune each successive string.  I could never get that one to work. I guess in my case the small inaccuracies were not so small...

However, there is a drawback with this method.  Tuning one string with harmonics to another with a fretted note isn't perfectly correct because of the fretted notes not always being pure tones (there's that equal temperament tuning again).  Hence the 2 frequencies are not quite identical.  For more information this site appears to offer useful advice and recommends other methods that are likely more accurate, and the site here claims to have the perfect solution.  But for the time being, I'm just pleased I managed to get the guitar to sound in tune without using the tuner.

UPDATE: I tried the tuning method recommended by the  Guild of American Luthiers (see tuning method here) and personally I felt compelled to reach for the electronic tuner afterwards (!)  Probably because it requires you to rely upon one tuned string to tune the next and maybe my ears are not that good.  YMMV. 

And what started this train of thought?  An instructional video at classical guitar corner on Drop D tuning.  I could have done with that before last week's orchestra performance - though I don't expect it would have helped me remember to tune back up again afterwards :(     Who would have thought that tuning down to D then an additional 6 (yes 6) turns down then slowly back up 5 or so to D would be required to stabilize the tuning???  Watch the video - could alleviate a lot of the hit or miss nature of having to play in drop D!

  

Basic techniques that seem to have escaped my notice - until now

I think I hurry too much.  Maybe if I took my time and thought about things more it would save me time in the long run.  What caused this thought?  I was wondering why I was so nervous about starting to play the simple one line melody I have been assigned in orchestra.  It has shifts, yes, but they are mostly on the same string with plenty of time to move. Nevertheless I still tense up (not a recipe for success).  Will I manage to make the connection legato? Will I land the note at the right time?  Then after the umpteenth time through it I realized  -  instead of trying to release the first note then move to land on the next note,  if I keep the playing finger down and slide that down from the first note to a position ready to play the next note, even though I'm technically not playing the first note any more, it sounds like it is carrying over to the next note.  Why didn't I know this before?  It seems obvious in hindsight.... 

Another technique I've struggled with in several orchestra pieces are rapid sequential descending slurs - is it a lack of coordination? finger independence?  strength? (probably some of each).  But turns out the main problem is I have too much finger on the string - when I just use the very tips, the amount of movement required is small, and the rapid movements are much easier. Of course this is something my GT has told me about more than once, but it's hard to change unless there's a reason, so I guess I found one. 😐

And then there is Maria Luisa  - sometimes the run ups are fluid and they sound fine, and sometimes - well let's say they are less than perfect.  Then KG suggested to think of them differently - to think of the first 3 notes as one set, diddle dum, then the next 2 notes, the open string (when you move) and the first note after the shift as a pair.   Dee dum.   This focuses the attention on the landing note (instead of where you've just been) and synchronizes the hands.  At least that's what seems to happen, and bingo!  I have had to correct so many things to get those shifts to work consistently I should be grateful.  First I wasn't staying in position, or preparing the fingers while I was moving my hand/arm up the fingerboard (so I was falling off the side). When that got fixed the LH/RH coordination problem was revealed.  Hopefully that's now all the things that it has to teach me!

Keeping a journal for....useful hints and tips

I read a lot about people keeping logs/excel spreadsheets/ goals lists (in fact I think I had one of those at one time) but it seems to have gone by the wayside in recent months.   I do keep an online progress journal on another site, but even that has developed into an informal soundcloud documentation of where I am with various pieces.  So that's not really a 'system' either.  What I have been doing of late is writing down (in a little book, longhand, with an actual writing implement) things I discover during my practice sessions. Useful, because my short term memory doesn't seem to translate into long term memory at all well, and scanning it before I start reminds me what specifically I need to be working on as opposed to just practicing a particular piece or exercise...

What do I write?  Often there are themes.  Currently the theme is relaxation.   Everything from building in "relaxation reminders" when playing a piece (to avoid getting more and more tense),  to  practicing slurs and remembering to relax the 'other' finger.   There's a whole chapter on this in  the natural classical guitar  by Lee Ryan including some interesting exercises to learn to 'actively' relax.  Which reminds me: I need to write one or 2 down to remind me to practice them.

Another thing I'm finding useful is to play pieces or parts of pieces with the iphone recording - and then writing down areas to work on after listening -  it helps to focus if I write it down.   I just started practicing the De Visee Prelude again and this was what I heard on the first run through...
- need to relax on initial phrase - otherwise it's hard to move
- fingers on same fret need to be closer to avoid buzz
- Following section is too loud too soon...
- Check score -  G is an 8th and can be released, which will help avoid the stretch
- Shift to G chord more consistent if hand is parallel
- Try ponticello instead of loud to contrast voices
 -Chord sequence is too abrupt - give it more space and legato
- Start decrescendo later (on A)
- First trill should be quieter
- Slur section needs to be quieter and even tempo
- Last note is too loud and need to hear the top note...

Another use for the book - I'm woefully inconsistent in practicing technical exercises, so I'm using them to warm up with.  Today I wrote
- Boardwalk - practice placement of 4 which is always too flat.
- Use the Brouwer piece to warm up.
- Learn required artificial harmonic tunes

It might be time to get a bullet tracker (see pic)....