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I am on a bit of a roll with the classical at the moment and I have just put a rediculous amount of time into this one.
No matter how many times I play anything by Bach, I can never play it without mistakes and I have given up trying. Playing this one was so demanding on the left hand I had to bind my index finger with surgical tape to manage some of the full bars in some sections. Must have recorded this about 20 times before settling on a version I found even remotely respectable. ( I promise..my next post willl be something based on one of Brian’s excercises)
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I love Bach because he always had several voices sounding at the same time in his pieces. From my own experience I know how difficult his songs are to play on the guitar. Bach himself could not play the lute and therefore he did not take into consideration easy playability. His songs were therefore often transposed into easier keys. Your playing of Bourre is wonderful.
Dieter
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Well played Geoff. Fantastic that you’re highlighting Classical pieces on this site. It’s also emphasising the fact that many of us either have an appreciation or experience in this style of music. I played this piece 34 years ago and time sure flies! You play very well and as Liam says above you will learn Brian’s lessons very quickly. You’re understanding of music will also speed up your skills re: creating and improvising which has been one of my goals since joining the site last April. A suggestion would be to join the Challenges each month as this encourages us to use ideas from Brian’s lessons. All the best!
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No need to apologize for posting a classical piece, Geoff. I think we can all respect when any member puts such hard work into something. I learned a little classical as a teenager and now you’ve got me curious how the theoretical knowledge I’ve gained over the past 5 years with AM and others would help my understanding of the structure of a piece like this.
John -
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Thans for all your comments guys. To be honest, am relieved that can post classical on here – I wasn’t sure that was going to be acceptable. I am sure you all have the same experience but, so often when I record myself and play back, I feel I some tweak here and there and I am seldome completely satisfied. There is still room quite a lot of improvement on this one but eventually you have to settle for what you can get and just put it out there.
Dieter was commenting that Bach could not play the lute and, though I didn’t know that, I am not surprised. As I understand it the Lute was generally falling out of favor with people and the Harpsichord was the new kid on the block (If I am not mistaken the guitar only saw a true revival in the classical world when Segovia came along). There was that whole post from Brian that the guitar might again be falling out of favor and he may well be right, time will tell.
One of the things that is rather tricky playing Back is the multiple voicings. There is less of that in this piece but there are others that do this a lot and that is one thing pretty unique about this style of music.
I think some of the people on this forum understand this well but playing classical is a very different relationship to the guitar. In my opinion, every classical guitar is a unique instrument whith it’s own “personality” (for want of a better term). When you find the right one for you it really becomes “your” guitar – I have had this beautiful Tamura for nearly 40 years and I don’t know how I could ever part with it. If any of you are interested in persuing some other style I would seriously recommend classical.
I will particpate in the February challenge. Just really busy on that EP381 Dave Rawlings Dissonance excercise right now and attempting to come up with my own improvisations on that.
By the way, I had to drop tune the guitar to D for this one. A very common thing with early period pieces.
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Geoff this is of such a high level of complexity and difficulty it’s hard for me to imagine anyone being able to do this. You not only do this my friend but you do it Extraordinarily well. I know years of study and practice have gotten you to this point. I am in awe of your talent and can only hope you keep posting more classical.
Clarke
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Well played, Geoff. Maybe you could adapt that to a call and response for the January Challenge. Bach would not mind at all.
Sunjamr Steve
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Very well played indeed Geoff!! As guitarists,many of us appreciate the skill and determination that goes into learning classical music!! I think you will find this site very enjoyable, along with the camaraderie of this fun and interesting forum!!Looking forward to your next posts!!……..Sal
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Excellent playing! Bach is among my favorites classical composers. There is a lot of nice guitar transcriptions of his pieces, not easy to play as far as I know, and you played this one very well!
Guido - Italy
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That was beautiful. Sometimes just recording yourself can put a little more pressure on you which make mistakes. It was great. No apologies needed.
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Geoff,
Thanks for the cello suite. You brought a smile to both our faces. We appreciate the effort you put into this.Well done!
BruceIf it’s hard, don’t play it . . . Joe Pass
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Hi Geoff, Great playing. For a lot of us Rock n Roll guys our introduction to classical guitar playing came from Steve Howe of Yes. Completely self-taught, and can’t read a note of music, Steve did pretty well anyway. His right hand technique would cause a “proper” classical guitar teacher to have a stroke, but he definitely gets the music out of the guitar. Still my favorite “classical” piece of all-time.
Cheers
Ralph P.
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Thanks Ralph, interesting watching this. What he is doing sounds like elements of flamenco thrown in as well – it’s very good. One of this things he is doing really well is his use of the sound hole alternating the hand position to alter the tone – simple as that might seem it took me years to get that concept.
I am always impressed by people who can get this good completely self-taught. His left hand is great but he has some things on the right had that would kill him if he needed to play some pieces that require speed. He is playing whole runs with the same index finger and he barely gets away with it but he would struggle with pieces like the one below (mind you, I can’t play it either but if you watch this you can see how expertly Anna Vidovic alternates the index and middle fingers playing this. You will also see how she colors the tone by altering hand position) :
I still maintain strongly that, to get a good foundation in classical technique, one needs a good teacher for at least a year or more.
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Geoff, just wonderful. Your work (fun) ethic is commendable. I have a few lessons in classical and you’ve encouraged me to learn some Bach!
FGM
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Go for it Fred and have fun with. I will feel very pleased if I turn some people on this site to classical guitar.
After all, Brian did in one of his posts that we should do something completely differnt like learning the piano. Turnig to classical guitar is not as radical as learning a new instrument but it is a pretty different mindset.
I don’t know your level but, if playing Bach proves frustrating, there are many easier level composers that I find just as satisfying to play. For example, there is a composer by the name of Mateo Carcassi who does wonderful stuff at all levels. (I showcased one of his pieces on this site a few days back).
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