Week 2: Pack your Bags!

Barney Very nice. Loved your tone and timbre variations.

Barney Wow Barney, even your mistakes sound beautiful. This is really impressive. I had a period of renaissance music in my past, including playing (guitar) in a consort. I remember working on this piece but never managed to get it under control. 

It is great hearing your performance - my only regret is that my latest posting is right after yours (increases the cringe factor).

Dale Needles Thanks Dale!

Jack Stewart Thanks Jack!!  Love your sense of humor, haha.

Playing with other instruments is great fun.  I remember back in high school, playing on a cheap guitar the Vivaldi Concerto in D with Violin, Viola, and Cello.  I was so nervous, my hands were shaking ad sweaty.  That was nerve wracking.  I remember that right after this, one of the very talented music major students played 3rd movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto with the high school orchestra.  Hi name was Andre Michel-Schub.  (You may recognize his name as a concert artist.).

Barney lovely piece, and very nicely played! I love that you are taking a piece from the Renaissance period that was transcribed by a Venezuelan guitarist! I doesn't get any more "World Music" than that! Do you know who the original composer was? 

I think it sounds great without the capo, and I would love to hear you work in an arrangement of Hotel California into it! 

Steve Pederson Thanks Steve!  The composer was Alonso Mudarra (1546).

The score music does not say use the Capo; but when I listened to a few recordings, the pitch was raised either by 2 or 3 frets, I suppose to reach the level of a lute.

I'm a big fan of the Eagles, and Don Henley would punish me  (haha) if I tried anything.  He typically pulls down YouTube postings of Eagles songs tutorials.; crazy!

Eric Phillips Thanks Eric!

Barney Beautiful tone and fluency, Barney. The capo is not really necessary - 16th century vihuelas came in a variety of pitches, including E, like the modern guitar.

David Krupka Thanks David!  Thanks for sharing that information with me; very interesting.

I was curious about it, because both Bream and Diaz raised the pitch of their guitars on their recordings...

Barney It has generally been assumed that lutes and vihuelas were always tuned in 'G'. And indeed, they often were, but there was no standardization. Most historical method books advise that the first string be tuned as high as possible, to just shy of the breaking point. Obviously, this would vary a great deal, depending among other things on the quality of the string. (And gut strings break very easily!) Moreover, instruments were built in a variety of sizes: in the case of the lute, the largest seem to have been tuned to low D (i.e. a tone lower than the guitar) while the smallest were tuned an octave higher! Sometimes, composers specified the intended pitch of a particular piece. One finds this, for example, in the work of the vihuelist Luys de Narvaez. As far as I know, Mudarra did not do this, and it is not unreasonable to assume that the intended pitch was indeed 'G' (which is sometimes understood to be modern F#). But it is not a requirement of the music, so how one plays it today is mostly a matter of taste. The problem with the capo is that is deadens the natural resonance of the guitar. Nonetheless, some players prefer this, because it allows a sound that captures something of the essence of an historical instrument. Personally, I generally prefer to forgo the capo, as you have done. Having said that, it's worth having a capo, so you at least have the option. I use a Shubb capo for nylon string guitar, which I find works well: 

https://shubb.com/product/standard-capo-c2/

Barney You were playing a Vivaldi Concerto on guitar in high school. Wow!

 I was struggling to play the Animals and the Yardbirds.

David Krupka Thanks very much David for this wonderful explanation and suggestion for the Capo.  You seem to know a great deal about this topic.  It's much appreciated!!

Jack Stewart First of all, and most importantly,  I was playing most of the songs on the Yardbirds and  Animals   albums(my lead singer lover Eric Burdon...) with my band.  I was "trying" to be the lead guitarist learning the parts by ear off the vinyl records, playing them over and over again until I thought it was right.  (No tutorials , like nowadays, haha).  One of the favorites on the Yardbirds was the guitar intro on Over, Under, Sideways, Down (Jeff Beck's part)-- great fun!  We played at Church dances and College Frats.

In high school, even though I was not a music major, I wanted to take a music theory class which included a concert.  The teacher said I could choose something.  Not knowing much at the time, the music store suggested the Vivaldi.  It was not a difficult arrangement, but sounded decent.  The guitar was not very good and it's volume and projection was poor, especially with other instruments playing.  Anyway, that's the story.

Barney I am impressed but not surprised you were playing Vivaldi in High School,  but I am amazed you were into the Animals and Yardbirds! But then, this is probably the history of all of us who play guitar.

As an aside, the Animals was my first concert and I went out and bought all of their records (3, I think).  I saw the Yardbirds twice. The first time was on a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour. Jeff Beck and Jimmie Page were on guitars (Chris Dreja had moved to bass by then). It was Beck's penultimate show with the Yardbirds. He left after the next show. I saw them again in a local nightclub in Dallas a year later with just Page on guitar. I actually saw them one more time about 15 years ago with just Dreja and Jim Mcarty (drums) of the original band.

Jack Stewart Wow!  It must have been amazing seeing those guys in person. 

We were fortunate to grow up  during time when these great bands were performing.  Our band liked to play songs that had nice melodies but also with "great" guitar parts.  So our song picks included those  by  Hendrix, Cream (Clapton), Yardbirds, Blues Project, Kinks, Small Faces, Traffic, Byrds, etc. I remember seeing in person Hendrix, Traffic (Steve Winwood), and Blues Project (with Danny Kalb), and others; but unfortunately, not the ones you mentioned.

These were great fun times!!

Eric Phillips Jack Stewart  I saw that one too, Eric.  It was at Cafe-a-go-go in New York...

Oh, I forgot to mention the Moby Grape with a guest appearance by F. Tarrega, who jammed with them.

Barney "These were great fun times!!" Agreed! My favorite t shirt says: "I may be old but I got to see all the cool bands". Sounds like we had very similar musical tastes.

Eric Phillips Was that the time Sor played the Mozart Variations with his teeth?

Jack Stewart I agree.  btw,  I want that t-shirt.

Eric Phillips Yep, I remember.  Francisco did not want his picture taken.  He was quite stubborn, but finally agreed.  thanks for sharing...lol.