Do you know your Melody from your Bass?
So you know where the melody is? If you don’t, how can you figure that out and make sure that you give it all of the attention, emphasis, and tonal character it deserves?
All will be revealed and more in this informative classical guitar technique article.
I
ask my students a similar question when they’re starting on a new piece or working on an old one.
The reason I ask this is to make sure they know where the melody notes are even if (or should I say when) they move through different voices on the guitar. Knowing the melody means you’ll always be able to keep the piece flowing as it should without giving notes that aren’t part of the melody too much emphasis.
Because the classical guitar technique allows us to play many notes at once we are able to do things other guitar players only dream of, however the cost is that we need to know which notes belong where, which notes to emphasis (or not) at the right time, and how to go about doing all of that on just six (or sometimes more) strings.
We’ve All Been There
I remember when my first guitar teacher Peter Thwaites asked me if I could identify the melody in a piece I was playing and actually I couldn’t. I could hear it and assumed I knew where it was, but when he asked me to isolate it and play it I could not do it.
I only knew how to play it as a collective whole i.e. without the bass and other notes around I couldn’t play just the melody and it was a revelation!
That lesson forever changed the way I went about learning and playing pieces. From that point forward I always made a point of working out the melody first, playing through it and committing it to memory.
Why is it important you ask? Read on…
Knowing the melody is important because
it represents the main plot - if the plot in a movie gets all wishy washy an audience can become confused or disinterested or both. A piece of music is exactly the same
we can make sure it stands out from the other notes using a variety of means
we can impress our teacher if they ask for it
The next logical question is “How can I make the melody distinguishable from the rest of the notes?”
Distinguishing the melody
There are several ways to make the melody stand out from the rest of the notes. Let’s take a look at a few:
Play it louder than the other notes (or my preference is to play the other notes more softly)
Use a rest stroke (heavy or light)
Change its tone by picking it at a different angle to the others
Pick with the same finger where possible
Try to play the melody notes on the same string wherever possible (an ideal)
Slightly delay it by playing it just before or just after a bass note (usually just after), but don’t overuse it because it can be quite unsettling if used too often. It’s better at the beginning of a phrase.
Above you will see four examples of where the melody notes are. I’ve magnified them so they’re easier to see and recognise. Usually melody notes are distinguishable from bass and inner voices by the stem pointing upwards. Bass and inner voices stems point downwards. The stem is the line that joins the head. In the case of minims and semibreves the other notes will usually give you the clue as to whether or not your minim or semibreve is part of the melody or not.
The pieces are:
Lagrima by Francisco Tárrega
Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega
La Paloma by Sebastian Yradier
Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega
This video shows me playing through snippets of the melodies from Lagrima, La Paloma, and Recuerdos de la Alhambra. I give examples of how to recognise melodies and apply many of the techniques explained in the bullet points above.
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Josh
Can AI make me a Better Guitarist?
AI and Classical Guitar. Can we leverage the immense power of AI to get faster better results?
“I am inevitable.” - Thanos
AI is slowly but surely being used in more and more ways. But can we leverage it to be better on the guitar?
Read on to discover how it could help you.
How I use AI to help me
I’m not going to write a boring historical account of how AI came to be and whether or not in the future it’s going to become Skynet/Cyberdyne Systems 2.0. Rather, I’d just like to let you know how I use and how you can leverage its power to help you out in ways you may not have thought of.
If you’re against AI I get it. It’s a little bit like back in the day when we were warned about entering our credit card details online when paying for something. I’m old enough to remember all of the fear mongering (not unfounded back then) of credit card details being stolen and your bank balance being zeroed if you purchased something online. Even now it can still happen but most of us have grown used it and now we enter our credit card details with very little thought or concern about that happening.
Creation
I recently created a classical guitar AI video of Francisco Tárrega performing Gran Vals at the Palau de Musica. I knew it would be controversial and that some would like it, some would be ‘meh’, and others would hate it. I was right. After posting it on the NBN Guitar YouTube channel, and several Meta groups it seemed I was right on the money.
The first comment on Meta was ‘Why?’. I replied ‘Why not?’ I know one shouldn’t answer a question with a question but hey it’s the internet and rules are different.
