Recuerdos bpm

[6twenty7]

So I’m on my quest to finish my New Years resolution: learn a tremolo song. I’ve been using the first half of recuerdos de la hambra for my practice routine everyday using a metronome. I’m able to get evenness and loudness up to about 100bpm. If I go faster the tremolo is just too silent and the notes blend in nasty. I watch kyuhee Parks performance on this piece and she’s going at 150bpm and that tremolo is just buttery smooth and loud. Lol 50 more bpm!!! Fml lol

So I downloaded Augustine barrios book and looked at ultimate tremolo another song I’ve always wanted to learn. Bpm on that song is at 84 which sounds more reasonable haha.

So I’m wondering if I should ditch recuerdos right now and use this piece to practice instead as my first. I do know all the chords to recuerdos the only thing missing is the speed. The barrios piece looks easier because most of the tremolo is on the high E string at a slower speed, but the chord transitions on this one is way trickier and harder.


What are your guys thoughts.

[FrankHS]

I think you are clocking the bpms differently (by 50%.) A "tasteful" speed for Recuerdos would be (ie Parkening) _quarter_ note = 76 bpm. But given 3/4 time sig, that's two bass notes and 6 upper tremolo notes per click. (Perhaps what you are calling 152 bpm, not sure.) Doug Niedt says (IIRC) "A tremolo begins to have effect at about 60 bpm....Recuerdos DLA begins to sound too rushed at over 82 bpm." I think John Williams plays it at mid 80s.

To crack the code for volume and speed, I found Pepe Romero's two Youtubes of two private lessons valuable. (Did a month of practice with just those two Youtubes.) I was then ready to purchase a Douglas Niedt's tutorial for Recuerdos, where he is adamant it's NOT a tremolo lesson, but only a How-to-play Recuerdos lesson (about 40 pages worth, and accompanying videos.)

A generous gentleman on this forum, Dmitry Nilov, has linked his Youtube channel and tremolo tutorials. They looked very thorough. Channel is, "Creative Workshop Classics of Sound DN."

[rick-slo]

Perfect fingernail length and shape will help tremendously.

[dkstott]

I commend you for trying this tune.

But my humble thought is that it's been overdone. Everywhere I look, someone's posting their playing of it on YouTube or it's on someone's latest CD.

It's almost become the classical guitar version of Stairway to Heaven for me. I just can't stand to listen to it anymore.

Dave

[FrankHS]

Originally Posted by dkstott

I commend you for trying this tune.

But my humble thought is that it's been overdone. Everywhere I look, someone's posting their playing of it on YouTube or it's on someone's latest CD.

It's almost become the classical guitar version of Stairway to Heaven for me. I just can't stand to listen to it anymore.

Dave

Ah, a <<humble thought>.

[smwink]

Check out the Sagreras Book 3, Lesson 4. I think it's a nice alternative to the more familiar tunes, and a good way to build a solid foundation for the technique while still enjoying a musically interesting piece.

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by dkstott

I commend you for trying this tune.

But my humble thought is that it's been overdone. Everywhere I look, someone's posting their playing of it on YouTube or it's on someone's latest CD.

It's almost become the classical guitar version of Stairway to Heaven for me. I just can't stand to listen to it anymore.

Dave

Haha i haven't been listening or playing classical all my life so this song is still pretty fresh to me. I'll eventually get to your stage since i know recuerdos is "the" tremolo song.

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by smwink

Check out the Sagreras Book 3, Lesson 4. I think it's a nice alternative to the more familiar tunes, and a good way to build a solid foundation for the technique while still enjoying a musically interesting piece.

gonna grab the book! thanks!

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by FrankHS

I think you are clocking the bpms differently (by 50%.) A "tasteful" speed for Recuerdos would be (ie Parkening) _quarter_ note = 76 bpm. But given 3/4 time sig, that's two bass notes and 6 upper tremolo notes per click. (Perhaps what you are calling 152 bpm, not sure.) Doug Niedt says (IIRC) "A tremolo begins to have effect at about 60 bpm....Recuerdos DLA begins to sound too rushed at over 82 bpm." I think John Williams plays it at mid 80s.

