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Saturday, December 13, 2008
Guitar
The guitar fest has been great. I've been learning many things from the people there. Each player had his own unique flavour I find. Jeremy Juove was intense, Paulo Bellinati was fun, Christina Azuma was sincere. However, the player I liked best and learned the most from was Andrea Dieci. His style is very thoughtful and he has a very deep understanding of each piece he plays. 



Also, I would like to mention a the top five songs which I feel are the most overplayed in classical guitar repertoire.

5) Concierto De Aranjuez (by Joaquin Rodrigo)

The Concierto de Aranjuez is probably the most well known guitar concerto. Ask any classical  guitar player about recommendations for a guitar concierto and he'll tell you to listen to Concierto de Aranjuez. Even harp and piano players play, or quote this work. In fact, it was so popular that some of Joaquin Rodrigo's other works are underrated. I think I prefer his Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre.

4) Asturias (Isaac Albeniz)

This song is overplayed largely because it's a good test of one's technical skill I feel. I know it's a Yamaha exam piece. But still, I've heard it enough times to be bored of it.

3) Canon  in D (Pachelbel Strauss)

This song is like, a staple in every single guitar ensemble. Some might say it's soothing, but I think it's just boring and immensely overplayed. It was really damn popular back when I was in secondary school and every other shop in every other shopping centre was playing it. I'm glad the fad's died out. The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet did a nice rendition of the canon though, called Pachelbel's Loose Canon. Lol. Gotta love the LAGQ.

2) Recuerdos Del Alhambra (Francisco Tarrega)

Kaori Muraji's rendition of this inspired me to pick up classical guitar (along with her Tango en Skai). But yeah, it's also a very immensely overplayed piece. It's probably Tarrega's most well known work. It's been used in movies, dramas, and it's the best piece to work on as a test of a guitarist's skill at tremolo. I still can't play this..... sigh.....

1) Romance de Amour (??)

Yes. It could only be this piece. The poser's classical song. The one that every void deck guitarist learns to say that, "hey, I'm more cultured than you think....", and then only learn the first half. It's like the classical equivalent of When You Say Nothing At All (cringes).... and the disgusting part is I used to play those songs too(ugh)... 


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