Randall William “Randy” Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. A teacher of classical guitar, Rhoads mixed his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. “Dee” was written for Rhoad’s mother and the track can be found in Ozzy’s fine “Blizzard of Oz” album. I wish there are more classical piece by this masterful guitarist but he died tragically at the age of 25. Despite his relatively short career, Rhoads is a major influence on neo-classical metal players that emerged in the 1980s such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Angelo Batio and Jason Becker, and he is cited as an influence by many contemporary heavy metal guitarists.

Technique
32 Bars. Suspend the bass notes are long as possible.
Bar[3],[20],[32] There are 3 occurrence of harmonics. You can play this bell like effect by gently barring the strings and strumming the notes downwards with thumb.
Bar[24] Please listen to the midi to get the timing since the timing is odd. Make sure to slide and play the double stops or interval (2 note chord) in time before the pull off.

Excerpt taken from Randy Rhoad's Dee

Tips
If you don’t have an classical guitar, you can still play this track with an acoustic. Randy rhoads played this song on the acoustic guitar. If you listen to harmonics he played in his recording, you can clearly hear the pick downward sweep. In any case, this song works equally well on both the acoustic and classical guitar.

El utimo tremolo is 1 of 2 tremolo songs by Augustin Barrios. The other being “Un Sueño En La Floresta” which I hope to cover in the future. El ultimo Tremolo is barrios’ swan song, he wrote this piece shortly before he died. The beat of the song was inspired by the rhythm of someone knocking upon barrios’ door! The knocks can be found in the first two bars of the piece and this motif runs throughout the entire work. Get fluid with tremolo (pami) before you tackle “the ultimate tremolo.” I have posted an easier tremolo song in my previous blog post, check out tarrega’s rescuerdos de alhambra. Lastly, don’t expect to learn this song in a week, so be patient. Dissect the song into parts. Focus on groups of measures say do 8 bars and move on to the next 8 bars. Good luck!

Technique
Like barrios’ la cathedral preludio saudade, this song has quite a lot of unique left hand chord positioning. If you find a certain chord impossible, look for alternative chord positions. Failing that, look at the previous chord and find it’s alternative chord position. By changing some chords around, you may handle these chords better and/or find an easier chord transition. To discover alternatives to the chords, explore along the guitar neck, find the the notes that sound the same. I normally try to ultilize open strings as much as possible. This tab fits best for myself. I encourage you to do some research on your own.

Tremolo and the melody
Right hand. Play All melody notes with thumb (p)
Left hand. Play tremolo with (ami).

Keep the right hand on auto-pilot since it play the same (pima) pattern. Focus on the left chords and think ahead! For instance when you are in the middle of playing chord A, think of the finger position for the chord B. 80 bars. Play straight with no repeats. Undulate the volume of tremolo to add emotions.Suspend first note of most measure for the full duration.

Bar[33] The G string needs to be suspend by a full measure. Curl your pinky finger to play the D note (12fret) without touch the G string below.
Bar[39]-[41] Hold barre chord all the way while playing all the melodies. This chord has tight fingering. Wrist could hurt at first. It really takes practice.
Bar[61] A weird barre chord at 11th fret. I use a cutaway in my video but it is not impossible on a regular cut guitar. This song goes up to the 17th fret.

play tremol (ami) and melody (p)

Tips
While practicing the tremolo technique, use this simple right hand pattern (pi-pi-pi) as a cheap substitute. You’ll get the gist of the melody by doing so and thus allowing you to totally focus on the left hand.

Download Tab | Download Midi

Tarrega actually wrote the Nokia ringtone jingle as heard in this song. In Grand Waltz, you will play along the entire neck. You will also play certain parts with the melody in a fixed barred position for multiple measures. Be sure to hold double notes suspension for a full measure (bass/treble). A waltz is in triple time and there are 4 parts to this piece-each offering their own challenge. Finally and best of all you will get to play the famous Nokia Ring Tone.

Part A
Double Note suspension. Longest Part
Bar[4]-[11] Play the melody while holding the barred chords for 8 straight measures.
Bar[14]-[17] Nokia ring tone. Ends with a harmonic. Lightly touch the string and plucK (bell like sound).

Part B
Pull offs and hammer ons. Chord slide. Hardest part
Bar[37] Barred chord pull off is a stretch. Make sure you hold the bass note at 9th fret (after the slide) while stretching your pinky to the 14th fret (pull off).
Bar[44]-[45] Chord slide. keep your 3 fingers locked and slide the chord to different frets.

Part C
Double note suspension.
Bar[50]-[60] Play the melody while holding the barred chords for 10 straight measures. Painful to wrist at first.

Part D
Easiest part.
Bar[70]-[71] 9th to 2nd fret (barred chords) jump from right to left.

Grand waltz by tarrega contains the nokia ringtone

Tips
Play the 4 parts separately until you have reached fluidity. Work on each part and piece them together at the end. Loop each part mulitple times.

