Beginner here trying to learn Cavatina. I feel that it’s way over my head, but want to challenge myself by stepping into the “tour de force" territory. I am taking it very slow, bar by bar; however, I am hopelessly stuck at bar 5 and can’t make the spread. This is after trying for about 3 to 4 weeks off and on. Any suggestions? Is this too difficult for a beginner? Thanks for any comments.
Which particular notes give you the most trouble?
I think having a ‘challenge’ piece is a great idea by the way. No piece is over your head if you take it slowly and stepwise
Hi Kevin, this is high on my list of songs to learn, I hope you'll be able to get passed this difficult part. I have the same trouble with a stretch in the second part of Romanza. I can play the rest no problem but this one part seems impossible to reach, and I have quite big hands. There'a couple of parts in Capricho Arabe I still can't play properly and I learned that quite a while ago, I hope I'll get there the more I practice, and like a lot of Cavatina, the tough bit involves a bar and a stretch!
I started learning Tango en Skai but haven't had enough time to work on it properly so I'll come back to it in the summer. I learned Adelita last night in an hour and a half which I was delighted with, it's the quickest of any other I've learned. Tavi said in the tutorial it's often played together with Lagrima in concerts, so it's good to be able to play both. Did you finish learning Lagrima? Good luck with Cavatina, but if you think it's too much at the moment keep building up with the easier ones.
I can't maintain the bar on the 7th while trying to hit the E on the G string. Nathan, wow! An hour and a half to learn Adelita, nice! I should try and go back to that. As usual, for me, I always get stuck with a part that just seems impossible and, perhaps wrongly, I move on to something else. So I what I have is a repertoire of fragments - incomplete pieces. I have made good progress on Lagrima, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desirings, and Romanza so that keeps me motivated. Nathan, I wish you much success with Tango en Skai. Thanks folks for your comments.
I'm having a look at the tutorial, and might have to push on with learning this song, finally! Do you mean the 7th fret in Bar 2? Tavi says to let the weight of your hand pulling down on the strings help with maintaining the bar chords, not just pressing the neck with your thumb.
The reason I learned Adelita is because I haven't had time to carry on with Tango. It's a big project and I didn't want to go too long without learning something new. There's only 2 parts to the tutorial and I was surprised I managed to learn it in one go. My advice as a fellow beginner is to carry on with the easier songs you started learning until you can play them all to the end. It will give you more confidence to take on the advanced songs. You could carry on with Cavatina at the same time, but see it as a long term project that will take some doing. It took me 3-4 weeks to learn Capricho Arabe. I've been practicing for a few months and there's a couple of parts I still can't play properly. At the moment I'm just playing through it to see if it falls into place eventually.
It's a great feeling to play a whole song and see the improvements with practice.
Hey Kevin,
I have small sausage fingers and struggled with that bar too. For bar 5 there are two things that made it easier:
first was to fret each note only as it comes up - ie. instead of placing both 2nd and 3rd fingers at once, place the 3rd finger first to play the C#, and then the 2nd finger on the 3th string for the E. I find this helps a little because placing both fingers at once turns your hand too much and lifts the index finger from the barre.
Second is to use the motion of the 3rd and 2nd fingers coming down onto the string to increase your hand and arm weight on the chord so you can pull down into the chord more each time. i find if you start your index finger higher up the 7th fret and barring using the side of the finger, you can roll it onto the flat front of the finger as your 3rd and 2nd finger come down to help with that "pulling" sensation
Let me know if you have trouble visualizing this and i could try to post a video
Alex
Just got through the 1st tutorial and had the same trouble with Bar 5, easier to do it how you said, and quicker.
Nathan - its bar 5. And, I agree with you. I am going to stick to beginner level pieces and make Cavatina a long term project. Thanks for your response.
Alex - great recommendations from you that I will try. You have described my problem perfectly and I really appreciate the level of detail you have provided - thanks!
Probably a good idea to build up to that piece. Cavatina is one of the most exhausting pieces to learn and requires a lot of effort to the bar chords. One student entitled it "Baratina"
Alex - been working on your suggestion, "instead of placing both 2nd and 3rd fingers at once, place the 3rd finger first to play the C#, and then the 2nd finger on the 3th string for the E.", and it is starting to work for me - many thanks! When I play the E on the 3rd string, my index finger no longer bars, so I play the remaining A, E, A without barring the E or A string - it's cheating and I hope hope I'm not off to starting another bad habit. But, I still can't maintain a bar at the 7th while playing that E on the 3rd. Similarly, On the first bar, I don't bar the E or A.
Tavi - I agree, but I'm going to use this as a "push" practice piece. I'm also thinking about going back to normal tension strings. Great tutorial - thanks!
Looking forward to hearing you play it
Alex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JO0LlT3iuQ&feature=youtu.be
Here's my rendition. I'll try to post a cleaner one in the future maybe
Alex
Awesome - thanks for sharing your performance. You are much further along than I am and I'm sure it will sound even better as time passes. I wish I could nail the ending Barr chords as well as you.
Bar 14 is another difficult one, with sausage fingers! I'm using the third finger to play F# and the little finger to jump between the 3rd and 2nd string.
Bar 30 - too difficult maintaining high E with the accompaniment and placing the second finger on the third string. Have to release the high E to be able to do that.
Hey Nathan, I feel your pain. try:
dropping your elbow to get more around the fretboard with your wrist
fretting your index higher up on the 6th string to make room for your 2nd finger
abandoning your thumb behind the neck for less strain on your hand
if none of these work just try to work at the stretch a few times a day while moving on to the rest of the piece. You’ll get it sooner or later.
If you want to cheat a little, that high E barely has any sustain by the time you get to the lower E anyways, so if you use a lot of vibrato and then release the pinky for the 2nd finger it still sounds pretty nice
HI Alex, it's a bit better now but quite tricky to avoid buzzing other strings. I'll try the fretting option as well. Cheers for the advice :)
Worked on tutorial 3 all yesterday evening and tonight to get through it, should be ok now, see if I can remember it in the morning. I'm just going to ignore any difficulties for now, learn the piece first then worry about that later. I've been meaning to learn Cavatina for a long time, glad to be almost there now.
Practicing Natalia and Cavatina will be enough work to carry on with then for a while. Not learning anything else until Serenata Espaniola is here, looking forward to that.
Just taking a break after 50 failed recordings!
Didn't manage to get a clean recording, was getting exhausted after so many tries, and that ending is a killer, haven't managed to play it properly yet. I'm just glad I've finally learned the piece.
Good job man. It will sound even better every day
Cheers Alex, it will take quite some time to get used to the stretches and strains involved in this piece, but well worth the effort.
I've taken on a side project as well, bought the Tabs for Autumn Leaves which are quite straightforward to follow. Got the intro up to the harmonics learned so far. Was it you who said you were learning this a while ago? I remember the post but can't find it now.
I found the post in your El noi de la mare thread, did you finish learning it?
I'm just practicing the intro so far. Getting used to learning from tabs, takes a bit longer that way so making sure I can remember it before moving on. Would be good to see you play if you've recorded it?