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This is the status of my practice today. I will try to improve on all aspects of this piece, since it seems to have a lot of room for improvements. Things to work on in the coming days: legato lefthand shifting, speed, bass dynamic, melody dynamic, rubato, phrasing
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Khiem Nguyen Sounding good, Khiem! The melody is really singing!
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Khiem Nguyen Wow, seems like we have a common goal!!! That's a really good sound you're producing! How does your right hand feel? Mine tends to tense up quite quickly, even in slow tempo!
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Eric Phillips thank you Eric! :)
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Martin yes, I was inspired by you, Martin, so I choose this piece. Thank you for the comment about my sound.
Yesterday, my right hand feels comfortable at up to 125bpm.
But when I speed up to 130bpm, at half way of the piece, I started to feel tense. That was yesterday.
I learnt that once I feel the tension, I should stop it immediately and reduce the tempo. In the past, I didn't stop when I felt tense, I went all the way and repeated it, hoping to maintain the higher speed. And the result was that for the last half a year, my right hand had been tensing and cannot go over about 100-105bpm without tensing, and it felt tense even it slow tempo. So, it took me at least half a year to recover from the right hand tensing due to over practicing my right hand.
Now, I think I will stay at 115-120bpm to have a safety margin to the one that gives me trouble (130bpm), to avoid getting another right hand injury again.
What's your experience about this Martin?
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Khiem Nguyen Thanks for your detailed insights, really appreciating that!
When it comes to tremolo, I was forcing my hand to go to 120 for the Ponce Sonata. That kinda worked since it's always only about 10-20sec passages, but with extended tremolo, it simply never worked. I am still in a pre-tempo phase, my goal is to really feel the relaxation after each stroke of the tremolo!
I was much more relaxed with pmia and "Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios" by Barrios, but that's a much easier tremolo piece since the majority of it is simply on the first string!
Your approach sounds very healthy, keep up the principle of relaxation and you'll develop a beautifully round and warm tremolo
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Martin thanks you for sharing your experience, Martin.
Recuerdos de la Alhambra is one of the two tremolo pieces that I have learnt; the other piece is Feste Lariane where it has a Variation on the theme. Feste Lariane by Luigi Mozzani is a piece that is less known. Its tremolo is much simpler than Alhambra, since it is shorter and most of time, the melody is on the 1st string, too.
I would like to one day extend my tremolo repertoire to Barrios. Maybe Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios is to be considered.
I will take your advice and stay at safe tempo to stay away from getting right hand injury. That could be a way to maintain control and warm sound and develop from there.
I am excited to work on different aspects of musicality and techniques in this piece. :)
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Khiem Nguyen Definitely! When working on Recuerdos, one is so easily occupied with the tremolo that we might forget that this piece has a lot more to offer, especially on the harmony side of things!
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Martin I totally agree with you Martin, one can be easily focused very much on the tremolo part in Recuerdos ^^
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Khiem Nguyen hi Khiem! I am another "struggling" with the tremolo. I also find that your sound is very clear and the balance between the 2 voices is quite good!! much better than mine! your melody is always present and clear. Another think I heard is that the tempo between ami is not always even. I am figthing with this issue also, what helps me is to use the metronome hearing each beat, each note, not only the bass....it is quite stressing, but I realize when my rythm between pami, each note is not even.
Great Khiem. I will follow your work also, it helps me a lot! Thanks for sharing!!
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Nora Torres-Nagel Hi Nora, thank you for visiting my diary and provide your thorough feedback. It is most appreciated. Yes, tremolo is a struggling to keep the quality. There are so many aspects. Evenness among p-a-m-i tempo is a thing that is so easy to break - you need to work hard to make it even; and it is hard to make it stay even if you stop concentrating. Then there are other aspects in the piece like legato shifting, rubato, dynamic, etc :)
Keep the tempo at concert piece while relaxing is also tough.
I have not recorded anything else since the last videos. I have focused on legato shifting and dynamic in the last two days.
