Playing classical tunes on a steel string

[bancika]

I love playing a couple of classical songs on my steel string acoustics (both 1 11/16" necks), like the Moonlight Sonata, Rondo alla Turca (flatpicked), Fur Elise...anyone else plays classical tunes on steel strings? Sometimes I wonder if I need a classical guitar, I haven't tried one in a long time. Narrow necks on mine are not too bad, but don't help either, you have to be really, really nimble with the left hand fingers.

[redir]

I can't do it without my fingering getting all fouled up on the thin acoustic neck. It's too cramped for me. I do like the sound though.

[David-NJ]

Originally Posted by bancika

I love playing a couple of classical songs on my steel string acoustics (both 1 11/16" necks), like the Moonlight Sonata, Rondo alla Turca (flatpicked), Fur Elise...anyone else plays classical tunes on steel strings? Sometimes I wonder if I need a classical guitar, I haven't tried one in a long time. Narrow necks on mine are not too bad, but don't help either, you have to be really, really nimble with the left hand fingers.

That's awesome if you really can make it sound good. So many times when I've heard people do similarly, they don't approach it with anywhere near the same feel or nuances as classical guys do.

[bancika]

never said I was good at it, but yes, I like the sound

[ReadM]

I think that while you can technically pull off classical tunes on a steel string, if you REALLY enjoy classical music, a classical guitar is a must.

The tone of nylon is very unique, and a great classical can be had under $1K.

I played a Yari at Artisan that was superb, and I think it was around $800?

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by bancika

I love playing a couple of classical songs on my steel string acoustics (both 1 11/16" necks)...anyone else plays classical tunes on steel strings? Sometimes I wonder if I need a classical guitar...

Originally Posted by David-NJ

...So many times when I've heard people do similarly, they don't approach it with anywhere near the same feel or nuances as classical guys do...

No, you don't need a classical guitar - and if your picking technique is sufficiently developed you don't need to play fingerstyle either. Although largely forgotten now there was a whole school of "serious" archtop guitar that flourished from about 1925-1940, even as the Loar-style instrument was rising to prominence in the world of popular music. Drawing on influences from the pre-Segovia American classical style (Foden, Bickford, et al.) and late-Romantic composers as well as jazz, a number of players attempted (unsuccessfully) to advance the position of the archtop plectrum-style guitar to "legitimate" status in classical-music circles, via transcriptions of the works of major composers as well as newer/original compositions. FYI several of these are available on YouTube, and even after eighty or more years they still retain their artistic/technical merit; one can only wonder what might have been had the first-generation acoustic archtop (with its visual/structural roots in the violin family), rather than the Torres-style instrument and its successors, gained acceptance as the standard "classical" guitar. FWIW Mel Bay publishes a collection of these transcriptions/originals (a few of which appeared in the more advanced volumes of his Modern Guitar Method) under the title Masters of the Plectrum Guitar; I'd recommend it highly to any serious archtop aficionado, as well as anyone else who seeks to explore the classical repertoire from a steel-string point of view...

[fatt-dad]

I'm playing Bach Inventions with my duet partner. I'm on an arch-top mandolin and he's on a steel-string guitar.

It's great fun!

f-d

[Alan Carruth]

One of my player friends likens it to listening to Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music": "There's no darkness!".

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

No, you don't need a classical guitar - and if your picking technique is sufficiently developed you don't need to play fingerstyle either. Although largely forgotten now there was a whole school of "serious" archtop guitar that flourished from about 1925-1940, even as the Loar-style instrument was rising to prominence in the world of popular music. Drawing on influences from the pre-Segovia American classical style (Foden, Bickford, et al.) and late-Romantic composers as well as jazz, a number of players attempted (unsuccessfully) to advance the position of the archtop plectrum-style guitar to "legitimate" status in classical-music circles, via transcriptions of the works of major composers as well as newer/original compositions. FYI several of these are available on YouTube, and even after eighty or more years they still retain their artistic/technical merit; .

Eddie Lang did something like that, as I recall.

[brucefulton]

John Renbourn performed and recorded quite a number of Renaissance and Medieval lute pieces on steel stringed guitar. Mel Bay published his book of tab and sheet music, see http://www.amazon.com/Renbourns-Comp...ef=pd_cp_mov_0 and you can find most of these on youtube.

Johnny Smith recorded several classical pieces arranged for plectrum style playing including Romance do los Pinos, Nortena, Maid with the Flaxen Hair, The Old Castle and Sevilla, included on the CD/MP3 Legends: Solo Guitar Performances on http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Guitar.../dp/B000UBOV7C, sheet music and tab are available for some in various anthologies. Other plectrum artists made similar attempts.

Al DiMiola (steel string) and Manuel Barrueco (nylon string) collaborated on guitar duets, many with classical themes, see http://www.amazon.com/Nylon-Steel-Gu.../dp/B000THKD2E

Other artists have occasionally included transcriptions of classical pieces on steel string or electric. For example, Michael Hedges played a traditional arrangement of Bach's Prelude from the first cello suite on Harp Guitar (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnm__lNNUg) and Adam Rafferty has recorded the well known Bach Prelude/Cantata (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgDFL4o_-iU) on steel string guitar.

There are many more out there if you look around.

[brucefulton]

On other plucked instruments, Bela Fleck has recorded several classical pieces on Banjo (see http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00138KGRU and search youtube), and Chris Thile has recorded most of the Bach solo violin literature on Mandolin (see http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Sonatas-P.../dp/B00DJSUNWA and search youtube).

[Guitar1083]

Originally Posted by bancika

I love playing a couple of classical songs on my steel string acoustics (both 1 11/16" necks), like the Moonlight Sonata, Rondo alla Turca (flatpicked), Fur Elise...anyone else plays classical tunes on steel strings? Sometimes I wonder if I need a classical guitar, I haven't tried one in a long time. Narrow necks on mine are not too bad, but don't help either, you have to be really, really nimble with the left hand fingers.

10 years ago I bought a Martin D-41 to play classical on what a mistake

[815C]

I do when I happen to have a steel string in my hands and the mood strikes me to play a Sor Study or two. It can be musical and good - although it is obviously different than playing it on a nylon string guitar.

[Glennwillow]

Michael Chapdelaine has done some comparisons of the same piece on steel string and classical guitars. Ironically, even though I am almost 100% a steel string player, I found I liked his classical rendition better, though there is no question that a good player can do justice to a classical song on a steel string guitar. Below is a comparative example:





- Glenn

[sawdustdave]

Interesting topic. Back in the day, and I mean way back, when Bach was still walking to hear Buxtehude, keyboard pieces were just that - pieces to be played on whatever keyboard was at hand - organ, harpsichord, clavichord, etc.

These instruments have very different tonalities - quiet to massive sound, depth, etc. Still, if you played one it was expected you could/would play 'em all.

I see no reason why the guitar cannot be like this. There will be differences, but remember that Bach wrote his lute pieces for lute, not classical guitar - which did not yet exist.

My 2 cents.