Villa-Lobos Prelude No.1!

Derek no pressure, looking forward to hearing you at the gig 🤓

Andre Bernier Same here! But I'm hoping the study group will help me at least get familiar with the piece.

Andre Bernier A few people in the group have commented about the prelude being above their level but I think it is important to consider that this piece has a lot to offer for technique development especially considering the stage at which most players first encounter the piece.  Many teachers use this for teaching bass melody, vibrato, position shifts, thumb technique, repeated chords and much more. It is a great added bonus that the finished product is a repertoire standard at all levels. Enjoy the journey! 

Mark 

You are perfectly right. This piece is beautiful and offers a lot of opportunities to learn or practice many techniques.

However, I am currently at a solid level 3 (using the Tonebase system). I can easily venture on pieces of the level 4 curriculum and probably on the easy pieces of the level 5; but this piece is evaluated at a level 6 which is still out of range for me. I found that when I try pieces that are out of range; I get disappointed, frustrated and demotivated.

At 69, I just want to enjoy my guitar journey, progress slowly but surely and have fun. For me, this study group is a fantastic opportunity to learn how people workout issues and find solutions when learning these pieces.

Blaise Laflamme Yes 👍

David lifting the finger slightly as you execute the slide helps minimize squeaks. It takes some practice.  The other technique, which is better for this piece, is to initiate the glissando with the edge of the finger (1 or 2), slide and land with finger 3 (Bar 1).  Use the same technique for other instances based on your preferred fingering.

David there are some type of strings that produce less noise and those are usually used for recordings. for ex. Hannabach PSP series. I've used them for special ocassions. Glissando noices in VL are unavoidable though you can try and reduce them. If you take out too much preassure, no glissando is achieved. So, there's a minimum required, at least.  

Ariel Elijovich thank you for the detailed response. If I am not mistaken, Villa-lobos played both the cello and the guitar, so he would have anticipated the sound effect produced by the indicated notation. 

David indeed, though when VL play the guitar most likely the strings were made of gut and so they wouldn't make as much noice. I don't know If VL came in contact with modern Nylon and metal-wrapped nylon strings. That would be interesting to look deeper... 

Ariel Elijovich Yes.  The strings were probably also old and the environment usually high humidity contributing to less squeaks.