Monthly Archives: March 2019

Asturias (Leyenda)

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This is the piece that got me into classical guitar…

During the summer of 1992 my family moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Holland, Michigan. I was going to begin my freshmen year at Hope College in the fall. My parents had recently purchased me an Alvarez classical guitar and my dad bought a John Williams CD. Here is me (with Christopher Parkening) with my Alvarez…

I remember laying on the ground listening to that CD and Leyenda came on. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was the most amazing piece of music my young brain had ever heard!! Was that really just one guitar?? I remember thinking, “I have GOT to learn that song!”

That fall, at Hope College, I took a beginning classical guitar class at Hope with Larry Malfroid. I remember before class one time asking him if he knew the piece. He started playing and I was totally impressed.

That piece of music literally changed my life. It was because of that piece I started learning classical guitar which, in turn, made me decide to become a music major which led me to learn composition and so and so on. Here is a version by Julian Bream that I’ve been listening to a lot lately…

Kazuhito Yamashita is My Favorite Guitarist

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Yamashita is my favorite guitarist and it isn’t even close. He is like Tiger Woods 15 years ago. There’s Yamashita and then there is everyone else way, way, far away. He plays with tremendous passion and his technique is amazing.

I’ve been listening to his arrangement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony a lot lately. Of course, you can argue whether or not it should be played on the guitar and if I had my choice I would certainly listen to the original BUT….it is so impressive what he has done. Just check out his performance of the second movement. Not to mention the third and fourth movements.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of high quality videos of his on Youtube. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The last video is his complete performance of the “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky. Not really a fan of this piece in its original form but I can certainly appreciate his musicality and technique. The guitars greatest strength is the different colors it can produce (dolce, ponticello, etc) and he demonstrates that in the performance even on this awful video recording.

Here is a little excerpt from the score:

How are you supposed to play that trill and the higher chords at the same time??? Guess what? He does it. Watch the video.

Finally, here is nice interview about one of his concerts:

House of the Rising Sun

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Possibly my most favorite song, ever, of all-time. I love the version by The Animals. Who doesn’t?? Recently I have been listening to Bob Dylan’s version of the song which, I must say, is amazing. I have made a couple arrangements for solo guitar. It can be found in my Easy Arrangements, Vol. 1. You can listen to that arrangement here:

I have also made longer version that is a touch more difficult. It begins by playing the theme slowly…

The theme then moves to the bass…

Then to the upper voice…

Then I speed it up. First in triplets…

Tremolo….

and for the finale I switch it to strumming…

Here is me performing the full arrangement in concert a few weeks ago…

The full arrangement…

The arrangement is available here.

-Rob