Group 4
This Two Week Intensives will cover the essential techniques of staccato, portato, and legato for guitar players. Staccato involves playing notes in a short, detached manner, while legato involves playing notes smoothly and connected. Portato is a style that falls between staccato and legato, with slightly detached but still connected notes. The class will also delve into the development of left-hand technique that you need for proper articulation!
Sanel Redžić is one of the most promising and virtuoso guitarists of the younger
generation, who has created an important name on the international scene, having a wide
repertoire from baroque to modern music.
Sanel currently teaches at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Weimar and at
the University of Erfurt in Germany. He is also artistic director and founder of Tuzla Guitar
Week in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Repertoire:
- Scales (major with parallel melodic minor scares)
- Leo Brouwer - Etude Nr. 1
- Agustin Barrios - Mangore - 3rd movement of La Catedral
- Fernando Sor - Etude Op. 35, No. 22 (Segovia No. 5)
- Any other example by participants
Assignment Videos
I compiled a playlist with 5 Videos! More Videos will come :)
- Video 1: Intro
- Video 2: C Major scale with i-m
- Video 3: C Major scale with p
- Video 4: Arpeggios
- Video 5: Brouwer no.1
Assignment:
- Submit a video containing either one or several of the exercises. For example, start with a simple C major scale playing once as legato as possible, repeat with portamento and then one last time with staccato. Please tell us what articulation you were aiming for!
- Feel free to apply the learnings to either Brouwer Etude no.1 or your own repertoire!
Feel free to ask questions in a written reply and/or add them to your video!
Assignment Week 2:
- Read and play through the piece provided by Sanel and play the basses staccato and the upper voices legato!
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Hello everybody in articulation 4 , why don't you say hi and let us know what you intend to work on within the next two weeks!
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Hello Sanel and participants of this group. I have just listened to Sanel’s video and I am ready to practice. Thank you! My objective here is to improve my legato and learn to practice it, also how to purposefully use the different types in my playing to add to the musicality. Portato I think is my natural playing ;) One question I have is, when changing positions how important it is to lift the left thumb as opposed to sliding it along the arm of the guitar
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Emma When you have questions you want to Sanel directly, you can tag him via Sanel Redzic ! And Hi Emma!
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Sanel Redzic One question I have is, when changing positions how important it is to lift the left thumb as opposed to sliding it along the arm of the guitar (I repeat my question tagging you as suggested by Martin) thank you so much to both
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Hi Emma ,
in my own praxis, I am sliding with the thumb rather than lifting. I am barely lifting with the thumb. I am also not pressing with the thumb from behind. It is important that the thumb has as much as possible contact with the neck. I have tried now several examples, slow and fast and my thumb is all the time sliding.
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Good morning everyone. I know staccato and legato, but to be honest, I never heard of portato. Im very interested in this term. I look forward to theses lessons.
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Hi Wayne Osterling ,
Portato in German or in my native language. On English it is actually Portamento or in the music terminology also known as Non-Legato.
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Looking forward to it.
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Hola a todos guys!
expecting TO LEARN A LOT ! The fact of using the articulation for instance to change the character or the feeling in one repetition...I usually only think on dynamics and color...
Thanks Sanel !!!
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Hola Nora Torres-Nagel ,
Welcome! :-)
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Hello Sanel and participants. Nice to see a few familiar faces pop up again. Thank you Sanel, for giving us the opportunity to dive deeper in this important element of musical expression. I am familiar with the concept of articulation and the techniques. I think I apply articulation in my playing but mostly in an intuitive way. I'm hoping to benefit a lot from these exercises (very good and clear examples in the videos - ike Emma, I started practicing right away) . Getting more control will hopefully help me to be better organized, and more effective musically....
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joosje
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Hi joosje ,
I am glad to hear it! Welcome.
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Hi everyone,
I hope to become more aware to use these tools for articulation and not online dynamics and tone color.
As I won't have a lot of time I'm not sure if I will manage all off Sanel's exercises. But I would really like to work on the beginning and the repeating end of the second part of Weiss' Fantasie, playing the second version more staccato. Sanel Redzic your recording of this piece on youtube is very beautiful!
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Thank you Ingo ,
I am glad to hear that you like my version of Fantasia. I would not play Staccato but rather Portato. The thing is, we should separate the notes and should not stick them together in that example.
