Week 1 - Harmonics and the Main Theme
¡Hola tonebuddies! 🎸
The Capricho árabe Track is live, and for the next four weeks we're all learning Tárrega's most beloved piece together, in the same place, at the same time. The tonebase team is going in with you, posting our own progress, questions and stumbles right next to yours.
Open the Track here: Capricho árabe Track
This week's suggested focus: Sections 1 and 2 (bars 1–18), the opening harmonics, the slur passage, and the main theme. Go at your own pace, the weekly threads are here to keep us together, not to rush you.
Start by telling us where you're coming from: brand new to the piece, halfway there, or coming back to it? Then post whatever your practice throws up, a clip, a question, a small win, a barre that won't cooperate. No clip required.
You're among the very first players through this Track, so one question for the week: where did something click for you, and where did it trip you up? We're listening 👂
Live check-in: on Monday September 14, 5pm CEST, we're going live to walk through the piece and answer your questions about the Track and your practice. Details and reminder here: Capricho Árabe: Inside Tárrega's Timeless Serenade
Dates: September 4 – October 2. The Watch Party on October 2 will feature recorded submissions from this challenge, a single section or the whole piece. 🎥
34 replies
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I’m in!!
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Hi Martin,
You did an excellent job on this new Track!!
Please post the annotated score containing all the score comments. Thanks!
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Sections 1 and 2 (mm 1-18)
I have played Capricho Arabe for many years now, so it is somewhat difficult for me to embrace any new fingerings. That said, I hope I can breathe some life into the piece and learn some new things from doing the track.
The main new thing that I am trying in this video is stopping the low D string on the second beat of measures 13-17. I had heard this idea before, but never really worked on accomplishing it. To be honest, I'm not even certain I prefer the sound of it stopping in those spots.
Since I have big problems with my RH index finger, I am using different RH fingerings than Martin, as well as anyone else probably. I typically compensate for my problem by using more thumb than usual, but that often makes thumb damping a bigger problem.
For variety, I tried playing the opening scale run with rest strokes the first time, and free strokes for the repeat. Any thoughts about this? Is it effective, or would more consistency sound better?
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Other than occasionally reading through this, I've never spent any serious time working on it since I don't normally play anything this long. I've been enjoying working through this first section, so I'll stick with it and see if I can bring the pieces all together.
For as long as I've played, Julian Bream's version was the one I listened to the most, so I'll be trying to incorporate some of his idiosyncrasies with regard to phrasing and color.
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The first 18 bars with a mix of fingerings appropriated from a variety of sources. They work for my hands, so now I just want to clean it up, work on the tempo in places, and balance the voices better.
I mentioned before that Bream's version is how I hear this piece. He uses very little glissando, and the peculiar way of bringing out the e in mm10 and the staccato line in mm18 are his.
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I did a few bits of the Track this evening. This format really works for a guy like me. Thank you for dreaming it up and delivering it to us.
Where I'm starting from: I often listen to Modules or Livestreams passively (meaning: While I brush my teeth or take a shower). I still learn from them, even if I'm not in a space to pick up my guitar at the moment.
One of the things I like about the Modules and Livestream, and I appreciate about the folks who deliver them, is that they help me work on the way I think about the music and the playing (which is pleasurable for me), even if I don't have the current moment to play them. And, importantly for me, they speak to ideas and mindsets beyond the particular piece-- about the world of this instrument played in this way-- things that carry into other spaces and efforts.
But, one still has to play to make it complete. For me, this is where the Track format is perfect. Small chunks of a tune to be processed as one can, when one can. Perfect from my work/life balance, presently.
My relationship with the piece: Charmed with the tune: I once gave it a shot on my own and gave up before I got to bar 5. The Track format helped me in many ways before even getting to the theme-- how the high-ish e sympathetically rings other strings to allow your hand to shift to the chord structure; how to do the reach for the A maj. That thing where you trade fingers on a glissando to keep the intonation correct-- these are things I'd never, ever have figured out on my own. And, it made the piece reachable-- which, for me, was the difference between trying to play it and giving up on trying to play it. A world in those few minutes and those few bars...
Even if I don't get this tune "into my fingers," as I think of it, I've already experienced joy in the trying that I couldn't find before.
Thank you to this community and to Martin and tonebase for continuing to find ways to help interested, but beginner folks like me, find ways into this lovely world of music.
Bravo!
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A more technical question for the group: It seems just as easy for me to us my RH 1 and 3 fingers (as opposed to my RH 1 and 4 fingers) to do that first slur. And, I have more stability and power in my 3rd finger than my pinky... Am I missing something? Is there a technical or tonal reason to use 4-1, as apposed to 3-1 for that important moment in the tune?
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I learned this piece years ago and because family and friends like it so much it’s still a bit in my fingers. This feels like the right moment to brush up in detail following the great introduction by Martin. This is how my first measures sound like as a starting point. The sound quality is below my standards, just iPad in my kitchen, no mics (they really make the difference I’ll show that later on).
I notice the introduction of the piece is in 3/4, with some room for rubato playing, and the main theme in 4/4, more rhythmic.