Me on Guitar Again
After I found (and was so impressed by) the videos of Kazuhito Yamashita playing Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" on classical guitar, I was inspired to buy the sheet music of Yamashita's transcription. Some of it is just incredibly difficult -- the most technically challenging music I've ever seen.
I've been working up one little movement -- "The Tuileries" -- and can play it passably well, I think. It's still pretty hard; nothing about it is very idiomatic on the guitar. Lots of fast right-hand scales that are hard to pull off cleanly (e.g., at 8-10 seconds, or at 59 seconds). Lots of left-hand shifts that are devilishly hard (e.g., 27-28 seconds, 37-38 seconds, and 1:03-1:06). Then there are effects that are very difficult for both the right and left hand. At 33-34 seconds there's a difficult left hand passage that has two right-hand harmonics that Yamashita throws in, apparently just to make it harder. The arpeggiated chord at 40 seconds is very, very difficult. It's a very awkward left-hand position in and of itself; the left-hand shifts to and from that position make it harder to do without buzzing; and then the backwards arpeggio is very hard for the right hand to perform cleanly and with a light sound.
I've been working up one little movement -- "The Tuileries" -- and can play it passably well, I think. It's still pretty hard; nothing about it is very idiomatic on the guitar. Lots of fast right-hand scales that are hard to pull off cleanly (e.g., at 8-10 seconds, or at 59 seconds). Lots of left-hand shifts that are devilishly hard (e.g., 27-28 seconds, 37-38 seconds, and 1:03-1:06). Then there are effects that are very difficult for both the right and left hand. At 33-34 seconds there's a difficult left hand passage that has two right-hand harmonics that Yamashita throws in, apparently just to make it harder. The arpeggiated chord at 40 seconds is very, very difficult. It's a very awkward left-hand position in and of itself; the left-hand shifts to and from that position make it harder to do without buzzing; and then the backwards arpeggio is very hard for the right hand to perform cleanly and with a light sound.
posted by Stuart Buck at
11:26 AM
4 Comments:
Nice playing. You're brave to attempt this, and it comes off well.
Good playing. I just got the sheet music as well about a week ago, and have gotten through the Promenade, but it will be a few more weeks before I am brave enough to record and post it. Side item: I'm assuming you recorded that in the bathroom for acoustics?
Where can you get the sheet music for this? I've scoured the internet with no luck. The link you provide doesn't direct to it.
I don't -- I guess GSP stopped selling it.
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