Strumming Tips for Baroque Guitar

Somebody asked me how I strum, so here is a rough performance of the Terantela from the Coimbra MS and an explanation of what I'm doing. The original has only one line of chords: C G C G F E Am but I introduce it with the chords which underlie the punteado part: Am G C G Am E Am. Only the first punteado part is original, to which I added four other diferencias - basic stuff.

This is not the dainty repicco found in some publications, so whether it is 'authentic' or not, well, who can say?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• baroque
• guitar
• MacKillop
• strumming
• Early
• Music

[assa123assa123]

awesome playing and nice teaching!

only two things leave me thinking of:

this really has a lot in common with modern flamenco, but was it played like that in baroque era? doesn't really fit in my head. and the other is that with all golpes (taps on body) without golpeador the wood would wear out and the instrument is definitely pricey - am I mistaken?

[BalcarresGuy]

Taps on body - yes. See Murcia's 'Mexican' manuscript.

Damage - none at all. Not a scratch. No nails, of course.

[dedeman1]

I love this video, I've watched it dozens of times. I play nylon string guitar, but I wish I had a baroque guitar, the tone it beautiful, and you play it wonderfully. The last strum ends the song perfectly.

One question, is this guitar 9 or 10 strings (or something else)? It looks like 4 sets of 2 strings, and one additional one (high end).

[BalcarresGuy]

Glad you like it.

It is tuned from treble to bass like this:

e' bb gg Dd aa - so one first string, the fourth course is an octave pair, the fifth course is up an octave. And the whole thing is tuned a tone lower, so in reality is is d' aa ff Cc gg. Hope that helps. By the way - it is for sale... see rmguitar dotinfo.

Rob

[BubCar2]

Interesting and informative, and a lovely strumming sound. But your A minor chord seems to actually be D minor.

[BalcarresGuy]

No, you are wrong, my friend. It is an Am - but the pitch is A=392, and therefore it sounds as a Gm chord at modern pitch. But is very much an Am chord for the period, and nowhere near a Dm chord.

[m34nb34n]

That's awesome dude!

[yanpan16]

@porchmonkey401k @porchmonkey401k @porchmonkey401k just found this blog post with really interesting info on all of this if you're interested: pbosf dot blogspot dot com forwardslash 2010 forwardslash 01 forwardslash story-of-more-about-baroque-pi­tch dot html (just fill in the dots and slashes). it talks about why people choose 415 and the different pitches etc. i think people measured pitch by a tuning fork so i think that's where we get the measurements from

[yanpan16]

@porchmonkey401k yeah thats a good point… apparently pitches ranged from about 380 to 480, it was different according to local tradition and tuning to the organ in the church etc. i think people generally go with 415 or 395 now just so baroque musicians can settle a bit with a standard to make things easier. also for wind instruments, we would have to buy a lot of instruments because out instruments are not as adjustable as strings!

[porchmonkey401k]

@yanpan16 i actually didnt know that, thats really cool! im surprised we even have such measurments for these things considering they used to tune by tightening the string until it couldnt go any tighter

[yanpan16]

@porchmonkey401k i know you posted this 6 months ago so you've probably found the answer or don't care anymore - but in the baroque period tuning varied from country to country and even from town to town. so generally people tend to tune to 415 for baroque instruments because i think that was more widespread, but some even go down to 392 (normally for french music). i even heard a recording that was lower than that once! 37-something i believe

[MrGuitarreno]

@BalcarresGuy I READ IN A BOOK,THE ORIGINAL TUNE FOR WAS Eb .IS IT REAL? WHEN I TUNE MY GUITAR IN Eb ,I FEEL IT SOUNDS BETTER.THANKS ,FOR YOUR LESSONS.

[VALARLIGHT]

Very awesome playing, baroque guitars have an amazing sound

[RobMacKillop]

@dublinkittykat

Sorry, long gone. Try vihuelademandotcom.

[dublinkittykat]

@BalcarresGuy

Hi there, I love the sound of this guitar .. you say it's for sale .. well I'm in the market to buy .. keltikat@me.com

[porchmonkey401k]

@BalcarresGuy isnt baroque tuning A= 415? im very interested as i study classical guitar in college and my professor demonstrates a profound interest in instruments like baroque guitar and reinnasance lute