Leo Brouwer's Estudios Sencillios!
Welcome to our next Study Group — a collaborative, peer-led dive into a beautiful piece of music over the course of two weeks.
This time, we’re diving into the methodical riches of Brouwer’s Estudios Sencillos 1–10!
This is not a course or a class — it’s a space for mutual exploration, discussion, and shared progress. I’ll be learning the piece alongside you (again — it’s been a while!), and I’m excited to discover new things together.
🗓️ What to expect:
Over the next two weeks, we’ll focus on:
🎯 Fingerings and technique
🎯 Methodical background
🎯 Interpretation and expressive choices
🎯 Your own questions and perspectives!
We’ll also meet for two live Zoom sessions to share progress, chat about challenges, and nerd out over all things Brouwer.
✅ How to participate:
Sign up through the Forum
Grab your score of the Estudios Sencillos
Introduce yourself below!
Join the prompts and discussion
Share your thoughts, ideas, or a clip of your playing
📅 Live Zoom Calls:
🗓️ Dates: July 28th – August 8th
📫 Sign-Up
425 replies
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"planting" has a lot of "pros". But the "cons" of planting are very seldomly discussed. And there are quite a few. On the contrary, "Free swinging" has it's own complexities but has many pros that have been put a little aside and that we could reconsider.I hear you, I come from a school where the concept that each note must resonate through to the next and that music is legato by default unless otherwise indicated. In this approach, "planting" cannot be applied by default as a basic premise for sound production since it cancels out the default legato that the music underlies. I'm not saying not to do "planting" or that I never do it myself, it's part of my toolbox and I use it where it serves music, technique and sound.
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Right and left hand muting is not an area I'm strong in, so I'm using #1 as a chance to work on that and try to keep the melody notes to their given values. For #2, I change some of the fingering to hold the bass notes longer, and I agree with Ariel that the open notes in mm6 don't quite work, especially since that's the high point of the piece. In my playing, balancing the sound of the fretted and open strings is not too tough at lower volumes, but in louder passages, I can't pull it off. I always used a different solution that lets me keep my hand in the same spot.
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Here it is, as promessed! I'm really looking forward to reading what you all think about this.
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Saludos, folks. I have been sweltering in this heat wave we have going on here, and have been remiss about contributing to this forum.
I currently have Brouwer 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 20 on my repertoire list. I played #1 a while ago, and I am probably not going to revisit it right now.
I want to try to make a video of #9, but I always get little panic attacks when that camera light goes on. And #9 is definitely an etude that ties the fingers up.
I know that we are just talking about Estudios 1-10 here, but I may also take the liberty of making a video for #20.
Nice playing from the folks who have contributed videos so far. One thing that I do in #2 that is a bit different from what I see here is that I make those F-B-E chords in measure 5 really stand out. I mean, I pull those strings and make it really ugly. It provides a good contrast to the choral sounds in the entire piece.
I don't know if anyone else here besides Jane is doing Brouwer #9, but I have some questions about the length of the bass notes.-marc
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I have two questions for everybody about Estudio n°2:
1) Do you keep the "p m i" right hand fingerings that Brouwer wrote or do you switch to "i m a" as does in his version? Do you have some reason for one or the other? Do you mix both depending on the passage? (I myself do the latter)
2) What about vibrato: Do you like vibrato in this piece or prefer steady clean harmonies? Are you comfortable with the way you can vibrate chords or do you feel like you'd like to be able to do more?