Group 4
Assignments:
- Watch the first of three video and practice the exercise "Cross String by Thirds"
- When you're feeling comfortable, share a recording or ask a question!
All About String Crossings with TY!
If you conquer the cross-string training, you can play any scales or passages in music with ease, power, and confidence. This training course aims to provide exercises to enhance our right-hand rest-stroke cross-string abilities with details on how to practice and both hands' fingerings. We will have three assignments plus one bonus exercise for those who are finished early!
About TY
The highlight of TY Zhang’s international career was the Grand Prize of the 2017 Guitar Foundation of American International Concert Artist Competition (GFA-ICAC), known as the most prestigious guitar contest in the world. TY become the first Chinese to be honored with this prize. His win was followed by a tour with over 50 concerts in the U.S., including his Carnegie Hall debut. In 2018, TY released his solo album with Naxos company as the Laureate Series · Guitar Recital. It was praised as: “one of the most talented young players… I’m struck by the extraordinary levels of mastery, comfort and relative ease.” - Classical Guitar Magazine.
- Sign-Up: now until November 11th
- Course Period: November 14th - 25th
- Class Size: 4 Groups á 10 Participants
- Optional check-In via Zoom: November 19th, 11 am PST
Link to the Zoom Check-In: https://usc.zoom.us/j/9596313032
Passcode: tonebase
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Dear friends, I've posted the link and the passcode into the thread:
Link to the Zoom Check-In: https://usc.zoom.us/j/9596313032
Passcode: tonebase
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Hello everyone,
I am Stephen Holland. I live in Iowa City, Iowa, and appreciate the opportunity to improve my technique. This is an especially interesting lesson to me as I have lately been exploring the option of maintaining melodies on a single string. This workshop, I think, will help me to compare these two concepts.
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Excited to start. To confirm, the exercise is three notes per string using the i and m fingers to play rest strokes?
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Scott Sundsvold
My understanding is to use- reststrokes
- alternating i-m completely downwards from string 1 to 6 and upwards to 1;
then also m-i
and for those who have enough time for practicing: also m-a / a-m and i-a / a-i - in thirds, starting with the a on the 5th fret of 1st string, then next one third down, which is the f (1st fret of 1st string), then one note lower, i.e., the g, next e, and so on... (f d e c d b c a b g ...).
Maybe this can be seen as two interlocked scales: a g f e d c b mixed with f e d c b a g, pairwise these are thirds (a - f; g - e etc.)
I quickly tried to write down the score (but had no time to add fingerings at the moment) - see attached pdf, hopefully without mistake.
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Robert Hey thanks for the effort! I was going to do the same, but you saved the work! MuseScore?
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Dave McLellan yes, I used MuseScore
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Robert Thanks so much for this effort. This summary has so helped me to comprehend the assignment.
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Hi! Is there a score for the exercise?
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Great to connect with everyone! Ran through this a few times today and it felt really good…
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Hi everybody, here's the score from TY, I just received it :)
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martin Thank you for clarifying.
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Martin - I am looking forward to participating. Thank you for sharing the score and for hosting great workshops!
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Hi TY. I've just seen that Martin has posted the score which confirms my understanding. Before I saw the score I had already done a short video asking you to confirm it and also to confirm that with IM there will be lots of indirect string crossings going down, is that correct. I've posted the video so any comments will be gratefully received. Sorry that my left hand isn't fully in the video. Thank you
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Derek Thanks for the first video! I hope that I will be able to record tomorrow or Thursday.
Regarding your video: I do not know whether it makes an important difference w.r.t. the main aim, the cross string movement, but I observed that you used free stroke instead of rest stroke (apoyando).
I hope that your first movement will motivate all participants to show their videos here. I do like this format of two week intensives, the interaction and learning from each other.BTW: I improved my MuseScore score by adding some comments and the fingering. I did not write the string numbers - they should be clear.
Have fun!
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Robert Hi Robert. Thanks for pointing that out. I watched the video early in the morning (UK time) and tried it with rest stroke. I then made the video in the evening and forgot that TY had said use rest stroke. In between that time you and Martin had put the score on which probably answered my question anyway but I didn't see that until I actually posted the video!
Back to the free stroke it's good you pointed it out as I am sure that I do similar things with my pieces where you play them slightly wrong from memory and then the mistakes get embedded in your brain. If someone then points out your mistake you seem to remember that and play it correctly afterwards
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Derek Yes Dear Derek, the right hand fingerings are all correct, we have two types of cross string fingerings, regular, and backwards. Regular is when M is on 1st string and I goes on 2nd string, it is more comfortable, and the backwards is when the I is on a higher string followed by M going to a lower string. It is difficult but we need to learned and master both so we will not be slowed down by anything! The scale has not sharps or flats, just a normal C major or a minor. Right hand try to explore with rest stroke dear Derek!
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I am just starting with the exercise, so this is a marker as I have not been practicing very much with the exercise to date. This has taken me some time to sort through what was requested. I am grateful for the posting of the pdf score as this helped very much. Even with that, though, it will take me time to process what has been requested. I plan to return in a couple days after spending more time with the exercise. I had wanted to add dynamics, but I am currently addressing finger placement for notes requested. Many thanks.... https://youtu.be/avE9gh6vPwA
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Stephen Holland Hi Stephen. That's a good start. The fingering is quite tricky especially going down the scale. As Robert pointed out on my video, we both seem to be playing free stroke whereas TY suggested it should be done using rest stroke. Keep up the good work - looking forward to seeing this improve
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Stephen Holland Hi Stephen, just saw your video - yes, same comment regarding free vs. rest stroke. It might also help (for stability, as TY pointed out) to use the right thumb as "anchor" resting on the 6th string most of the time (if possible, i.e., while playing on strings 1 to 4).
Last point: I think it would be helpful to adjust the camera position (or player's position) so that we can see the right hand a bit better since the exercise is focused on right hand work.
As Derek mentioned: good starting work. Keep going on - the improvement will be the nice reward for that.
I worked on that exercise during the last days, too. Unfortunately I was not able to record myself so far (hopefully this evening after work...). -
Derek Thanks for the commentary. I was struggling with the fingering, so had to let other aspects go. Will return to Ty's lesson.
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Robert Thanks for taking time to comment. I will work to make the changes.
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Stephen Holland Great job dear Stephen! Scale learned! After you get comfortable with the scale, try to use rest strokes on the right hand, that is the main goal, which is to enhance our right hand power and control on crossing strings with rest strokes. This is a great progress! Thank you for sharing!
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Hi all, I am in Australia and just coming to the exercise. At my stage with the guitar there are so many things to concentrate on so this exercise is a great way to focus. I'll upload a practise video shortly.
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Hi all, today I managed to record a few minutes of playing the exercise 1 with different finger alternations and different speed. For me, a-m or m-a is most difficult to coordinate, I need more "thinking" about the movements, maybe it is also a matter of angle of attack. a-i or i-a feels not uncomfortable, I think because of the similar length of the fingers. However, most comfortable is i-m or m-i at the moment.
Have fun and good practice! See you here...
Sorry for showing only the right hand here due to limited space in the room and therefore a limited camera angle. At least my face can be seen next to my name. The left hand will be shown in my next video with better recording conditions - but this exercise is focused on the right hand anyway.
Here is my video:-
Robert sounds very nice and fast Robert! I hope I can play it at your speed in the future.
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