Aguado's Estudio No. 16: Planting in 1843

A very short performance of Study No. 16, played on a Panormo copy: a modern remake of the kind of 19th-century guitar Aguado wrote for and played on. It is part of a lesson available free at Classical Guitar Magazine (see my post on it).

Planting feels like modern guitar technique. Aguado was already asking for it in 1843. Estudio No. 16 in his Nuevo Método para Guitarra comes with two short notes to the player, one above the music and one below it, and the last sentence describes planting exactly: pluck the chord, then put the same fingers straight back on the strings. The first note asks for silence too, this time from the left hand.

This is a companion to my full lesson on the study, Aguado Estudio No. 16, which breaks it into five micro studies.

What Aguado wrote

Here are both notes in the original Spanish, spelling as printed in 1843, with the musical terms translated in brackets. The first sits above the music:

Los movimientos de la izquierda [left hand] al pasar del acorde [chord] á la escala [scale], han de ser mui rápidos, para que se aproveche todo el valor del primero. El acorde la do♯ la [A, C♯, A] del compas [bar] 4º se ejecuta con ceja [barre], aunque no sea absolutamente necesario, con el fin de acallar las vibraciones del re grave (al aire) [low open D] del acorde anterior, que producirian una disonancia de segunda [dissonance of a second] (vease la seccion segunda § 219).

Este estudio se puede hacer aun mas útil ejecutando cada compas [bar] de la 1ª parte de la manera que indica el ejemplo puesto al fin, que es el primer compas, esto es, haciendo fusas [32nd notes, demisemiquavers] las semicorcheas [sixteenth notes, semiquavers].

The second sits below it:

Se ejecutarán con mucha igualdad las ochó fusas [eight 32nd notes] de cada dos grupos. Inmediatamente después de haber pulsado [plucked] el acorde de cada uno de los compases [bars] 5, 9 y 13 se colocarán sobre las cuerdas los mismos dedos que las han pulsado para apagar el sonido [to stop the sound].

And in English:

The left-hand movements from the chord to the scale must be very quick, so that the chord keeps its full value. The chord A, C♯, A in bar 4 is played with a barre, although it is not absolutely necessary, in order to silence the vibrations of the low open D from the chord before, which would produce a dissonance of a second (see Section Two, § 219).

This study can be made even more useful by playing each bar of the first part as the example at the end shows (it is the first bar): that is, by turning the sixteenth notes into 32nd notes.

The eight 32nd notes in each pair of groups are to be played with great evenness. Immediately after plucking the chord in each of bars 5, 9 and 13, place the same fingers that plucked the strings back on them to stop the sound.

Four instructions in two notes

The first is about the left hand: get off the chord and into the scale fast, but not so early that the chord loses its length.

The second is the barre in bar 4. Aguado admits it is not strictly needed for the notes. He asks for it because the chord before leaves the open D ringing, and against the A, C♯, A that ring is a clash of a second. The barre lies across the strings and stops it. That is damping with the left hand, written into the fingering on purpose.

The third is the 32nd-note idea, and it is where my Micro Study 3 comes from: the same scale fragments at double speed, every note even. You will find it in the main lesson.

The fourth is the one to read twice. Aguado never uses the word planting. He describes it: se colocarán sobre las cuerdas los mismos dedos que las han pulsado, the same fingers that plucked the strings are placed back on them. In bars 5, 9 and 13, as soon as the chord sounds, the fingers go straight back to the strings and the chord stops.

Planting, then and now

Planting is the pads of the fingers touching the string first, then the stroke moving back across the nail, which moves the string and makes the tone. There are two core techniques, full planting and sequential planting, and both give you security on the strings, so you always know where your fingers are. Micro Study 19 covers both.

Aguado’s version is planting used for silence. The fingers return to the strings to damp the chord, and in bar 4 the left-hand barre does the same job for the bass. Remember that Aguado played with nails and Sor did not. A pad landing on the string before the nail moves it is the heart of the flesh-and-nail stroke guitarists still use today, and here it is in print in 1843.

Practise it in Estudio No. 16

1. Play bars 3 and 4 slowly, first without the barre in bar 4 and then with it. Listen for the open D from the chord before ringing into the new chord, then hear it disappear.
2. Find the chords in bars 5, 9 and 13.
3. Play each chord, then immediately put the same fingers back on the same strings. The chord should stop dead, with no ring and no buzz.
4. Once that is secure, play the whole study with the chords in context.

The full lesson, with all five micro studies and Aguado’s own exercises, is here: Aguado Estudio No. 16.