From the September/October 2019 difficulty BY ADAM PERLMUTTER
The Spanish classical and American ragtime guitar traditions don’t regularly engage, as a minimum now not in apparent approaches. But after they do—as in Diego Garcia’s “Spanish Rag”—the consequences may be transcendent. Of his solo guitar composition, Garcia says, “It’s simple Spanish cadences meet Merle Travis.”
Garcia, who's now in his early 40s, were given an early begin to track. At the age of six he started getting to know classical guitar in his native Valencia, Spain, beneath the tutelage of Jose Lázaro, who had studied with Andrés Segovia. In his teenager years Garcia took a eager interest in American guitar sounds, mainly in rockabilly and Chet Atkins, and joined a rock band. Since then, Garcia has combined his Spanish roots with North and South American influences in his work on acoustic, each metallic- and nylon-string, and electric guitar.
Garcia is known to play “Spanish Rag” on a hollowbody electric, namely a Gibson ES-295, however as he demonstrates in the accompanying video on AG’s website, the piece works out wonderfully on a metal-string like the Collings OM1 JL Julian Lage signature version. Whatever the tool, “Spanish Rag,” with its breakneck tempo, isn't the very best rag to address, but given its wealth of interesting guitar maneuvers, it’s worth the attempt to woodshed on this one.
Getting Started
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As in mastering any complicated piece of tune, it’s first-rate to break “Spanish Rag” into workable pieces, instead of looking to plow through everything immediately.
Start with the primary four bars—whose subject also appears in measures 24–27 and 70–73—due to the fact they’re the easiest. The piece kicks off within the key of A minor, with the vi and V chords (F and E, respectively) lending a Spanish flavor. Try fretting the F chord’s 6th-string root with the aid of wrapping your thumb across the neck at the primary worry, as Garcia does within the video, as a way to make it simpler to replace among the F and E chords. Note, too, that the signs and symptoms in bars 2 and three call for a repeat of degree 1.
As for the picking hand, Garcia performs “Spanish Rag” with a thumbpick and palms. He reveals that the select offers him a wider dynamic variety, plus a “two-sounds-in-one ragtime experience,” as he puts it, however strict fingerstyle technique may also paintings nicely for the piece. For the arpeggios inside the first several bars and some place else, Garcia uses an average classical approach: as opposed to pick out with the thumb and arms (like an average folks or blues guitarist), he uses three palms. On the F and E chords, he assigns his thumb to string 6, index to 4, center to a few, and ring to 2. If you’re not within the dependancy of picking together with your thumb and three fingers, this is a good area to try out a new selecting approach.
Planning Ahead
Things get pretty a chunk trickier for the fretting hand starting in bar 7, but a touch preplanning can make this phase easier to address. Measures 7–10 are based on an A minor chord in 9th function. Before you play the tune, form this grip: forestall the C on string four, agonize 10 along with your second finger; barre strings 2–3 at be concerned 9 along with your first finger; and forestall the A on string 2, be anxious 10 together with your third finger.
Now slide the complete grip down three frets, such that your 0.33 finger is at the F# on string 2, fret 7. Pick most effective that observe and the open A string, and fast slide returned up three frets on the pinnacle of bar 7. On the “and” of beat three in the same measure, lift your 2d finger from the grip to play the 9th-agonize G# on string 2. At the start of bar 8, go back your third finger to the tenth-be concerned A, and use your fourth finger to seize the 12th-be troubled B after which the thirteenth-fret C. Knowing precisely wherein every finger need to be on any given beat is crucial to gambling the piece at pace, so make sure to apply this kind of thinking to the relaxation of the piece.
As you benefit self assurance in working through “Spanish Rag,” it might be tempting to speed matters up. But most effective growth the pace whilst you may play each section cleanly and seamlessly. And although this is surely an up-tempo range, keep in mind that pace is not necessarily its most critical issue. “Never focus on speed on the expense of self belief and expression,” Garcia says.