Hey Guys,
One of the most common pieces a lot of people start out with is the BWV999 prelude in Dminor (originally C minor).
It seems that many teachers pass this piece on to students as an introduction to the classical guitar.
Personally – I couldn’t disagree MORE with this approach as it is certainly no where near a beginner level piece and there is a great deal of technical work required before anyone should be ready to play this piece.
That being said – one of the things that really got me when I worked on this piece was the monster stretch in measure 15. It’s huge and you really need to take some time working it out.
While browsing through my classical guitar feeds this morning I found this video discussing exactly that – hope you guys enjoy!
This guy states that he doesn’t have the piece performance ready, but he has obviously done a fair amount of research and spent some time on this stretch so hopefully it will help some of you out!
-Rob
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I only watched the video until minute 3.
In my opinion, the guy in the video makes up his own problem because he places his index finger parallel to the first fret and has to stretch the little finger way too much. His little finger crosses the top 3 strings at an angle of 45 degrees.
This stretch is much easier when you don’t ‘glue’ the index finger parallel to the first fret.
The index finger only needs contact on the low e string and when I play this bar, the rest of my index finger ‘leaves’ the low e string at an angle, placing my knuckles closer to the higher frets. In this way, the stretching of my little finger is much easier.
Compared to this video, it is almost the opposite with my little finger crossing the top 3 strings in parallel to the 5th fret while my index finger helps with the stretch by ‘leaving’ the low e string with an angle towards the higher frets.
You play as the composer intended. Thank you for posting.