This lesson comes from my new book Classical Guitar Repertoire Lessons Grade 1 – Eight pieces at the grade one level with dedicated lessons preparing you for each piece. Check it out at Werner Guitar Editions!
Écossaise, Op.33, No.2 (Allegretto) by Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). This piece introduces slurs (also called hammer-ons and pull-offs) as well as bass string muting on rests. Slurs facilitate legato phrasing and reduce the amount of right hand fingering. Bass string muting stops the bass from sustaining when the harmony doesn’t match or for articulation reasons. I have the removed the staccato marks from the original to focus on maintaining a legato line during the first half of the piece. – Only mute the bass note rests in the first half of the piece. The upper voice should be played legato regardless of notation.
