Thanks to the start of summer vacation, I'm Dale's only student at my town's studio for the entire month of June. Dale teaches at 2-3 other studios. He asked that we meet twice this month for one-hour sessions.
Take-aways from today's lesson:
- Dale asked me to keep my hand a bit more compact in the triplet rotary strum. It's okay for my thumb to momentarily place itself on the 6th string before it follows the M-A downstroke.
- Juan Martin uses a different accent for the falseta in the Grade 1 Tangos. Dale found it unfamiliar but he seemed reassured that I also knew the traditional accentuation.
- Dale showed me a 4-chord progression for the Tangos that was more traditional and also simpler to execute. He suggested that I try substituting it in the Juan Martin Tangos.
- Started on Fandango de Alosno. Dale said that my hammer-on seems to hesitate at the last minute and that my pullback is too far. He wants me to keep my hammers smooth and to start closer to the fretboard. He also wants my slurs to sound like even notes and less like grace notes. He asked me to move as far as I can on page 38.
- Dale introduced me to Bossa Nova with the melody on rhythm arrangements of "Black Orpheus" by Louis Bonfi (aka Manha de Carnaval or "A Day in The Life of A Fool"). The video below gives a bit of background on this piece and one arrangment of it. My arrangement is simpler.
Regular
- Sight reading: Target 2 tunes per day
- Tremolo exercise
- Carcassi's Opus 60, No.1. Measures 21-30
- Fandango de Alosno. Page 38.
- Practice rotary strum (P-AM-P-P).
- Try chord substitution for Tangos.
- Measures 1-6 of Black Orpheus.
- Guardame Las Vacas
- Sevillana
- Alegrias en Mi
- Ashokan Farewell
- Silent Night
- Good Men Rejoice
