My first song upload.

[Jonny Hotnuts]

This is a test file for my website that is soon in coming.

The track [Bouree (double) from Partita No 1 for Solo Violin BWV 1002] was recorded about 5 months ago and is not polished. There is some skips caused by my MP3 incoder and did not discover until it was uploaded. You can hear me breath and make a few mistakes. I will update this song in a few days thats changes will be smoother and few if any kinks removed.
I have also added a tube preamp and better mics so it will hopefully sound a good deal better.
(plus I can remember my hand aching by the time it is 75% done, it does not anymore.)

Any comments good or bad will be appreciated. But note that this song is a killer so don’t be too hard on me!!!! :lol:

Many more songs to come…. And far better than this!!!!!


http://www.jonnyhotnuts.com/music/bach1.mp3

I may allow others to upload personal recordings in the future.
It is time that we are heard.

-JH

[edwardcav]

I believe I am the first to view it!

Nice work Jonny.

Surprisingly good quality.

Can't wait for improvement.

[mirv]

Beautiful music, mr. Hotnuts! I am now an ardent follower of you method of studying classical guitar and will now devote my practice time on just this piece of music instead of fiddling with finger exercises. 8) Thanks for the uplink!

[Pepe Vergara]

Jonny: What method is Merv talking about?

[edwardcav]

Pepe, can you translate that quote of Gaspar Sanz's to me please? I am interested in him, I'd be grateful.

Jonny, as I said I like the recording. But I don't really like Bach :oops: sorry to everyone. that said, tere are a handful of beautiful arragnements for guitar.

Bring on barrios and torroba.

[CarlosJR]

thats some nice work, I play that piece myself and my father plays the Bouree (not double) if we play them at the same time as a duet it sounds INCREDIBLE. You might want to try it with someone.

Also, some people might critize you for playing Bach's music with too much rubato, I do think its an interesting take and I cant play the piece flawless at that speed yet. One question I have is in the first measure of the last line of the piece, do you make a barre at VI and slide it on to VII on the next measure or do you not bar it and just go into the chord at the next measure? I'm asking because I used to not bar it and then go into the chord and it would come out good but then my father told me I should barre it and then slide it for ease, I'm practicing that now but ive yet to get a clean sound.

I will try to upload mine soon, if anyone can reccomend a webspace provider please do, of course I goa bit slower (only been playing the guitar for 2 years) and I got so tired i didnt repeat the second part.

[Jonny Hotnuts]

Thanks all for your comments.

Ed:
Do you have a Torroba song in mind? Torroba is one of my favorites and will record one next. (just about anything except Romance de los Pinos, great song but it is just soooo slow!)


Pepe:
I have always felt some people (teachers) vest too much of their students efforts learning and playing exercises. I don’t think there is anything that can not be learned by playing a song with the same technique. Learning songs is very difficult as with the physical aspects. With a carefully selected song set you can kill two stones with the same bird.

mirv: Choose songs that focus on problems you have, Double is a great for speed, changes and right hand form, but there are other songs that might be better for you unless you need help in these areas. It is important to know your weakness and find a song that exploits, learn it and soon your problems disappear. Now I am working on my Tremolo, and as you might guess I am playing Recuerdos daily for this reason.

CarlosJR: I am glad to see I am not the only one who gets tired near the end of this song! I am fascinated by the prospect of playing both parts, and not to sound "green" I did not even know that they were meant to be played together.
Give me your email and I will send you my revision of this song in tab. I learned it from sheet but use tab to make change notes. But to answer your question (from memory of where the last line start as I do have the music at hand) I don’t use a bar at VI and do bar at VII. But I am trying to say this from memory as I am at my girlfriends and don’t have a guitar here.

[edwardcav]

But Jonny I like the slow ones...

Sonatina? Eligia? Festiva?

