How to play Concerto De Aranjuez Part 2

 Today I’m going to do a follow up video of Concerto De Aranjuez, the previous video was on the rasguedo opening passages. This is the following 8 bars. Let’s discover it together. The end of the introduction, which includes some thumb work and scale work. I’m going to use my thumb to play the […]

Pensiero – Bossa Nova Original in A minor

 This is part one of my new Bossa Nova guitar piece called Pensiero. It has some embellished Jazz chords and effective voice leading while still being at an intermediate level. Harmonically we move through the circle of fifths:  Am – Dm 11 – G 11 -Cmaj 9 – E7+ – F7 – E7 – […]

Black Orpheus Guitar Arrangement

  Here is my arrangement of Luis Bonfa’s classic bossa nova hit. It was also performed on a film called Orfeo Negro and was originally called. Maha De Carneval.  

Useful Bossa Nova Pattern

Useful Bossa Nova Pattern  Using the chord following chords, you can create a useful Bossa Nova Pattern: Am – AmM7 – Am7 – Am6 There is an internal line that is descending chromatically. Follow the video to learn the finger and right hand pattern. Some examples of this pattern in pieces include: Besame Mucho Girl […]

Rumba Strumming

    Rumba Strumming is a very useful tool for performing flamenco music. This video will take you through the Rumba technique as used by Paco De Lucia and Gipsy Kings (and many others). The chord progression we are using is Am – G -F – E . We start with a thumb down and […]

How to Eliminate buzzes and wrong notes

The Four Times rule is something you can use to improve the quality of your practice and eliminate small and annoying mistakes that can creep into your playing. Sometimes mistakes do happen when practicing or performing and thats ok but we can definitely minimise them through methods like this one. One often finds that under performance […]

Paco De Lucia on English TV 1976

Here is an example of incredible guitar skill and mastery. The great Paco De Lucia performing on Parkinson in the UK. The piece is Almoraima which is a Buleria. Amazing rhythmic control and depth.

Alzapua

Alzapua is a flamenco technique involving the thumb. the term comes from the word alzar which means to raise. It is usually played as a fast flourish of notes in quick sequence. The thumb plays all notes using down and up strokes. Played accurately and fast it can sound fantastic as a high point of a falseta or […]

Circle of Fifths

What is the circle of fifths chord progression? Well, chords and tonalities have various relationships to each other. For example, the chords C, F, and G7 are all part of the key of C. They form the chords I, IV and V7. Put another way, they are the first, fourth and fifth chords in that […]