A New Barrios Piece from Tony Morris
Tony Morris, of Classical Guitar Alive! fame, has been spending a lot of time researching Barrios lately. Last year he released his transcription of Bicho Feo, and just recently he’s released another of Barrios’ pieces: Isabel (Gavota). There are some program notes included with the transcription below
Justin
So am I the only person on the blog who has played through the first ten or so measures only to realize that my hands won’t let me do that thumb over the neck trick? What, did Barrios have Paginini’s long fingers or what?
Christopher Davis
No, I have a hard time with that as well. Do able, but not easy. Solution: edit. I don’t think Barrios will mind.
Pete
Justin! Come on man.
You must use your thumb on TOP of the fingerboard. 🙂
Don’t go around the back of the fretboard because that’s really impossible.
The trick to do it, is to lift the thumb off from the fretboard early enough: Perhaps as early as that slide with the 4th finger (beginning of measure) or just after that.
(The typical trouble is that guitarist are so used to having the thumb cling to the fretboard, that they are too late in PREPARING for the move)
Justin
Oh I understand the manuver quite well Pete, having seen Hendrix perform it a plethora of times (yes, I just referneced Hendrix on the CGB, don’t flame me, he’s the only person I’ve seen do it). I was simply stating that the physical size of my hand does not allow me to fret the B with finger 4, D with the 3 finger, G sharp with 1, and E with the 2 AND hook my thumb (5?)over the neck to fret the other B. Seems like I could almost bar the B and the E with the middle, but that makes getting a good sound out of the G sharp hard. It’s not a huge deal, as I’m not ready to drop the piece I’m working on to dive into this one, I just wanted to tool around it a little while and get a sense of how it sounded.
Christopher Davis
It’s a low G# for the thumb. Pete is right, I misread the notation — haven’t had a chance to read through Isabell yet (concert rep to practice, etc). The thumb comes underneath the neck, around the front of the fingerboard. Not over the top. Watch Jason Vieaux playing the Sarabande from BWV 995 (around 1:35), he does it.
Also, Hendrix references are always okay.
Justin
Ahh. Apparently I do not understand the manuver (^_^). Sorry about that. Man a low G#. That seems even harder.