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| Lesson Subject:
Beginning Classical Guitar |
| What you learn:
Greensleeves |
| Teacher:
Storm Stenvold |
Greensleeves
Storm: Hello class, our lesson today features a
very famous 16th century piece - Greensleeves. The origin of the composer is not
known, so the composer's credit is always displayed as 'Anonymous'. It is
rumored that King Henry VIII, could have possibly been the composer, however
there is no evidence of his ownership. The Christmas classic 'What Child is This' is
composed using the same melody. Greensleeves has lyrics too and is even
mentioned by Shakespeare in one of
his plays, 'Merry Wives of Windsor'.
The composition has even been covered by artists like Jeff Beck. Greensleeves is in the key of A minor with
an occasional F# and G# chromatic tones and a 6/8 time signature. Let's get to the music and
videos.
Storm: Greensleeves is an
excellent composition for developing technique in using two note
chords. Here is a video of left/right hand
combination.
bar1-2
Storm: Notice the first note comes in before
the downbeat, this note is considered a "pickup note". The first three chords
are outline with an Am, G and C. There is a chromatic F# in the second bar that
makes the transition sound more interesting. Try to hold the
C bass note cleanly when reaching to fret the position. Here are the next two bars:
Storm: Your goal should be to minimize
the movement in the left hand to cleanly execute the notes.
A lot of planning usually goes into the fingerings in classical guitar. Here is
the video for bars
3 and 4 that will help illustrate how this section is performed:
bar3-4
Storm: Bars 5 and 6 should feel familiar, it's the same as bars 1 and 2.
bar5-6
Storm:
Convenient, eh? The main theme will be repeated throughout this
song. Here are the next two
bars.
bar7-8
Storm:
Bars 7 and 8 outline an Am to E, and then back to an A minor progression. The addition of the
G# makes a stronger 'cadence' back to the tonic of A. Here
are the next two
bars.
bar9-10
Storm: Notice that the 'C' chord is
slightly 'broken' or 'arpeggiated' in bars 9 and 10, this can be done best on the first beat
of the measure to help bring out the melody. Remember to use taste, the emphasis
can be
overdone. You use the thumb and index for the 5th and
4th strings. Here are the
next two bars.
bar11-12
Storm:
Bars 11 and 12 move from Am to F to E. Bar 13 and 14 is a re-statement of bars
9-10.
bar13-14
Storm: Here are the last two
bars.
bar15-16
Storm:
Here's another restatement, the last two bars are the same as bars
7-8. You can look at the song as 2 eight
bar forms, which is a very nice arrangement. Well that's it for 'Greensleeves'.
Ryan:
cool
Glenn:
thanks
Storm: You're welcome.
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