On Apr 28, 1:09 pm, John Nguyen <***@gmail.com> wrote:
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Post by John NguyenHere goes the second installment. This piece is so simple to play but
so hard to play it well. Oh well, what the heck! :-)
Cheers,
John
http://youtu.be/EX90Y2wFy3w
You're doing good things with it. You've had plenty of input from
others to consider for interpretive furtherance, so I'll just make
some technical sugestions:
You're using the preparatory left hand fingering I would suggest in
measures two and six, with your 4th finger retracted for the F#
instead of using your 3rd, so 4 is ready to slide to the A in the next
measure with 3 left free to prepare for the second string D#.
Nevertheless, you seem consistently to have difficulty in getting the
getting the bar in measures three and seven properly seated in time to
get a clear third string A on the first beat, though it's clear on the
second. From what can be seen, it looks as though in the expansion
from the compressed position the rotation of your hand position
outwards is just short of a sufficiency to get your first finger
flattened, and parallel to the fret. It also looks as though you are
waiting until after you have played the A in the next measure to place
your 3rd finger on the D#, the very next note, which is slowing you
down. Try being more assiduous in this rotation and expansion, and
slide the 3rd finger into place along with your 4th. Also, relax into
the configuration more; often people have trouble with barred chords
which encompass the full four contiguous frets of a position because
there is an inward directed tension as though the chord configuration
is something they're trying to surround with their hand to grasp-
approach it from outside its perimeter, so to speak- instead of
expressing the energy of their hand outwards against the surface of
the fingerboard. One useful image to get this is to imagine you're
trying to stretch an invisible film thats wrapped around your hand.
An alternative fingering would be to use your 2nd and 3rd fingers
instead of your 1st and 2nd in measures two and six. This might seem
anti-intuitive, because it actually increases slightly the distance
your hand then has to move, plus your 3rd finger has to jump from one
string to the next. But, there is considerable payoff. It relieves
the close juxtaposition of the compressed and expanded configurations,
and leaves the 1st finger free to be held in an attitude of pre-
preparation to be placed in a bar. Give it a shot.
Similar considerations apply to measure 11. I know it seems to make
sense to use your 3rd finger for the A on the first two beats, because
for the first two beats you have the same three fingers on the same
three strings as they will be in the configurationyou slide to on the
third beat. But, in making the slide, you have to decompress as you
go, accurately expanding the 3rd and 4th away from the 1st while
moving all inthe same direction. You're handling it well, but I seem
to be _aware_ that you're having to be careful to handle it well- that
the expansion in time is a bit of, to use Segovia's wry term, "rubato
obligatto." Try instead to use your 2nd and 3rd fingers instead of
your 3rd and 4th on the first beat. Use your 4th for the G on the
second beat, but as you place it, release with 3 and move it over to
above the third string. The advantage is that now the 1st, 3rd, and
4th fingers are in the same relative configuration to each other as
they wil be on the third beat, even though 3 is not actually placed on
the string yet. There is no adjustment necessary as you slide into
place while setting the 3rd finger down. Here, the lessening of the
actual distance your hand has to travel is an advantage.
You can also move your 1st finger a split second sooner off the third
beat D to travel over to the sixth string for the low G. So long as
it doesn't leave the D before the last note, the C, is sounded, it
won't sound cut short. Imagine you're moving it on the last 16th of
the measure. This is an example of not letting musical patterns (in
this case, the harmonic rhythm) unduly dictate your technical
patterns, or timing of them.
In your right hand, it sounds as though you are using all free stroke
with your A finger, thougn it's hard to verify that by watching the
video. Whether you're using rest strokes, a judicious mixture of rest
and free strokes, or trying to develop a sans rest stroke technique,
see if you can increase the differentiation of tone and solidity
between the melody and the accompanying notes.
If you were to pick up the tempo some, you would then have greater
latitude to contrast on repeats with a greater expansiveness in tempo
variation- plus you cold throw in a couple of ornaments.
Okay, so I wound up talking about interpretation. So, for laughs or
kicks, try playing an F natural instead of an F# in measure 14, the
third to last measure, and see how you like it.