Rene Izquierdo: Workshop + Excerpt MASTERCLASS! (Jan 9)
2021 SPECIAL! My friends, I have an incredibly special announcement to make! 
For his upcoming tonebase Live workshop, Rene Izquierdo will not only be answering your questions from the chat, but also accepting short recorded excerpts from you for a unique, tailor-made masterclass experience!!!
To make this helpful to as many people as possible, we suggest sending in excerpts of single passages, up to 30 seconds in length. This also takes the pressure off of having to perform an entire piece at a time.
If you do want to send in a full recording, that's fine! Let us know what timestamp (minute & second) you would like us to focus on, so we can pay special attention to those.
In addition, you are most certainly open to send in text questions before the masterclass using this very thread!
The format for sending in videos is the same as in all tonebase public masterclasses:
- Submit right here, by replying to this thread!
- (Alternatively, send me your video submission at [email protected])
- You can either attach a video directly from your computer, or paste a link to a YouTube video
- (If you opt to use a YouTube video, it can be unlisted - no need to make it public!)
Find the start time in your time zone by clicking the photo or following this event link:
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live/player/rene-izquierdo-excerpt-masterclass
- What questions do you have for him?
- Any particular area you would like him to focus on?
Forum questions will be answered first!
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Just wanted to give a quick heads-up to all of you wonderful folks who sent in videos for the Community Challenge earlier this month: there will be a few chances coming up really soon to send in some more videos for advice & tips & tricks, if that's something you're interested in!
Rene Izquierdo just announced that he will be accepting submissions of short recorded excerpts of difficult passages (preferably under 30 seconds, though longer ones are fine too - see the original post above!) for his livestream on January 9th!
So if you're interested in getting some tailor-made advice from him, now's the chance
use this thread for submissions!
Additionally, submissions are always open for my next virtual masterclass - the sooner we get 2-3 recordings in, the sooner I will put on another virtual masterclass! Here is the dedicated thread.
Just thought you might be interested in this, Roni Glaser Roddy Derek Jaime Giuseppe Gasparini David Chidsey Michael Marek Tabisz André Nardi since I enjoyed listening to you so much in the Community Challenge!
We plan to offer a lot more opportunities for you guys (and everyone else!) to send in recordings for tonebase Live & Community activities soon, and I thought of you guys first!
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Mircea this is fantastic! I’ll submit videos for both classes. As a suggestion for the challenges I’ve been reading some renaissance music lately and a few interesting pieces popped up. One is this Colascione nicely broken up into 2-4 mm repetitive phrases. The repeats can help to separate sections
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David Chidsey
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David Chidsey this is great, thank you so much David! The suggestion is wonderful, such a great piece!
I didn't know it, but I'll definitely keep it in mind! As for sending videos in for both lessons: wonderful!
so happy to hear!!! Looking forward to seeing them. -
David Chidsey Interesting suggestion, David! This is definitely one of the weirdest pieces in the theorbo repertoire! Apparently, it is intended to imitate the sound of the colascione, which itself imitated the 'exotic' sounds of the Muslim world (specifically Turkey). (It is often performed with an improvised percussion part). It can also be played directly from the original tablature if the low A (D on a guitar) is transposed up an octave. [https://ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/0/05/IMSLP379342-PMLP612489-Kapsberger_-_Quarto_libro_d'Intavolature_di_Chitarone_-_Part_2.pdf] The reentrant tuning of the theorbo will of course be lost on the guitar (meaning some notes will be raised an octave) but the l.h. fingering can be preserved. Alternatively, it could be arranged in drop D tuning, but this would mean the tablature would have to be adapted accordingly. (It would work perfectly on a seven-string guitar, though!) If this piece were to be used in a 'community challenge' perhaps Brandon Acker could be invited to the 'listening party'. Maybe even perform it for us on the theorbo?
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Hi Mircea, could I please be considered for the class with Rene? Here’s a link to my recording. It’s around 1 minute in length. Hope that’s okay!
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Jaime this is great!!! Thank you for sending it in. We'll definitely feature this!
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Jaime thanks also from me
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David Chidsey Wonderful, thank you so much!
We will definitely feature this in the coming workshop with Rene!
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Hi,
I would like to submit something, but maybe I will not be able to record an excerpt of sth until Friday (Jan 8, German Time). Would that be ok?-
Robert That would be fine! We will check for updates about 2 hours before the masterclass, so as long as you have it by then, it should work! Make sure to post it here in the forum so we don't miss it.
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Mircea I will upload something in time within the next few hours.
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Mircea Here is my video, I hope that it can be considered for the excerpt workshop, with a technical topic.
https://youtu.be/zuucVShoSXI
It shows my current status of tremolo, demonstrated by a Prelude (M. M. Ponce), followed by short excerpts of F. Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra (just a few bars) and Una limosnita por amor de Dios (El Ultimo Tremolo, by A. Barrios).