Download Tab | Download Midi

Matteo Carcassi produced many valuable classical guitar lessons and exercises. Here’s another pattern in form of a short 8 bar prelude. You will learn how to pluck separate strings with a sweeping feel using the pattern (pimamii).

Technique
(pimami) Right hand 6 note pattern. Time signature 6/8. 8 Measures. 4 bars with barre Chords. Suspend all root bass note (thumb)

pimami 6 note pattern for the right hand

Tips
pimami is a great workout for all 3 fingers including the thumb. Your fingers will pluck 4 strings successively on different strings. Always start with your thumb on the downbeat and suspend this note.

Download Tab

Further Reading
I learnt Prelude in Fy Matteo Carcassi from Carcassi for tabulature. 128 pages going over many plucking techniques and patterns of over 100 songs. Book include an audio companion cd and is ring bound so you can lie it flat.

This serene and beautiful piece is taken from Sonata ii of Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin. It fits on the guitar fingerboard so well that it is unnecessary to alter a single note of the original for this transcription. Only the tempo and fingerings for guitar have been added. The violin of Bach’s day had a somewhat flatter bridge and was played with a slightly more curved bow than the modern violin. These two factors made it easier for violinists of the time to play chords on two, three or four strings of the instrument. This accounts for the multi-voiced texture and full-sounding chords of this piece.

Technique
Play AAB. Repeat Part A (twice) conclude with part B (twice)
Bar[9]-[27]- 32nd Note. Slurs or cross-string fingering 29 total bars. 8th notes in all measures except Bar[9] and [25]-[26]. Bar[9] and [27] 32nd note flourishes are either performed with slurs (hammer-ons and pull-offs) or cross string-fingerings. A cross-string fingering is one in which stepwise notes are fingered on different strings rather than along a single string. This is the easiest way to play fast scales.
Bar[7] and [26] I have left the optional notes in brackets (3) on the 1st E string. I opted for the g note on the open g string (4th string). I have included the original fingering. If you can reach the bass G note, go for it.

Excerpt from bach bwv 1003 andante

Tips
The most noticeable aspect of this work is the bass line in constant eighth notes, which is present for all but four measures. To avoid sounding monotonous, try to play the bass line in as musical and expressive as possible. To gain as much separation as possible between the melody and the bassline, be sure to play all the bass notes with the thumb

Download Tab | Download Midi

Further Reading
I learnt Bwv1003 Andante from this book: Bach for Guitar by Howard Wallach. 14 pieces from Easy to Intermediate introducing a brief song introduction and tab. This book comes with plenty of drawings and a full explanation of signs and symbols used in the book. 47 pages in paperpack, Alfred Publishing.

Matteo Carcassi produced many valuable classical guitar lessons. For this right hand exercises, you will pick with the 6 note pattern (pmamim). Carcassi wrote a method for guitar (melodic and progressive studies) that remains valuable, relevant and interesting. Arpeggio in Dm deals with the (pi)-mam Right hand 4 note pattern

Technique
1 Barre Chord. 4/4 Time Signatue. 12 bars in the key of D minor. (pi)-mam Right hand 4 note pattern. Suspend bass note in every measure.

(pi)-mam Right hand 4 note pattern

Tips
Yet another prelude, this time in the key of D minor. You can use this piece as a warm up exercise also.

Download Tab

Prelude in Dm by Matteo Carcassi

Further Reading
I learnt Prelude in D Minor by Matteo Carcassi from Carcassi for tabulature. 128 pages going over many plucking techniques and patterns of over 100 songs. Book include an audio companion cd and is ring bound so you can lie it flat.

This sleep of the little doll is a waltz in triple meter with harder barred chords at the beginning and artificial harmonics at the end. The latter are octave harmonics played higher from the 12 frets onwards giving the bass notes a bell like effect. Barrios is from Paraguay and wrote many challenging pieces. I like barrios sound and music vocabulary not to mention his amazing prowess on the guitar. i certainly need more practice to post any more of his songs.

Technique
Bar[16] Hard chord for the left hand. Don’t try to land all fingers at once. Instead, land your first and middle finger first.
Bar[22] Barre Chords at 2nd fret. Because of the wide fingering, the notes on the barre finger are hard to play. Turn your elbow inwards (toward body) and “lean” on the chord to give more weight.
Bar[33]-[55] Artifical harmonics (octaves).
Play as ABBA. First part A once, part B twice, conclude with part A once. 55 unique Bars.

harmonics (octaves) of sleep of the little doll

Right hand harmonics (octave) begins from the 12 fret.
Remember to add +12 on the bass notes. Here are some examples
of left hand position corresponding to the right, producing a bell like harmonic.

artificial harmonics (octave) index and thumb

Tips
There are several ways to play artificial harmonics (octaves).
1) right index finger press lightly on the string during a down stroke with thumb. Index finger should at a 45 degree angle to the string.
2) bend right thumb (pointing downwards). Touch string with the outside of your thumb (joint to tip) and pluck upwards with the index finger

Download Tab | Download Midi