Wayne Morrison wrote:
It's even worse for guitarists where dance tempos can pretty much destroy the chance of expression unless you resort to flatpick melody playing against a rythmic chord accompaniment. It's not especially difficult to play fast, and some classical pieces are extremely fast - but NOT on the whole for the entire melody (more fast in the way that bits of Mozart or Bach can be fast - the melody threads itself into a pattern of alternating notes or arpeggios). And if I want to play that sort of fast I immediately pick up a nylon string guitar, too, not a steel string.I don't know how this happened, but I apologize to you Cynthia (and anyone else bothered by the faster tempos) for any heartache and finger-stress I caused you in trying to match these higher tempos.
I find it funny sometimes that dancers will completely fail to identify a tune when played at an entirely different tempo. A while ago I played 'The Birks of Invermay' from Bremner's 1758 guittar tutor - where it is written without much 'snap', and for an instrument which is best played delicately and with use of sustain. A Scottish country dancer friend liked it and asked what it was - after I told him, he immediately recognised it, but said playing at such a slow speed had hidden the tune from him. To me, the slow speed brings out the beauty of the tune (which has a very song-like melody and is no doubt a song too) and the dance tempo just makes it sound like everything else!
David
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