Could use some advice on Romanza

[abbenormal]

Hi everyone...I've finally gotten the song Romanza down pretty well. But when I am at the part where I have to barre the 7th fret, I have so much trouble. I can play everything up to and beyond that point, but that point!! Aaargh. LOL

I guess I haven't got the finger strength to get a good sound out of a barre chord like I used to be able to do. I tried the method of using my thumb on the base note, but that didn't work much better for me. I've been practicing this every day and my left hand is sooo sore. Does anyone know any way around this. I will keep practicing my barre chords, but in the meantime, I'd sure like to play this song all the way through. Thanks for any advice or just plain old commiserating you care to share with me.

BTW, I play this on the guitar on the left hand side in the pic. And old 1960 classical.

[wrench]

abbenormal,

Assuming the action of the guitar is OK, I can think of two things that may help you. First, when you make the barre, make sure your thumb is vertical and aligned with your index finger. Second, barres start getting tricky that far up the neck because the neck is getting wider, so you may need to position your index finger such that the low e string makes contact on the index finger a little closer to your palm. Experiment with this positioning and you will probably find one where all the notes in that barre sound cleanly.

If you have the song down pretty well otherwise, you can beat this. This wasn't as big a problem for me as that most enjoyable 9th, 5th, and 6th fret stretch near the end!

Hope this helps you out some and good luck!

[abbenormal]

Thank you Wrench. I should have mentioned..but forgot...I only am playing the first part of the song, that you see on the free video. I don't think I'm intrepid enough to try to tackle the entire piece. You must play really well to have gotten all of it...how cool! Thanks for your advice....I'll keep working at it...curse these short stubby Italian fingers! LOL

[wrench]

If you can play the first page of Romanza, you can play darn near ANYTHING. And I have documented many times here in the the TG forum that regardless of your hands, you can make them better than they are now, and you can play more than you think.

Your stubby Italian fingers will work just as good or better than my old mangled ones. Keep at it - you're working on a very hard song.

[abbenormal]

Thank you so much! I taught myself some chords when my brother gave me this guitar years ago. I tried to take lessons but after two attempts realized I just can't learn that way. So I've always just played what friends have shown me and now I try to learn from videos and tabs. I didn't realize Romanza was an advanced piece. I think if I had know that, I might not have been able to learn it. LOL It's good sometimes not to know you shouldn't be able to do something. I appreciate your comments. I feel great now!

[wrench]

Hmmmmm.......Sounds to me like some time here at TG would do you some good. This is an incredible site with an incredible community and the TARGET program is, well, incredible. We have many many many many many success stories here. Peruse the forum and ask some questions - you will be impressed.

There are many of us here posting videos for review by Neil and our peers around the world. And you know what, some of us are pretty good. Know something else? Some of us didn't even play at all a year ago. If you want to play, you have found the right place.

[Lavallee]

HI Abbenormal, Dan (Wrench) really gave you a good advice with the thumb position. To this I would like to add that if your arm and hand have a strong angle, it is more difficult to have strength when the wrist is bent a lot. Try to hold your fretboard at about 45 degree angle like a classical guitarist, this way your arm and hand will almost be in a straight line giving a chance for your thumb to apply ample pressure.

Regarding the stubby fingers, someone mentionned (I think it was Neil) that Andres Segovia had this type of fingers and still did pretty well. Everything is in the technique, which is what you would get in the TARGET program. The program is not just to show the chords of songs but ghow to play them right. You should look into that.

Keep us updated

Marc

[abbenormal]

Thanks everyone...I would like to look into Target as soon as I'm able. It sounds like a great program.