Bach, "Saraband BWV 997"

Renato Bellucci teaches one of the most beautiful Bach Sarabands from the Lute suite BWV 997. BACH is the endless source of heavenly music and te one composer that uses the most diverse harmonic and technical resources to leave his audience in total awe.The Lute was tremendously fashionable during Bach times and we guitarists are blessed because Bach new the Lute thoroughly and wrote some of the most beautiful suites for it. They are simply marvelous. He would then recycle some of these works to adapt them to his other instrumental suites. But I think that some of his most remarkable dances were written for the Baroque lute. The Lute is one of the closes relatives of both the Vihuela and clearly to the classical guitar where the biggest difference actually sits not is the number of strings as one would suspect but in the tension of the strings which is way higher on the guitar. The lute suites and this particularSarabande from the BWV 997 offer a terrific benchmark to master several very important technical elements from the Carlevaro Technique compendium: 1) Levers 2) The use of the Base of Finger 1 3) Pivots, 4) Fijación 5) Avoid String Squeaks at all costs. I will explain each a I upload the individual staffs and the complementary Tutorial videos.

I have always been a very curious person and although I admit and know that not all curiosity is legitimate, I also find that being curious in a correct manner opens the doors to many very useful insights or even discoveries. While observing a fiddle player I noticed that he would often stop notes on the first string of his violin using the lower tip of finger 1. Where the finger meets the palm of the hand. Read More

The fingers in the left hand are often called in to perform either stretchesor Contractions. These are the 2 sides of the same coin and typically, one is immediately followed by the other so as to compensate for the instability that both generate in the left hand. The active participation of the arm, wrist and shoulder is essential in achieving good stretches that will cause as little strain and string squeaks as possible. Read More

When guitarists mention the word tired, they usually refer to the left hand. This is due to the most widespread error of them all: To think fingers when thinking of playing notes. The correct way to see the left hand is to see it as different ways to present the hand and the fingers, simply stopping the correct notes. Read More