chopin???

[eische]

....now I'm running out of new material and searching for something not too heavy, but still a challenge, something I really want to play are the Chopin waltzes.....

Does anyone have experience with them and can tell me, how hard they are? I mean, I just don't want to by a book and then recognise I will not be able to play it until say in one year time.....

[barbietta]

I've played them on piano. The hardest part about playing Chopin from a piano perspective is that the man had hands like a gorilla and could span well over an octave. I've never thought about how his music would translate to guitar.

[eische]

yeah, I know that it's hard on the piano, especially the Etudes, I heard, that's why I asked........

[barbietta]

It might be easier on guitar, actually, because you'd at lease have some choices about where on the fretboard to play a particular note. Let me know what you find out when you try.

[55'gibby]

I took a FEW classical guitar classes some time ago. It was NOT my finding that playing classical music on the guitar is easier than the piano (I play keys a bit). The only thing we worked on was a piece for some guy named J.S. Bach, I never really got it down, I was after techinque. Classical guitar is a whole different mind set than other guitar styles. I would say go for it, you have nothing to lose, in fact, it will help all of your playing, in all areas and styles. If you do really want to try it, get some lessons. To learn it by book could be REALLY hard.

[eische]

hehehehe, till now I'm completely selftought (I never put the idea of a teacher completely out of my mind, but I tend to go against any dominance, so...) and I got MY Bach, it's just a simple one called bagpipe-gavotte, down pretty fast.....

.....but how would you describe that different mind??? - I mean other than thinking about your guitar having a strong solo voice, being the only voice to make up the whole piece of music....
.....I would really like to hear, what you think is the difference here.

[55'gibby]

let me see if I can do this expaination justice....

beyond the techical aspect (which holds the same for all guitar music) is the fact that a lot of the things that are held in high regard (nps, bends, trills, fill, solos, harmonics,.... ) in "popular" music, hold a FAR lower regard in classical guitar. the biggest parts of playing classical guitar is the fact of voicings and pathos. the objective in the voicings is the ability to maintain multiple, seperate, and distinct voices. each voice will contain in it: it's own tempo, timbre, and pathos to be used in conjunction or in counterpoint to the other voicings that your playing (think about how the piano would play that piece, what the left hand plays & what the right hand plays).
the other thing is pathos, this is by far and away the most difficult part to get correct. to apply the proper attack to every note while using very minor "rests" or "rushing" of the notes to create a mood. while it can be quite easy to play the right note, it can be quite difficult to play the right note correctly. the ability to build an entire mood with each note while still building to the correct end point and keeping continuity of the entire peice is easier to explain than to do. how you attack every note and the feeling that you do it with is the thing.
the ablity to blend these two things is where a instuctor comes into play. yes, you can learn this by yourself, but it would require a major bit of study both with the guitar and without the guitar, to get it right. I have no dreams of being a classical guitarist, so for me to spend years learning something on my own that I could learn in months with a really good instructor is a waste of my time.
to anyone considering taking classical lessons.... DO IT!! I am a blues/jazz guitarist and learning classical guitar has opened a whole world of different options that are available to me. I can now add a different "flavor" to each piece of music that I play, things that I would have NEVER thought of before.

[eische]

so were relating more to the interpretation of the music than to the actual playing-style, eventhough this goes hand-in-hand, because you have some special techniques to give a certain expression, but yeah, I think I understand that »different« thinking then.......it's pretty much the same as I called the totality of the guitars own voice (the strong solo voice) standing in the centre of the music.......well, as it goes for me, I'm not in the position to care about that already - after playing a little more than one year - I'm still with the different techniques like staccatos and independent accompaniment and that.......