Anyone else out there doing Trinity grades? Accepting it is not the remit of this site to develop tutorials covering graded pieces in an exam syllabus....it would be very useful however if some were looked at....thoughts????
Btw...I am slowly (very slowly) working towards grade 8 and very happy to see grade 8 'B' section choice 'Vals Venezolano No.2 (Andreina Venezuelan Waltz) by Antonio Lauro' here on the site :-)
Update Jan 2021....Still on my journey to complete the grades or possibly sit Trinity's Advanced Performance Certificate which is equivalent to grade 8. Not sure which one, but the advance performance certificate I think will eventually suit me more as you concentrate on playing 25 - 30 minutes programme of music and are marked on that. As a hobby guitarist this is much more along the lines of what I want to do rather than technical exercises, scales & arpeggios, aural and sight-reading tests part of the grade 8 exam...advantage here though is just three pieces to play.
Anyway since I have last been here the world has become quite a crazy place and the continued COVID 19 situation has also turned the performance arts world upside-down...so it was great to see so many wonderful world class artists share their expertise and reach out through various social media platforms...and the many nuggets of classical musicianship gladly appreciated by myself and many many others!
I personally have succeed in build my own classical guitar from scratch following Irving Sloane's book on this and the outcome was surprisingly pleasing...although currently I have sanded off the finish as I am going to try and re-apply a French polish instead. Also I have purchased an 8 course lute and enjoying this stringed alternative and experimenting with double string courses and a traditional thumb-under technique employed with this instrument....tuning it is less fun however!
Over the last two years I have spent more time working on getting the sound I want and how better to learn memorise (I have such a terrible memory) pieces...that said and done my sight-reading has vastly improved and one of the biggest assets here was getting my eyes tested and finding out I needed reading glasses...I can now focus for much much longer on sight-reading without eye strain, blurriness and struggling to focus.
Biggest tip that I am currently finding helpful was by Tariq Harb discussing how to play the music ultra slowly and also not worry so much about timing but how the fingers are fixed/positioned, the sound and tone of the notes and the movement/transition to the next note(s)...this process does seem to speed up my muscle memory (which as I said before is shocking) and once happy with sound and transition, timing and tempo can be worked upon.....the slow slow learning technique does seem to be echoed by many great guitarist out there even if there is a debate about slow with timing or without.
Anyway I have come back to this site as I still believe that the instruction videos here are the best and hope to make much use over the coming months!
All the best ;-)
Martin