Rodrigo Fantasia para un Gentilhombre Guitar Lesson
Rodrigo Fantasia para un Gentilhombre is a guitar lesson that will help you lift this amazing concerto for classical guitar off the page, in a step by step manner. Making sure that you learn all the hacks, tips, and fingerings you need to play this at home.
Fantasia para un gentilhombre
This concerto was written for Segovia, and has ties to old Spain. The music that Rodrigo has utilized as inspiration is Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española (Musical Instruction on the Spanish Guitar) by Gaspar Sanz. (See this Wikipedia entry for more.) A three volume work, that was published in 1674, 1675, & 1697. The music in Rodrigo’s Concerto retains Sanz’s names, as well as using his melodies. It was premiered by Segovia, in 1958, with the San Francisco Orchestra. We have 6 movements in 4 parts:
- Villano y ricercar
- Españoleta y fanfarria de la caballería de Nápoles
- Danza de las hachas
- Canario
Rodrigo Fantasia para un Gentilhombre Guitar Lesson (Villano 1)
This first lesson above covers those opening chords, which reoccur throughout this concerto, lots of A major across first & fifth position. There is also the first melody, which with each return has an increasingly complex counterpoint theme. These are challenging, and will need a little extra time to practice. Rodrigo expected a lot from his guitarists, and therefore wrote music, not guitar music.
Rodrigo Fantasia (Villano 2)
Fantasia lesson 2 covers the first series of scales in this opening to this very old style concerto by Rodrigo. Here we see a standard set of scale formulas, moving, generally, in an up and down approach with very little patterning. That being said, they are beautiful, and will require you to be proficient at scales above fret XII. So watch your left-hand positioning. The lesson chunks these scales into 9 sections, to really make it easy to learn and play.
In the video above I give 3 options for the really high scale part, two will utilize a modern guitar approach, 4 notes across 1 string; the final one is Segovia’s solution to this scale. His approach requires a high arch to the left-hand, and is not as friendly as the first two. But as usual, the choice is yours for how you tackle the fingering in Rodrigo Fantasia para un Gentilhombre.
Villano 3
This third lesson covers the final parts to the Villano section of the fantasia. It starts with that beautiful counterpoint melody above, a fair challenge for the left-hand. It also includes the rest of the scales. And they are juicy, and slightly challenging. The video below explains how to set your left-hand for those high, above fret XII scales. Take your time and chunk up all the information, then build it up.
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