Group 1
Improve your tremolo!
Tremolo is one of the defining techniques for classical guitar! Although not used very often in the repertoire, some of the most iconic pieces employ it to create a beautiful singing melody above an accompaniment pattern.
Fellow Participants in Group 1:
Eric Phillips
Blaise Laflamme
peter hancock
Nora Torres-Nagel
joosje
Emma
Rachel Holmes
Bill Young
Carlos Calderon
Brett Gilbert
Robert
Some tonebase productions to get you started
- 8 Steps To A Perfect Tremolo Course by Stephanie Jones
- Scott Tennant - On Tremolo
- Scott Tennant - Recuerdos de la Alhambra
- Thomas Viloteau - On Tremolo
- Artyom Dervoed - Tremolo
How to get the most out of this course
- Start by watching the introduction video and practice the exercises given in the video.
- Write a post with your experiences with tremolo.
- At the same time, start practicing the first eight bars of "Recuerdos de la Alhambra". If you are new to the piece, begin with a chord reduction as presented in Scott's workbook on Recuerdos.
- Share two videos per week and help your course partners through feedback on their submissions!
Zoom Check-In: Friday, May 20th at 8 pm CET (11 am PT)
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Thank you everybody for participating in our very first Two Week Intensive "Improve your Tremolo"! Please keep on practicing and improving, I will keep on commenting on the videos that I have missed the last couple of days, but be prepared for our next Two Week Intensive on "Slurs"!
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Martin It was very good Martin. I have already filled out the survey form...it was send in one Email I think...short time ago....
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Assignment 1:
Play Recuerdos with pami (standard tremolo pattern) in slow motion with enough time to relax after each individual stroke.Assignment 2:
Same as 1, but with pima (reversed tremolo).Assignment 3:
Play Recuerdos with pami (standard tremolo pattern) in a slow dotted rhythm (legato or staccato).Assignment 4:
Same as 3, but with pima (reversed tremolo pattern)Bonus Assignment:
Play through the first eight bars in a tempo where you can maintain a relaxed hand.Submit two videos per week! Don't forget to help your fellow participants by commenting on their submissions!
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Gracias Martin!
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Nora Torres-Nagel de Nada! Looking forward to you tremolo practice!
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I am working on the tremolo and Recuerdos since march 2021. It is also in my Practice diary although I did not enter a video in the last months. My problems are: the rythm - although it has improved a lot - evenness , touching of other strings, inconsistency, balance of p with ami, the missing of the beautiful legato effect. Somedays sounds quite good, other days sounds horrible. The beginning is always the worse. I am very enthusiastic in sharing our exercises and experiences with you guys. I have seen almost all the contributions about tremolo in tonebase, each one has helped me with something very important. I am playing Recuerdos between 110-130, depending on the "wheather"
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Nora Torres-Nagel awesome! My feeling tells me that you're starting too fast, really try to slow down when you're going for your first video! Be honest to yourself and listen to your body: at what tempo does your tremolo sound even AND is as relaxed as possible?
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Martin First of all, I love the access code! Nobody could possible hack that one!
I do have a question. Is the goal to do all four assignments over the course of the entire two weeks, or are there more assignments coming during the two weeks? I'm not asking for more, I just want to make sure I'm doing it right.
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Eric Phillips fantastic question! These are the assignments for the the complete course!
I'd recommend that each update contains all four assignments. Then you can gather feedback on all exercises, implement the advices and continue working on the exercises, and repeat to see your improvement!
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Martin Thanks Martin. I have another question (sorry). The question is in the video. I just want to make sure I'm doing it the exercise correctly.
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Eric Phillips for me it's similar to you and related to speed. To have the finger get back to it's initial position before the next finger action I have to play really slow and at a certain point when gaining speed my brain group the finger actions together as a one action and then my fingers flows one after the the other like a wave.
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Eric Phillips I suppose this is exactly what Martin wants, we have to relax the finger...and I suppose also that this is the secret of speed...stay relax... like for each arpegio.... difficult task!
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Eric Phillips I think that relaxing and bouncing the finger back in position is the point. I suppose that with practice it will become our natural movement
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Emma thanks Emma for your observations and what you have seen in 2.47 ( even with that"great" illumination that I have got !
) it is really a very good point of not relaxation, but the others ????? Eric Phillips after these exercises I see also exactly like you that my fingers can not come completely relax as if I was not longer playing....there is like a "ready state position" that it is not completely relax....oh my god!!! -
Eric Phillips Hi Eric, I might wander a bit off in the video, but I hope it helps!
Relaxation is a main ingredient for independence, which is ultimately necessary to have each finger perform the best sound as possible. If you keep your finger inside, you actually keep the tension longer the slower you play. So that approach makes it really hard to find a practice tempo that will actually help you. When you learn to relax your fingers individually, your ability to shape your tremolo increases!
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Martin Alright, thank you Martin. It makes sense now. I'm a little bit skeptical, not of the methodology, but of my ability to persevere long enough to get a good result. I find this type of practice unbearably boring, and I don't know that I am motivated enough to push through that over a long period of time. I have never had a burning desire to play tremolo pieces. I'll see if I can do it for two weeks, though!
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Eric Phillips I know what you mean. But let me tell you: it feels so good when your hand can relax quickly! Try to push through the feeling of boredom and concentrate on your hand. Reward yourself with that unique feeling! (And maybe something else, a piece of chocolate for every 5 minutes
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Martin Sounds good. Can this be my "piece of chocolate" reward?
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Eric Phillips Since I am no doctor I would say yes!
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#1 (assignments 1-3)
Hi everyone, I started practicing this a week ago going through all of the relevant tonebase videos and memorizing the left hand so I could concentrate just on the right hand.
This video has just assignments 1-3 for now as I try to establish the correct right hand motion and become more secure. After recording and playing back I can tell I played it a bit fast (it's hard to play slow!) and the notes are perhaps a bit too soft. Both my hands get tired after practicing this for more than 20 minutes so maybe I'm too tense?
Alternating figuring is a great idea. One of my favorite yt performances of this piece is by Ana Vidovic and it looks like she does her tremolos with just 2 fingers i-m!
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Brett Gilbert Hi Brett.. I do not see in your fingers that relaxed return of Martin.....may be to quick?
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@Brett Gilbert hello, yes…, I think you are not relaxing after each stroke, it is very hard for me too! also the duration is unequal sometimes mostly when you are doing the pima . Possibly you need to play it slower with metronome. This is a new piece for me too… we will struggle together!
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Brett Gilbert Yes, you and Nora Torres-Nagel are guessing right, you are starting too fast for your hand to be able to relax after each individual stroke! In this video I also put in some advices on your right hand and some bonus tipps for Eric as well!
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Martin thanks Martin! I will, slower and patiently observing what my fingers are doing...
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Martin thank you! Let’s go for it
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