[CarlosJR]

Hey Jonny,
Thats the great thing about Bach, the songs AREN'T meant to be played together. Its Bouree first, then Double, but if you combine them they fit PERFECTLY and create an amazing sound, like FOUR guitars playing. When my father was younger him and his friend won many contests playing that duet. What you could do is learn yourself Bouree then combine both of them on an 8 track or something. Id love to take a look at your tab, please send it to insuperiortorment@hotmail.com

Oh and one more thing, do you use thumb on the bass notes? I made sure on thsi song to use only the thumb on the bass notes, not even when playing the scales do I use i or m on the bass strings, I just did this because i think it balances the voices better. Im just wondering if you did that too

[Todd]

Great work. I know how many hours it takes to put something
like that together. I applaude your dedication.
My only gripe is actually with the composition, not your playing.
That , to me at least, is an extremely Un-guitaristic piece, as
i feel most Bach is.

I'd love to hear you play some Torroba, or Villa Lobos.
That stuff sounds like it was meant for guitar.
Bach just seems so unatural, and difficult on the guitar.
I dont understand the fascination with trying to conquer these
pieces that are clearly for Violin/ and or Piano.
I admit, i'm a flamenco nut mainly. For me, it seems to
allow the guitar to be a guitar. You dont have to work so hard
to make it sound like a piano or a harpsichord. It can just
sound like a guitar, warts and all.
Sorry, i departed from the subject :oops:
Once again, great work Jonny! :D
Just my 2 cents,
Toddk

[CarlosJR]

Great work. I know how many hours it takes to put something
like that together. I applaude your dedication.
My only gripe is actually with the composition, not your playing.
That , to me at least, is an extremely Un-guitaristic piece, as
i feel most Bach is.

I'd love to hear you play some Torroba, or Villa Lobos.
That stuff sounds like it was meant for guitar.
Bach just seems so unatural, and difficult on the guitar.
I dont understand the fascination with trying to conquer these
pieces that are clearly for Violin/ and or Piano.
I admit, i'm a flamenco nut mainly. For me, it seems to
allow the guitar to be a guitar. You dont have to work so hard
to make it sound like a piano or a harpsichord. It can just
sound like a guitar, warts and all.
Sorry, i departed from the subject :oops:
Once again, great work Jonny! :D
Just my 2 cents,
Toddk

I disagree with you a lot, I think that transcriptions are fun because to me most of the time these pieces sound so much better for the guitar. It really depends though, but I do think Bach on the guitar sounds amazing, even better than the violin.

[Peach4091]

Bach is still an enigma to me, sometimes arrangments for guitar sound wonderful and other times they sound horrid to me. Then individual players seem to affect my enjoyment of Bach more than any other composer. For instance I'm not partial to the playing of Segovia on many pieces, yet his playing of Bach pieces has almost always been beautiful to me.

Sorry for that jumbled logic, it made sense in my head.

Also thanks for the mp3 Jonny it sounded quite good to me. I can't wait to hear the fully polished version.

I'd also like to say that the idea of having a place where many of us could upload our playing for critique would be most useful. I'll have to get Capricio Arabe up to speed so I can contribute something worthwhile.

Peach

[NGiorgio]

Nice work, JH. I'd be interested to know which guitar you played on the recording.

[Pepe Vergara]

Jonny: Very good playing, and fast. I saved it in my disk for future listening.

Edwards:
Before I translate Gaspar Sanz, I must clarify that in Spanish we use the same word for the verbs TO TOUCH and TO PLAY; i.e., I play the guitar: YO TOCO LA GUITARRA. I touch the guitar: YO TOCO LA GUITARRA, the same. The context is what determines the meaning. In Gaspar Sanz's case, his quote is famous because although the context is clear, the double meaning brings some "picaresque" touch.

"La guitarra es como una dama, donde no cabe la excusa de mirame y no me toques." Gaspar Sanz (1640)

"The Spanish guitar is like a lady, except that there is no excuse not to touch it"
(literally).

Another more modern translation would be:
"Unlike women, guitars are meant to be played"

[et041053]

great sound, what guitar did u play on and what strings did u use?

[APERTURE]

[quote="edwardcav"]Jonny, as I said I like the recording. But I don't really like Bach :oops: sorry to everyone.

