You may not know the song Recuredos de la Alhambra by its name, but you may very well have heard this striking piece. It is one of those pieces that nearly every classical guitarist aspires to master. Like many classical pieces, it also lends itself to being played on an acoustic, pick style.

Pieces of this sort are much easier to play classical style, since a classical player will use their thumb to play the melody notes and will use their ring, middle and index finger to play the tremelo-picked notes. Playing the piece pick style on an acoustic is another story alltogether. Essentially, you need to shift your picking hand extremely rapidly when switching strings in order to maintain evenness between the melody and the tremelo notes. It is certainly a daunting feat but with dedication it is definitely achievable.

In this lesson I will break the piece into its 3 logical sections. You will find that the skills you gain from practicing the first section will translate to the other sections since the entire piece repeats similar picking/melody patterns.

I hope you enjoy learning this brilliant piece! You will need tremendous patience with this one...

In this third and final section of Recuredos de la Alhambra, you will continue to be exposed to the same melodic and picking patterns as from the previous two sections. By now, hopefully this recurring pattern has been reinforced in your playing and as such you should find this final section all the more easier to learn.

The tab above is based on a transcription by Paul Henry in his book The Francisco Tarrega Collection: Book/CD Pack.You may find some of the fingerings a bit awkward, but they lend themselves very well to smooth execution, which is of course a must for this piece!

You should listen to several renditions of this piece to get a feel for tempos that the piece is played at. On Rhapsody there are many renditions including ones by other instrumentalists. Some of the more notable renditions are by Segovia, John Williams, Christopher Parkening, Julian Bream and Pepe Romero (3 versions by Pepe!) Click here for Rhapsody.

Okay, now it is time to piece the three sections together. If you are not familiar with musical directions in sheet music (such as Coda, D.C. al Coda, etc), then it might not be clear how to perform this piece in its entirety. Essentially, if we consider sections one, two and three as A, B and C, respectively, then the piece is performed as AABBABC. If you are viewing this section apart from the previous two, then click here so you can view the entire guitar lesson with all three parts. I have added some directions in the tab that will help you follow the musical directions. To sum up these directions, here is how you piece the piece together:

1. Play section A (measures 1-20).
2. Repeat section A (measures 1-20).
3. Play section B (measures 21-36).
4. Repeat section B (mesaures 21-35, skip measure 36, play measure 37).
5. Repeat section A (measures 1-20).
6. Repeat section B (mesaures 21-35).
7. Play section C (measures 38-58).

My recording includes the entire piece. If you want to focus in on this last section, then you can listen in at 4:28. I also included a MIDI file of the entire piece. If you have recording software, you should be able to play the MIDI file in it and adjust the tempo to suit your progress.

I hope you have enjoyed learning this brilliant, challenging piece!

Later,

Brian Huether