Alrighty then, lets get started with part one.
This piece is significantly more difficult to play in comparison with the pieces that we have studied thus far. In actual fact, 'Gran Vals' has been included as an examination piece for the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music 2009 syllabus Grade 8 exams.
As this is a waltz you will know, or at least should know, that the meter is in triple time with a kind of oom pa pa, oom pa pa feel to it......that make sense? Good!
What we really need to strive for in this, particularly in this first section, is a clear distinction between the bass, chords and melody. You can opt for rest strokes to play the melody but as we have discussed before it is not essential as long as the melody line has a clear singing quality to it. I always find that practicing each individual part on it's own helps me to understand each part so much more.
As lot of guitarists feel that if they are playing a piece with a particular 'dance' structure to it, that they must not add any rubato to it whatsoever to stay true to the dance form itself. While I can understand that, I feel that performing solo guitar repertoire in that manner can make for a very rigid performance so I like to add a little sprinkling of rubato here and there. Feel free to experiment with this as you practice.