Ed,
What about the "Well Tempered Clavier"? How's that coming along?
Btw, Nice work Jonny! Yours will be an interesting site to visit as it progesses I'm sure. :D

[M. Stephenson]

Very nice playing, thanks for sharing. I like the variation in time, I think that many people are to strict with timing when playing Bach. Bach music can be very emotional if one allows it to be.

I added this to my MP3 collection.

I hope that this is a prelude to a site with more such works.

[Jonny Hotnuts]

81 Ramirez 1a.
Pro Arte Extra Hard.

Edcav. wanted Torroba, will try and add:
Sonatina in A, I Allegretto
ALCANIZ (FESTIVA)
Manzanares El Real (A la Moca Fermosa)
By next Monday.
Thanks again for comments.

-JH

[Scott]

Nice work Jonny. If that was from 5 months ago I can't wait to hear you now. That was what, a couple of months after you started classical? Looks like those years of wood shed and shred paid off and gave you a great stepping off point! Keep the uploads coming.

[Todd]

Great work. I know how many hours it takes to put something
like that together. I applaude your dedication.
My only gripe is actually with the composition, not your playing.
That , to me at least, is an extremely Un-guitaristic piece, as
i feel most Bach is.

I'd love to hear you play some Torroba, or Villa Lobos.
That stuff sounds like it was meant for guitar.
Bach just seems so unatural, and difficult on the guitar.
I dont understand the fascination with trying to conquer these
pieces that are clearly for Violin/ and or Piano.
I admit, i'm a flamenco nut mainly. For me, it seems to
allow the guitar to be a guitar. You dont have to work so hard
to make it sound like a piano or a harpsichord. It can just
sound like a guitar, warts and all.
Sorry, i departed from the subject :oops:
Once again, great work Jonny! :D
Just my 2 cents,
Toddk

I disagree with you a lot, I think that transcriptions are fun because to me most of the time these pieces sound so much better for the guitar. It really depends though, but I do think Bach on the guitar sounds amazing, even better than the violin.

Well, ok, you like it. But that doesnt change the piece. These
pieces contain absolutely no guitaristic chord grips of any kind.
For you, fun, for me, horribly unexciting.
I'll take the Chaconne on Violin over guitar anyday.
I've dedicated my life to guitar, but i must admit, it sucks for Bach.
Just my opinion, of course.
Toddk

[thaddeusb]

well done hotnuts. I personally like Bach, but it can be hard to make it sound like more than just notes sometimes.

thad

[cdikland]

I'd also like to say that the idea of having a place where many of us could upload our playing for critique would be most useful. I'll have to get Capricio Arabe up to speed so I can contribute something worthwhile.

Peach

Does such site already exist? If not, I have about 700 MB of disk space available on my web site. That should hold 300+ files provided MP3 or .wma format is used. Of course there would need to be a way that people (members?) can upload their works. This would require some web development to add members, validate members, upload, etc...
Hey, wait a minute :shock: That's what I do for a living :D

http://www.ckdsolutions.com

[edwardcav]

cdikland: LOL! How ironic?!??

Todd: I'll back you up. I agree in a lot of cases.

Jonny: Looking forward to those Torroba recordings! Have you ever tried Barrios?

Aperture: Yes, there is a handful of Bach arrangements for guitar that I enjoy. The well tempered clavier is one of them. It was easy to learn, with just two or three hard chords. Beautiful piece, yet so simple.

Pepe: Thank you very much for the translation. I love it!

[M. Stephenson]

Does such (an upload) site already exist?

Yes:

http://www.e-borneo.com/ab/cgforum.html

Lots of good MP3's. In fact I recently uploaded a piece played on my Samick jazz box (Gibson L5 copy)

Some of the people who post there are pretty hardcore classical and sometimes they get a little hard to stomach. However, I have gotten much good advice.

However, I would not mind having another site that allows uploads.

[snetzley]

Well done, Johnny!

[Jeffery_Doty]

Jonny,

That sounded wonderful to my ears! I would be thrilled to one day play a piece like that.

