Group 4
Breaking Your Scale Speed Limits with Eduardo Inestal!
Virtuosity and speed go hand in hand when it comes to freeing your musical expressiveness from technical limitations. One key element in classical guitar performance is the ability to play fast scales with ease. Together, we will explore exercises that will enable you to push your speed limits and improve your scale skills while retaining relaxation in both hands and gaining a richer tool set to express your musical ideas.
- Sign-Up Period: August 11 - 14
- Course Period: August 15 - 26
- Class Size: 4 Groups á 10 Participants
- Optional check-In via Zoom: August 23, 11 am PST
Assignment for the first week:
Play the first exercise (Slow) while paying attention to the following:
- Keep the tempo
- Always alternate i-m
- Be "lazy” (move your fingers, both right and left hand, and yourself as less as possible) to keep the relaxation
Do the same with the 2nd exercise (Faster tempo)
Once you control this exercise, you can gradually choose your tempo, increasing the bpm. Pay attention not to lose your relaxation!
Have fun!
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Eduardo Inestal Catching up on my homework here. We're in the process of moving so things are a little crazy, but here are my videos for exercise 3 and 4.
I wanted to ask you about the right hand thumb in exercise 4. For me I find that I can play a lot faster with free stroke if I allow my thumb to travel to the string adjacent to the string that (I/M) is playing on. I play this way in my second Exercise 4 video.
With rest stroke and keeping my thumb on the 6th string I find as the right hand opens I lose speed. Any thoughts on this?
Thank you!
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Mark Baran Hi Mark, Thank you for the videos, as always, terrific job.
Regarding ex 3, both slow and fast, is nothing relevant to say. Maybe sometimes the rhytm is not 100 % precise, let say 98 % :) What you can do, is incorporete dinamic in order to build direcction and phrasing. Is going to help you to increase also your control. You can decide yourself when to do it, so find several posibilities.
Ex 4 rest. The Rhytm i feel very irregular, swingingwise... try to keep it as precise as possible. REgarding the Thumb, you can try placing it at the beggining at the 4th string, ans as you go down, move it towards the 6th. That way, the position of you rh is going to be always stable. You have to understand that there is not only one way to do it, so sometimes it requires trying several posibilities (trial-error) in order to find the one it fits you.
Ex 4 free. Great!!!! much better than rest stroke. Now you have to ask yourself what do you need when you play scales. Are you able to play fast and loud with free stroke? sounds as you wish? fits your musical idea?, if the answer is yes, you can play it free stroke!!
The thing with free and rest, is to have more technical and musical tools that allow us achieve our musical goal. For sure, the more we have, the better. I would like to encourage you to keep seeking the excel in both technics, free and rest, in forder to be a complete guitarrist, and musician!
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Eduardo Inestal Thank you so much. It was a great "more than" 2-week intensive and I'm definitely seeing improvement in my speed. I used to avoid rest stroke and now it's starting to feel much more natural. Thank again for providing some new exercises to incorporate in my daily practice. I'll definitely continue with these. I really appreciate the time you gave us all and your thoughtful feedback. Cheers!
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Mark Baran My pleaseure!! hope to see you again soon!
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
