Estudio Brillante

(For 3 years this composition by the Spanish guitarist Francisco Tarrega has consumed a good deal of my time. The following are some of my thoughts and experiences about learning to play it. It's quite late this evening & I would love to complete this, so I must decide to publish it now, or wait until later when I am finished. What the Hell, I post part of it now and go off to bed.)




There is a great piece of music written for guitar by Francisco Tarrega titled Estudio Brillante. I was captivated by that composition the first time I heard it on an LP recording by Christopher Parkening. This was in pre-internet days, the early 1980's, so it wasn't easy tracking down a copy of it. Eventually I aquired five copies of it, each from a different publisher and each with fingering edited by a different person. (I assume all were fingered/edited by guitarists).
At the time my music reading skills were not particularly good, but I could figure my way through the composition. It appeared to be more difficult to master than I thought it would be. Anyhow, I soon realized it was going to take a lot of work and some problem solving to learn to play it. And by problem solving I mean such things as where to play certain passages on the neck. For instance, there are a couple of scale passages that can be approached from more than one vantage point. Which would be the easiest? Which would be the most musical? How does Parkening play these passages? For ultimately I would strive to take Parkenings approach above all others. But that, so far, has been unavailable to me. I wasn't put off by the composition. Sure it seemed difficult, but I blamed that more on my lack of reading skills than a lack of ability. Then one day I came across an article in a guitar publication written by Scott Bach. He called the piece "fiendishly difficult." Oh no! I didn't realize it was THAT tough of a piece to learn & play. Hmm... that gave me pause to think it might be beyond my desire and dedication.
Ayway, time passed and the music was always on my stand. Years went by and I would pick away at it some, read through it from beginning to end, but never really sat down & tried to master the piece.
OK. I go through a long period in which I decide I am a better photographer than guitar player. I do not abandon the guitar for I play every day. However, I do quit "working" at it. I just play every morning for my own pleasure. My repertoire gets extremely rusty. I don't learn any new pieces. I earn my living as a photographer.

Day 247: Wedding Ad / Estudio Brillante

It was warmer this morning, 45 degrees, but with that warmth comes rain. I am still burned out from the past week which was very hectic. So, I am not really enthused with this grey, damp morning.

The photo here is a new ad I created for plugging the wedding business.

Guitar practice was less than ideal this morning. The problem is that it is unfocused. I periodically notice how I reach a plateau, realize I have made progress in improving my guitar playing, but seem to be stuck on that plateau. That is how I have felt the past few days. Stubborn spots in some of the pieces I play do not seem to be improving. Other spots that I felt were mastered are in need of work again. It is this up and down, hill and dale experience. Some days I feel like I am a good player and know what I am doing. Then other days it seems like I can do nothing. I realize that we all have good days and bad days. When it comes to photography I am supremely confident in everything I do or have thrown at me. I am 100% aware of my strengths and weaknesses. But with the guitar, after all these years, I am still in search of that same awareness, that same level of confidence. If I had not let ten or more years go by neglecting my serious practice with the instrument, maybe I would be where I want to be.
I really need a gig, playing somewhere once or twice a week for two or three hours. That would force me to play through my repertoire. I need and desire to learn new pieces to expand my repertoire. However, as i learn new pieces I tend to ignore previously learned pieces. Yousee, one must doi regular practice on one's repertoire to keep it up. So there needs to be a balance betwen working on new and maintaining old. A regular gig would automatically take care of the repertoire maintenance.

There is a great guitar composition by Francisco Tarrega titled Estudio Brillante that I began working on in earnest about three years ago. When I started it, I knew it was a difficult piece, but until I got well into the study of it, I had no idea just how difficult it really is. Today I have the piece memorized and I can pretty much play it with out my hands, fingers, or arms getting fatigued. That was an achievement in itself. I have performed the piece quite a few times too. But, it is still most unsatisfactory. I still have problems with tempo, clarity of notes in some passages, and overall tone and interpretation.

The following two videos show Julian Bream playing the piece. The second shows me playing the piece earlier this year.

Day 175: No Rain Today

It was 55 degrees and a Sunrise this morning in Chaumont, NY. At last the rain has neded. Hopefully for a couple of days. There is a water advisory in the village today. Residents are warned to boil their water befor drinking it. So I boiled a kettle of water. Condensation formed on the kitchen windows, photographed at 6:45am, and shown here.


Yesterday and today I spent quite a bit of time playing and slowly polishing Estudio Brillante, a difficult guitar solo by Francisco Tarrega. I am a bit hesitant to post a video of it here, but, I AM! This video has poor audio. I usually use an external microphone and touch up the audio afterwards, but I didn't do so for this video. The piece is also somewhat twangy, and coarse sounding. IT was recorded back in May of this year.



Progress on such a piece is slow, incremental. It's a good idea to record yourself every few weeks or months so you can see/hear your progress. I am in know way satisfied with the above performance, but it was about as best I could do at the time. How I wamnt to play it and how it comes out are two different things. It is most confounding. I always welcome comments and criticism, and ideas on what to do differently with it.