Classical Guitar Repertoire and Etudes - RCM 2018 - Prep Level - Complete Recording

Описание

The Royal Conservatory of Music Publishing has long offered graded repertoire books for classical guitar students. Indeed, one of my own students wanted to learn pieces from the Prep Volume (2018 edition) of this series. Working with him, I became interested enough to record all the pieces in the book.

A caveat. I’m not associated with either The Royal Conservatory of Music or The Frederick Harris Music Company. No one should assume these recordings are in any way sanctioned by either the publisher or the composers. Rather, they’re my own performances, done for the benefit of anyone who cares to listen.

Since recordings of these pieces are easy to find on YouTube, one may wonder why I offer mine. Two answers:
1) It’s convenient to have all the pieces recorded in one place.
2) Hearing a new perspective is always worthwhile.

Occasionally I deviate from the printed music—sometimes considerably so. You can decide for yourself whether I’ve in places gone too far. But while fidelity to the printed page has its place, it shouldn’t squelch a player’s creativity. For better or worse, players themselves must bring something to the table. Music should be more than mere finger wiggling.

Since this is student repertoire, here are some useful tips:
• Don’t ignore rests. (I missed a few myself—sorry.)
• Learn about vibrato and tone color.
• Avoid unmusically clipped notes.
• Damp notes that create unmusical dissonances or clash with the harmony.
• Be sensitive to mood changes within a piece, and try to convey them to listeners.
• Try ornamentation and agogic accents. If you don’t know what these are, now is a good time to learn.
• On the guitar, you can often find the same note in different places. For example E on the open ① can also be played on ② at fret V. You can exploit this for vibrato or maintaining a consistent tone color.
• If at first you don’t like a piece, don’t give up on it. Instead, try to find a way to make it work—both for the listener and yourself. For example, In “Cabdriver” I applied effects not found in the printed music. Admittedly, the result may not be what the composer intended. But it made the piece fun to play and, I hope, to hear. In my defense, I didn’t change a single note.

The last tip listed above implies that you should study all 39 pieces. I strongly recommend this. Playing through lots of music builds skill and taste. It also alerts you to when you’re falling into a rut—you may find yourself making the same musical choices across very different pieces. If so, change things up. Of all the sins a musician can commit, monotony is one of the worst.

Sincerely,
Tom Poore