How to play waltz on guitar?

Waltz fights take a special place among the many types of guitar accompaniment... They have not only traditional technique and popular playing patterns, but also more complex rhythmic patterns, which are often born to professional musicians directly during the accompaniment.

Waltz songs are significantly smaller than those played in a 2/4 or 4/4 time signature. The rhythm of the waltz sounds in the size of three beats, which include: 3/4, 3/8 or 6/8... The latter is, in fact, a time signature consisting of two metro-rhythmic figures at 3/8 (3/8 + 3/8). The rhythmic pattern of the waltz is limited to three beats, the emphasis of which almost always falls on the first. It is rather difficult to get a special variety of combat from such standard boundaries.

The waltz on the guitar can be played in the following ways:

1. arpeggio (brute force) with your fingers or a pick;
2. pinching with your fingers;
3. different types of fight with the help of fingers or a pick.

The following options are suitable from the arpeggio:

• ascending;
• downward;
• mixed.

Below are examples of fingering for waltz accompaniment. In these examples, bass is always played at the downbeat (counting "one"). These are traditional forms of accompaniment to a waltz melody.

The plucked methods of accompaniment also begin with the sound on the first beat of the bass strings, but then, if compared with the arpeggio, the sounds of the chord are not produced one by one, but at the same time as a whole consonance (chord). Below are some examples of plucked waltz accompaniment.

The bass is usually not muffled either in busting or plucking - it should sound throughout the entire rhythmic figure. But plucked elements (chords), on the contrary, should sound clear, rhythmic.

There are more complex variants of accompaniment in the rhythm of a waltz, where after the bass sounds of a mixed character (both single arpeggio-type and plucked ones) are produced. To make it clearer, below is one example of this kind of accompaniment:

But the last examples are not unusual. Such accompaniment refers to arpeggios in the guitar training literature.

As for the types of waltz fight, this is described in more detail below in the text.

To learn how to play the waltz fight, it is necessary to understand the rhythm of the waltz and to act correctly when striking the strings with different fingers of the right hand or a pick.

A waltz is a dance whose rhythm in a 3/4 or 3/8 time signature can be read as: "Um-pa-pa". Here “Um” means bass and beats that require dynamic emphasis (play louder), and “pa-pa” means two chords that follow each other (played a little quieter than bass, but more abruptly). All elements of the count should be reproduced evenly, without delaying and not being extracted, on the contrary, ahead of time. Everything is uniform: "Um-pa-pa" (or "one-two-three").

An example of the simplest waltz fight scheme:

Symbols in the given diagram:

• P - right thumb;
• i - index finger of the right hand;
• ↑ - direction of impact on the strings from top to bottom;
• ↓ - direction of striking the strings from bottom to top;
• P - hit with a pick from top to bottom on the strings;
• V - hit with a pick from the bottom up on the strings.

The above example of a rhythmic scheme of a fight with a pick or fingers should be played according to the following algorithm:

1. at the expense of "Mind", the bass is extracted with a finger or a pick by hitting string No. 6 from top to bottom (sign "P" - for a pick, letter "P" - for the thumb of the right hand);
2. at the expense of the first "pa", the strings are struck down (↑) with a pick ("P"), starting from string No. 5 (string No. 6 should not be muffled) or with the index finger ("i");
3. at the expense of the second "pa", the pick or index finger moves backward, that is, from bottom to top (↓), touching three or four thin strings.

It is advisable to immediately muffle the second strike on the strings (from bottom to top) by placing the edge of the palm of your right hand on the strings. Beginners can practice this strumming technique - it will come in handy for any fight later on.

And now you can proceed to a review and analysis of some other schemes of waltz fight, among which there will be one rather difficult one for beginners.

First - simple types of waltz beat on time signatures 3/4 or 3/8. They will also work for a 6/8 size (only it will contain two identical rhythmic structures for a 3/8 size fight).

The first scheme:

It is played like this:

• on “one” - hitting two or three bass strings with your thumb (or pick) from top to bottom;
• on "two" - a blow with the index finger (pick) on three or four thin strings from the bottom up;
• on "three" - the final blow down with the index finger (pick).

Do not forget: play the first blow at the expense of "one" with an accent. Let this sound last as long as possible.

However, this battle scheme is not much different from the one discussed above. Changed only the direction of strikes on the account "two" and "three". And also the thumb or pick does not produce a specific bass, but the consonance of two or three bass strings, which, of course, looks different by ear.

Another variation of this fight is play a specific bass or two different ones, changing them alternately through the bar, and leave the beats with the index finger unchanged.

Second scheme:

This fight must be played under the account with "and" as follows:

• at the expense of "one and" the bass strings are struck from top to bottom;
• from the count of “two” strikes are made on four or three thin strings with the so-called alternating stroke: on “two” - striking down, on “and” - striking from bottom to top, on “three” - downward, on “and” - striking upward.

Before this example, actions were performed to extract sounds only for quarter beats, and now there are eighth durations. Therefore, the counting was supplemented with the conjunction "and" to make it easier to count the short sounds of the rhythm.

Scheme three (more complex rhythmic pattern):

In this type of fight, one more element appeared - the "X" sign on all strips (strings) of the tablature, which falls on the count of "three". This means that in this place it is necessary to muffle all the strings (or only sounding ones) by means of the edge of the palm (or fist) of the right hand.

The types of waltz fight are not limited to this review. However, for beginners, they will become a kind of base on the basis of which other, possibly more complex and interesting schemes can be built.

The main thing is to know the basics, and with experience will come your own personal style and improvisation. When accompanying waltz melodies, it is necessary to keep the main dance rhythm, and already on it "string" additional details (percussion, passing basses and echoes).