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Greetings all,
Thank you Martin for administering another Intensive. Maestro Sanel, I admire your Bach Lute Suites very much! Your videos of the Articulation topic are extremely helpful, thank you. I am on my way to the studio now to find my Brouwer #1!
My best to all!
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Thank you very much Amy G ,
I am very glad to hear it.
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Hey everyone,
Already started to practice those exercices, that Brouwer 1 too. Not that simple to switch on purpose between those 3 techniques. Find it hard to be precise between portato and staccato at higher speed.
Thanks to Martin and Sanel for those 2 weeks, and best to all !
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You welcome Dylan ,
I am also happy to be with all of you here and to share my experience and thoughts.
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Sanel Redzic and I are currently working out a little technical issue, but he'll be ready to respond very soon! articulation 4
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Hello all,
New to tone base so excited to take part in this 2-week intensive.
Have had a go at the scales and already found some challenges with stopping strings, particularly when crossing to the next string. It's going to need some slow practice I think.
Have a question for Sanel Redzic about how to do this with I,m because the preparation is already on the next string.
As for repertoire will look at the Brouwer. Any suggestions for a good Sor study (I don't have that much experience of studies I'm afraid to say) - just spotted the recommendation above!
Cheers,
Jonathan
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Hi Jonathan Evans ,
Welcome! I wrote this today already several times. When going upwards, then I use thumb to stop the lower string. Going downwards, I use mostly the a finger to stop.
About one Sor Study - I don't know how high your level is but try with the Op. 29 Nr. 17. :-)
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Hello Martin, Sanel and fellow Group 4ers. I am excited to take up this intensive. (Well, considering how frustrating the first exercise is proving to be - excited might not be the right term. Perhaps 'determined' would be more fitting.)
I started the the first exercise on the C major scale yesterday and found the staccato technique really difficult. I had a similar question as Jonathan Evans about RH string stopping and string change. I looked very closely at the video and it appears to me that Sanel was maintaining the i-m-i-m-i-m pattern in playing each note but stop the string with the same finger that would then play the next note on the new string. Well, that was certainly clear! Let me try putting it this (5th)C-i/ stop m, D-m/ stop i ; (4th)E-i/stop m, F-m/stop i, G-i/stop m; (3rd) A-m/stop i...etc. This means the i will stop the (5th) D and then jump to the (4th) to play the E. Ok, I'll stop. (I welcome any corrections to my observations / ramblings.)
Anyway, working on this exercise demonstrates how undisciplined I have been in my playing. I am determined to work this out as it is a very good exercise for me. Right now I am only focusing on the RH staccato as that is the hardest for me.
I have played thru Sor op.35.22 and the Brouwer #1 several times to get them under my fingers but have not attempted to work on any articulation issues with them.
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Jack Stewart hi Jack. After watching the video slowed down to 50% in my opinion Sanel is playing: (5th)C-i/ stop m, D-m/ stop i ; (4th)E-m/ stop i, F-i/ stop m, G-m/ stop i; (3rd) A-m/stop i...etc.
So there seems to be times where a finger is repeated rather than strictly alternating. For example, for the third note in the scale (E on the 4th string) it makes sense to use m again because after you play the D note with m and stop the string with i, the m finger is now ready to play again above the 4th string. A similar thing happens with the i finger when you descend the scale from strings 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.
Hope that makes sense (still trying to work this out myself!)
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I wanted to clarify the staccato fingering in my own mind so I’ve written out below what I believe Sanel plays for the C major scale ascending and descending.
(5th)C-i (stop m)/ D-m (stop i)
(4th)E-m (stop i) / F-i (stop m) / G-m (stop i)
(3rd) A-m (stop i) / B-i (stop m) / C-m (stop i) / D-i (stop m)
(2nd)E-i (stop m) / F-m (stop i) / G-i (stop m)
(1st)A-i (stop m) / B-m (stop i) / C-i (stop m) / B-m (stop i) / A-i (stop m)
(2nd)G-i (stop m) / F-m (stop i) / E-i (stop m)
(3rd)D-i (stop m) / C-m(stop i) / B-i (stop m) / A-m (stop i)
(4th)G-m (stop i) / F-i (stop m) / E-m (stop i)
(5th)D-m (stop i) / C-i (stop m)
Sanel Redzic would be grateful if you could confirm if this is correct?
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