I created it as a project to help me learn a bit more about AI image and video creation.
For me AI is a great tool that is hugely limited in some areas yet immensely powerful in others.
Before I carry on, watch the video below:
So, how can YOU use it to get better?
create a practice schedule based around your daily life
suggest pieces and repertoire based on your level and desires
track your progress by creating a dedicated practice folder
Check out this prompt I put into ChatGPT for a beginner classical guitarist looking for a good practice routine and a few new pieces to add to their repertoire:
“Please create a dedicated weekly practice schedule for me. I'm a beginner classical guitarist that knows basic chords and picking, along with a couple of simple pieces by Giuliani, Sor, and Sagreras. I have about 30 minutes to practice during weekdays and 60 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. I can only practice after 8PM because the rest of my day is quite full. I'd love to be able to add two new pieces each month. Also, please give me some tips on how to improve my memorisation and play scales progressively faster.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI Tools) that I use
I use a few different tools to help me with many tasks here at NBN Guitar. I’ll list them below and how I use them:
ChatGPT - this is easily the AI I use the most to help me with guitar practice, creating classical guitar blog ideas, and much more.
Leonardo AI - used to create images and videos
Opus Clip - creates shorts video clips, resizes videos, and makes CC transcripts
Vimeo AI - helps me to edit videos, add translations in different languages to NBN Guitar videos (working on adding French, German, Hindi, Italian, Korean, and Spanish subtitles to our most popular lessons)
What I’m not going to do…
Is sit here and tell you that AI is the future of classical guitar and that you have to use it or you’re going to be left behind. Not at all. If anything, we all know that classical guitar was here well before AI…but AI can be used as a helpful tool to give you foundations or ideas upon which you can build. Even if you used a prompt like the one above and hate what it pops out it may still give you a direction or a path that you maybe hadn’t thought of before. A lot of what ChatGPT can produce is based upon how detailed your prompts are.
I look at AI as a friend to help me when I’m stuck, or an expert that can give me ideas that I can then further refine using different research and my own real life experience. We’ve even added an AI Chatbot to the NBN Guitar website lovingly called ‘Segovia’…🤣😂
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Let your fingers fly! - Josh
Is classical guitar really that good for you?
What does playing classical guitar really do for our brains and wellbeing?
My ensemble at TCGSS 2024
Judging by this image of my ensemble at the 2024 Taranaki Classical Guitar Summer School I’d say yes.
Why? Read on to find out more.
Cognitive Enhancement & Brain Plasticity
Basically that means it’s good for your head. Studies show that playing an instrument engages both hemispheres of our brains at the same time. Motor skills (moving our fingers and general posture), auditory processing (listening & learning), memory (we’re all aiming to memorise our pieces to some degree), and creativity (some of us do like to compose or we’re forced to come up with creative solutions when we’re learning).
Stress Reduction & Emotional Wellbeing
It’s a bit like working out. Sometimes we just don’t want to go for that walk or hit the gym or do the gardening, however when we’ve finished that activity we always feel pretty good about it. A sense of accomplishment along with a feeling of self-discipline are our rewards for getting our practice session done and dusted. This tends to lower stress levels and balance our emotions.
Improved Motor Skills
Playing the guitar (especially classical guitar) really gets our fingers moving and enhances our fine motor control. Our fingers move dextrously and our hands have to do two different things at the same time. Playing classical guitar involves some of the finest and most delicate finger control challenges in all of music. As we age this can delay motor decline. For younger players it can boost hand-eye coordination
NBN Guitar Memberships
NBN Guitar memberships can be super beneficial to help you maintain all of the benefits mentioned above. Whether you’re 7 or 70 it doesn’t matter - playing classical guitar is great for you.
With more than 80 courses covering:
Playing chords
Learning pieces
Improving technique
Beginner pieces
Intermediate pieces
Advanced pieces
There’s sure to be something there for you that will keep you emotionally, mentally, and physically better off than your non-instrument playing counterparts.
We’re constantly adding new blog articles, lessons for pieces and technique every month so there’ll always be a new challenge waiting for you just around the corner.
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