Week 2: Technique Tango!

Eric Phillips Yeah, Recuerdos. It's funny how good I seem to be at the first half of that piece, because like you said, you get that far and then get tired of going any further! Maybe an incentive to play it faster so you can be done with it quicker! 

I like the fingering you've worked out for this. I tried it and it makes total sense to me. 

Eric Phillips I was looking at this study a few days ago myself and noticed the very problem you are describing. My own solution would be to simply continue with the p-i alternation. In other words, I would strum through the initial and final chord fragments. Obviously, this requires a very fast movement of the thumb, but this is quite feasible with a little practice. This variety of p-i alternation is sometimes encountered in the lute repertoire - for example, in the rather challenging 'Piva' from the little suite by Dalza that you posted the first movement of not long ago. The technique is also commonly employed in 'Travis' style picking, although there it's the bass strings that are brushed with the thumb. Having said that, you seem to be managing well with your own solution, so there's need to do something different. It would be very interesting to know what Sor had in mind here!

Eric Phillips can't offer any suggestion but some compliments on the wonderful playing..

Ron Sor, according to Coste (who had been his student) had an unusual capacity for stretching the fingers of his left hand. So my guess is that Sor himself would have fingered the measures you mention in the 'natural' manner, by which I mean in the lowest position(s) possible. So I think the chromatically descending bass line is meant to be played on the fifth string throughout. (And likewise, the melody on the first string.) Every chord is playable in isolation, and in fact none is unreasonably difficult on its own. (The ones built on the 'C#' and the 'C' are rather 'stretchy' though.) The real problem is connecting them smoothly. Another fingering is, however, available, although I doubt Sor himself would have used it: the whole passage (starting at the second beat of measure 6) can be played in the seventh position, with the melody moving from the 'B' on the first string to the 'A' at the tenth fret of the second string. (The 'E' on the third string can be fingered with the third finger throughout, while the second finger handles the descending bass.) Measure 7 also works perfectly well in the seventh position, with the melody remaining on the second string. While I don't particularly like the musical effect of this fingering, it has the merit of being unproblematic, technically speaking. Incidentally Coste indicated that he employed different solution when playing difficult pieces by Sor: he used a smaller guitar!

Ron I should add that what Coste had in mind was a so-called 'Terz' guitar, tuned a minor third higher. (These were common in the 19th century but were used almost exclusively in chamber music.) The scale length of these small instruments was about 550 cm - much shorter than a full-sized guitar.