Zoran Dukic: Tarrega’s Capricho Arabe - Commentary by Mircea Gogoncea

In this new live format, Head of Guitar Mircea Gogoncea invites you to dive deep into Tarrega’s most influential work: Capricho Arabe. Featuring selections of Zoran Dukic's tonebase lesson, Gogoncea will discuss alternate fingerings, practice methods, answer your questions, and provide additional commentary about this masterpiece.

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  • I'll see if I can get up early enough - 4am is a struggle but it's a piece I'm at a stage where any insight is greatly appreciated.

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  • I couldn't watch this live, but really enjoyed it after the fact. One question. When I played this piece I always wanted to bring out that ostinato bass motif E-F'-E'-A a little and I always placed a small emphasis on the F' (volume, agogic, colour as seemed appropriate to me on the fly). This follows the dissonance louder than consonance rule and also sounds more Spanish (F->E is the essential part of the flamenco cadence). I didn't hear either Mircea  or Zoran doing this.  Am I misguided? Comments please.

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      • MirceaTeam
      • Head of Guitar
      • Mircea
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Peter Hi Peter! If that works well for you, I encourage you to keep doing it. This is the kind of music where it's almost our duty to follow our instincts (within reason, of course).

      A word of caution though: in this context, the F is not a dissonance or tension that resolves to the E.

      The first half of the measure (corresponding to the basses D, F) describes a D minor chord (i), while the second half (basses E, A) describes an A major chord (V).

      The F is not dissonant in D minor, nor does it resolve to A major. If anything, the A major chord has dominant function and resolves to the more stable D minor tonic.

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  • Hi

    I couldn't get up in time to watch live but thanks for such a thoroughly enjoyable video - the side stories added colour to the session too.

    I have been working through the video in sections and will revisit this in sections. 

    The piece is above my musical ability but it's one of my obsessions and am having fun experimenting with it.

    In the descending slurs at the start I've settled for only using my i finger as it was the only way I could get a uniform tone. I'm not sure if this will bite me later but it seems to work.

    I'm sure I shouldn't do this but when I'm in a more laid back mood I play the D major arpeggio (bar 58?) using harmonics on the 12th fret and let the D-A-D (F#s and A on the 2nd string are not harmonics)  ring till I play the G bass - I think it makes the piece sound more like it's about to reach a conclusion and fits in with the harmonics at the end (to me at least).  The last time playing the D Bb - C# A (bar 69?) I play pianissimo ponticello while most of the piece is tasto.

     

    Thanks again for this.

    Like 1
      • MirceaTeam
      • Head of Guitar
      • Mircea
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Mehmet so happy you've enjoyed this, Mehmet! Great to hear you've been experimenting with different solutions. And no worries - 4am is a pretty crazy time to wake up for a live stream! 

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