Background: I never had been taught to play tremolo during my first years of guitar playing decades ago. But I wanted to play tremolo, and so recently I started to do some self-teaching, mainly according to Scott Tennant's "Pumping Nylon". It started well, but then I felt like getting stuck after some practice with the staccato-like playing and then speed bursts. Suddenly, after having done nothing for several weeks, I got a new feeling with "simply" moving fingers ami (and p) in a continuous "rolling" movement, aiming more speed and at the first time a kind of tremolo feeling. It was a surprise for me, like waking up and suddenly being able to play at least something that sounds like a beginner's tremolo.
Then, I watched some tremolo related videos here on tonebase, very helpful. However, it sounds sometimes "clicking" (probably nails are a bit long and/or the angle of attack is wrong) and uneven, but I do not know exactly where this unevenness comes from; which finger(s) produce(s) that? Seems that there is an imbalance. And, of course, it is even more different on strings 2 and 3 compared to 1.
So my question is: how can I improve and make further steps towards a smoother, better, balanced tremolo? I wish, I had started decades earlier with that...
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Hi Mircea, I wanted some advice on these 40 seconds of En Los Trigales, Thanks
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Giuseppe Gasparini Hi Mircea, please delete these videos, tomorrow I'll try to make them better
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Giuseppe Gasparini Hi Mircea, here's the video and sorry for yesterday's mess
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Giuseppe Gasparini No worries at all, Giuseppe! We will feature this last video and forget about the previous two - thanks for sending this in and looking forward to working with you on it!
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Hi Mircea
I wonder if this very rough recording of the tricky part of Barrios Waltz Op8 No 4 could be considered for this live workshop. I've never been able to get this up to speed and I've been trying some revised fingerings following on from your superb left hand workshops. Any advice on left hand fingerings would be gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation Derek
I couldn't upload the video so link to Youtube below
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Derek Wonderful! We'll definitely tackle this one tomorrow. Thanks for sending it in, Derek!
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Hi Mircea,
I have more of a speculation or observation than a question, but I'd like to hear Rene's thoughts about it.
I've been thinking about the previous workshop discussions of "reflexive speed" and wondering why reflexive speed works to break through a speed barrier when incrementally speeding up with a metronome sometimes fails. My engineering background tells me that something must be different in the two movements and that's why the slow movement hits a speed limit. I suppose it's possible that one is playing with less tension if they just "let go" and move the fingers as a group, but I suspect the actual finger movements are different when playing fast. Many of us were taught to play from the large knuckle joint and follow through deep into the palm, but when I observe someone playing a fast tirando, the movement I see is one where the large joint is not following through at all, and sometimes even extending at the moment the string is plucked -- thus preparing the finger to play again, almost simultaneously as the string is plucked. So, that's why I suspect the slow movement can't be sped up, it works just fine at slower speeds, but it's not efficient enough to translate into a fast movement.
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Generally speaking, I have similar thoughts as Dean - my tirando is much faster than apoyando - although I usually play from the root of my fingers. And, frankly speaking, working with a metronome very often doesn't get the desired result. However, I have noticed that a two or three day break after a period of intense exercise brings me a very noticeable improvement in speed. Sometimes I leave a piece for even a few weeks and I am surprised to find that after returning to it it is much, much better. Unexpectedly, sometimes I even play it by heart.
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Marek Tabisz Interesting observation Marek. By "play from root of my fingers" are you meaning you play from the large knuckle (MCP joint) closest to the palm? I think that joint plays an important role in plucking, but in my opinion the flexion of the MCP is really only in front of the string or when the finger is on the string. At the moment the string is let go that joint releases its effort and extends. So, letting the MCP follow through deep into the palm might have some training purpose for beginners, for fast playing that movement sends the finger too far out of position to be ready to play the next note. I heard second hand that Pepe Romero said: (paraphrased) "there's nothing for the finger to do on the back side of the string, it needs to stay in front of the string to play fast."
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Dean Yes MCP joint - my "medical english" is very poor ;-)
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Thanks for asking my question. I need to figure out how to be more short and concise with my questions. HAHA. I thought it generated some interesting responses from Rene and Mircea. I liked that he touched on the idea of using the string as a springboard to propel the finger back into position, I agree that is a topic that is rarely covered and maybe he can cover that some more in a future workshop. I also agree with the concept of exaggerating movements to correct a player-specific issue like Mircea mentioned. Where I possibly differ is when the exaggeration is of a movement that doesn't seem to work for me. I've tried for years to get some benefit out of exaggerating the movement of the MCP into the palm and it just makes my hand more tense. I find that if I exaggerate the middle joint into the palm more and let the MCP passively extend when the string is released, I get better results. Unfortunately this opinion is in the minority, but thanks to Tonebase I have discovered several amazing guitarists who have similar thoughts as me. Check out this lesson from Aniello Desiderio, he touches on some of these same issues. The whole video is great but the specific area is at 18:45 - 21:00 minutes
Earlier around 15:00 minutes he says this is just an exercise and later you can go back and play the other way, but I get the impression that he's just being gentle not to offend anyone who was taught to play the other way. I think he prefers this "bicycling" movement.
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