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Khiem Nguyen wow this is really good Khiem. Especially the balance between thumb and tremolo. You have a good tempo already, and you seem able to keep it regular and stable. Very nice! Many maestros advise to vary different tempos. Slower than you would play, faster, and back again. Do you practice that way? I think you can take some more time for breathing and phrasing, ( that’s what we all have to remind ourselves always, as guitarists…. sometimes position changes sound as little breaks.) Maybe your beats 2 and 3 could be even lighter compared to the first, to keep the 3/4 feeling. Overall, great work, you’re getting ready for the concert.
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joosje thank you so much Joosje! Your insightful feedback is most appreciated! ^_^ You are absolutely right in all points above. For example, I also would like to make the dynamic more interesting. And making beats 2 and 3 light than beat 1 is definitely something I would like to adopt to my playing.
Practicing with varying tempo is what I have tried but not really strictly planned. It will be a good idea that I take your advice and practice with different tempo. Right now I am at 115bpm. Maybe I can practice at slower as well as faster tempos, like 105 and 120 bpm.
I haven't incoporated much rubato in my playing. That is the next thing I will try to do.
Below, I am going to post my latest progress, which is from today's practice. I would appreciate very much if you can give me further feedback. Thank you and cheers! ^_^
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7th-November-2021:
In the last couple of days, I have focused on the legato shifting in the left hand, synchronization between the right and the left hand when changing chords within a bar or between two adjacent bars. The goal is to achieve a legato playing and as even tremolo and smooth transition as possible.
My focus was on the first 20 measures, which is the A-minor section, just before entering the A-major.
I use dotted rythm and a metronome at 90-115bpm to practice the tremolo technique before getting into the piece. This helps me with keeping a more even tremolo (I try to avoide a galloping tremolo as much as possible).
The following video recorded today was played at about 115bpm.
The next focus will still be shifting, and then dynamic, and rubato.
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Khiem Nguyen That is sounding really great, Khiem! Your patient, methodical approach is serving you well.
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Khiem Nguyen sounding good Khiem. Looking forward to your progress on this
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Derek and Eric Phillips , thank you vey much! :)
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Khiem Nguyen very good Khiem! I hear a super improvement. Your play is very sure, the sound even and also the tremolo!!! there are still very little parts of slight galloping but a lot a lot more of very long parts with a nice melody, even, clear really an amazing improvement in such a short time. From the beginning, you begin with clear ami and good tempo. Your left hand is doing also very good, I do not heard ANY shift and the legato is there!!!! Again the balance of the two voices is very nice, it was already the first time, but it is consistent what I can not say of my tremolo or balance, etc!!! I hope to inspire me with your tremolo. Unfortunately my (im) nails are broken...but I practice anyway
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Khiem Nguyen Uff, that reminds me that I need to go practice! That was so good! Let's tackle those trills together!!!
It's funny how practicing the extreme rhythms actually help us with the evenness of the tremolo, right?
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Nora Torres-Nagel thank you a lot Nora. You are absolutely right on the galloping aspect. I need to work on it slowly again. There are several practice exercises that I have learnt throught different resources on fighting the galloping. I will comment one of the techniques below in reply to Martin. But after all, it is still hard to make the even tremolo stay. Maybe one has to practice it enough for a while to make an even tremolo stays.
Let us keep on the good progress. Your broken nails can be a perfect chance to practice without nails (like what Francisco Tarrega did). :)
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Martin thank you Martin. Yes, I should execute the trill a bit better :D They are tricky. Sometime I forgot it and play the trills diferently. I would conciously play the trill more correctly next time :)
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Khiem Nguyen very beautiful. Great achievement.
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Khiem Nguyen that's already sounding great with good control... you should have it nailed by the concert at that pace!
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Blaise Laflamme thank you a lot Blaise! I hope so, that I can nail it by the time of the concert. :)
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joosje thank you a lot Joosje! :)
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