Please post some more for us to listen to.

Jeff

[Jonny Hotnuts]

I know that I promised to get a Torroba song done, and it is but after hearing Segovias version I decided to re-record it, mine just sounded too sterile. Here is another Bach, (Bach - Cello Suite No 3 in C, BWV 1009)

http://www.jonnyhotnuts.com/music.html

My timing is all over the place but recorded it only to test my new preamp that I was told would warm the tone.

Thanks again for all comments.
I know this one needs some improvement but wanted to get another song up this week.
My site will be finished soon.

Thanks.

-JH

[edwardcav]

Hey JH,

If you're still looking for a Torroba piece - how about 1. Jerigonza, from Aires De LA Mancha!!

Its slow and not really difficult, but the difficulty lies in delivering the melody with more dynamic expression and consistently robust.

I think this piece is absolutely beautiful, good luck!

[absmiths]

Well, ok, you like it. But that doesnt change the piece. These
pieces contain absolutely no guitaristic chord grips of any kind.
For you, fun, for me, horribly unexciting.
I'll take the Chaconne on Violin over guitar anyday.
I've dedicated my life to guitar, but i must admit, it sucks for Bach.
Just my opinion, of course.
Toddk

That's ironic - my wife is a violinist and hates the way violinists crunch the Bach chords. Talk about unnatural technique - they have to smash their strings down to form 3 - or 4 note chords - and most players do it rather badly.

The similar tuning of the Violin, Cello, Lute and Guitar (4ths and 5ths) make transition pretty simple. The Bach Sarabande for instance doesn't have any chords that you wouldn't find in other pieces. Most of the time the difficulty with Bach (for me) is in the polyphony and keeping a flow to it.

[absmiths]

Pepe:
I have always felt some people (teachers) vest too much of their students efforts learning and playing exercises. I don’t think there is anything that can not be learned by playing a song with the same technique. Learning songs is very difficult as with the physical aspects. With a carefully selected song set you can kill two stones with the same bird.


That depends on the maturity of the player. If someone is capable of using performance pieces (or, rather, excerpts) to build technical knowledge, then fine. But it is never a good idea to let a student saw at a piece which is over his head because the chances are that he won't get it.

If you look at the great players that are out there, none that I know of picked up a guitar and started playing the Chaconne in order to learn the instrument - they followed a regiment which generally included excercises of some sort. The same is true of athletes in general - Tim Duncan doesn't spend all day shooting baskets - he does a lot of work off court to focus training in a particular area so he can apply it during a game

[absmiths]

Aperture: Yes, there is a handful of Bach arrangements for guitar that I enjoy. The well tempered clavier is one of them. It was easy to learn, with just two or three hard chords. Beautiful piece, yet so simple.


Are you referring to The Well Tempered Clavier - the sequence of 24 Preludes and Fugues in every major and minor key?

That hardly sounds like a simple work - especially the four-voice fugues.

[edwardcav]

Sorry absmiths, I was referring to WTC prelude #1 in C Major, I never learned the fugue. It (the prelude) is easy, but like I said, there are probably two or threee chord shapes that definitely cause a bit of :shock:

[absmiths]

That prelude is very nice. Which transcription do you use? I used to play the one by Parkening - which sounds fantastic - but has just enough :shock: chords to require a lot of maintenance. It does sound surprisingly good on guitar.

[edwardcav]

Yes I use the Parkening arrangement in C Major.

I couldn't play all the chords like him, the V(Bar 4th, 5th and 6th only) on the second page required my touch, but apart from that, I really enjoy this piece of music and it is part of my repertoire.

I was thinking about arranging the fugue to guitar... And as much as the tune interested me, I am afraid it wouldn't fit the guitar too well - that is, after it's been through my hands.

what do u think

[edwardcav]

I love that fugue so much, but there are 4 melodies - 2 hands on the piano! I tried today for 2 or 3 hours and only got 4 bars done :oops:

....and hard!

I might keep trying though... as a project. this is one fantastic piece of music, it would sound fantastic as a guitar quartet.