To crack the code for volume and speed, I found Pepe Romero's two Youtubes of two private lessons valuable. (Did a month of practice with just those two Youtubes.) I was then ready to purchase a Douglas Niedt's tutorial for Recuerdos, where he is adamant it's NOT a tremolo lesson, but only a How-to-play Recuerdos lesson (about 40 pages worth, and accompanying videos.)

A generous gentleman on this forum, Dmitry Nilov, has linked his Youtube channel and tremolo tutorials. They looked very thorough. Channel is, "Creative Workshop Classics of Sound DN."

haha maybe my metronome on my phone is different, but i put quarter note 3/4 at 70-84 bpm and can tell its not at the right speed, too slow. My teacher told me the standard tremolo is between 140-155bpm. ill probably download some other metronomes to try.

[smwink]

Originally Posted by 6twenty7

haha maybe my metronome on my phone is different, but i put quarter note 3/4 at 70-84 bpm and can tell its not at the right speed, too slow. My teacher told me the standard tremolo is between 140-155bpm. ill probably download some other metronomes to try.

I think the point was that you're likely referencing 16th note tremolo (one thumb, one a-m-i cycle per beat or quarter note). Recuerdos is written with 32nd note tremolos (one thumb, one a-m-i cycle per 8th note, so two cycles per beat).

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by 6twenty7

haha maybe my metronome on my phone is different, but i put quarter note 3/4 at 70-84 bpm and can tell its not at the right speed, too slow. My teacher told me the standard tremolo is between 140-155bpm. ill probably download some other metronomes to try.

My guess is that your phone metronome is correct, and it’s your understanding of counting that’s flawed.
It sounds like you’re counting the tremolo notes, which isn’t what you should be doing. If you’re counting those at 70-84 bpm, it’s no wonder you’re thinking it’s slow….
3/4 means: 3 CLICKS per MEASURE, with each click falling on the first 1/8 note of three 1/8 note groupings in this particular piece.
If you’re still having a problem, then try this:
Set your metronome at 80, and leave out (don’t play) the tremolo notes. Just play the thumb notes. i.e. one click per 1/8 note grouping.
It should now be clear to you how fast the 80 setting is for that piece.
If you’re still not convinced, try adding the tremolo notes…..

Just a question for my curiosity:
Are you learning this piece with TAB only, or is there notation shown?

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by AndreF

My guess is that your phone metronome is correct, and it’s your understanding of counting that’s flawed.
It sounds like you’re counting the tremolo notes, which isn’t what you should be doing. If you’re counting those at 70-84 bpm, it’s no wonder you’re thinking it’s slow….
3/4 means: 3 CLICKS per MEASURE, with each click falling on the first 1/8 note of three 1/8 note groupings in this particular piece.
If you’re still having a problem, then try this:
Set your metronome at 80, and leave out (don’t play) the tremolo notes. Just play the thumb notes. i.e. one click per 1/8 note grouping.
It should now be clear to you how fast the 80 setting is for that piece.
If you’re still not convinced, try adding the tremolo notes…..

Just a question for my curiosity:
Are you learning this piece with TAB only, or is there notation shown?

only notation sadly =( im doing pami for each beat. my metronome is pretty basic, you can only change the number of beats and the sound it makes lol.

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by smwink

I think the point was that you're likely referencing 16th note tremolo (one thumb, one a-m-i cycle per beat or quarter note). Recuerdos is written with 32nd note tremolos (one thumb, one a-m-i cycle per 8th note, so two cycles per beat).

ahhhh yeah definitely my mistake.
I was matching the beats of the metronome to the video and was counting the "and" parts when counting. Gotta go back and redo =P

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by 6twenty7

only notation sadly =( im doing pami for each beat. my metronome is pretty basic, you can only change the number of beats and the sound it makes lol.

Notation is good. I was curious on whether you only had numbers to go by, which makes these explanations, as well as following the music, much harder imo.

pami is a good pattern. Note though that:
You should be playing pami pami for each click/beat, so 6 pami's per measure!
A basic metronome is all you need.

[6twenty7]

Originally Posted by AndreF

Notation is good. I was curious on whether you only had numbers to go by, which makes these explanations, as well as following the music, much harder imo.

pami is a good pattern. Note though that:
You should be playing pami pami for each click/beat, so 6 pami's per measure!
A basic metronome is all you need.

yep thats what im doing now =)

i can comfortably do 2 sets of pami per beat at 50bpm... gotta inch my way up to 75-80 =(