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Forbidden Games ... or if you prefer the French translation "Jeux Interdits", written by "Anonymous" who knows when, was the first classical piece I learned way back in about 1965. It was also the only guitar piece my late father ever learned, and he played it perfectly, note for note. It's the epitome of classical guitar in the way that the melody / bass-line / chord fragments all work together. The piece is in two sections, this is the first, in E minor. The second section moves to E major. I'll try to remember it for next week.
There are a few things to mention before we get started:
1. It's in 3/4 time, meaning that you count 3 beats per measure ... One Two Three, One Two Three ...
2. The whole thing is a series of triplets. Triplets are groupings of 3 notes played per beat. It's quite obvious when you look at the tablature: each measure (bar) contains three clusters of three notes, so 9 notes per measure. The melody uses one note per cluster, the other two are chord tones.
3. Bass notes occur on the first beat of each bar, beneath a melody note.
I seem to remember that the piece was written as an 'étude', a study, and when you look at all its elements so neatly laid out in tablature format, that idea seems to be reinforced. The whole thing seems to be an exercise ... it just happens to be a beautiful piece of music too.
Chord wise, it's a very straight forward minor key progression consisting solely of the i - iv - V chords. Notice the V chord is major. Minor keys can use either the major or minor V chord.
The entire piece uses the same picking pattern: ring - middle - index fingers for each triplet cluster... over and over again. The melody note is always on the treble string, and the other other two notes/strings provide the chord tones which flesh it out. I suggest you simply practice this triplet picking for a while on the open E-B-G strings. It's a steady as she goes feel ... if you can accent the first note of each measure (out of the 9 notes), so much the better. This will propel it along and keep it dynamically musical. Watch the movie to see how I do it.
The bass notes should occur on the first beat of each measure, so for those spots, you must grab both the bass note and melody at the same time. In fact, I played it leaving quite a few bass notes out completely. The TAB is more accurate, with one bass note per measure.
Bar by bar:
1 to
6 is the easiest part to nail down. Because the chord is Em (the i chord), the bass note is an open E string (the thickest string) and the chord tones are both open strings also (the B and G strings). The melody occurs entirely on the treble string. You'll see in the movie that I use different left-hand fingers but you can play it with one finger if you like.
7 and
8 are the iv chord, the Am. The bass note moves to the open A string, and with my index finger I hold a little barre across the fifth fret to play the chord tones. The melody remains on the treble string (as it does throughout) and is played with the ring finger and pinkie. This is moderately uncomfortable at first.
9 and
10 get trickier ... it's where the chord becomes the V7 chord, the B7, and you must hold a barre right across the 7th fret, grabbing the bass string and the top three treble strings AND adding that D# note, which is part of the B7 chord. This is the most uncomfortable part of the whole thing ... you'll need to practice this at length. The melody continues to move around on the treble string. You'll need to stretch the hand apart quite noticeably to get those spare fingers to grab the notes clearly.
11 and
12 are back to the open strings of the Em and what sweet release it is after the contortion of the B7 chord.
13 and
14 we're back to the V7 chord, the B7, but this time because the melody is quite a bit lower in register, we use a different position for the B7 (thank goodness!). You'll notice that the bass note is still B, the same note as the first B7, but this time it's the B note on the A string.
15 and
16 we're back to the i chord ... resolution ... home. The picking pattern continues, but the thumb now plays down through the chord tones of Em ... this moving line on the bottom end leads the ear very nicely down to the ending chord.
The essence of this piece, I would say, is the regular triplet picking that never falters from beginning to end. The melody is a part of that pattern, so keep your focus on that melody. Let the other notes simply happen. You can hear in my version that I leave some bass notes out ... this doesn't really affect anything drastically. It remains the same piece, but the melody must remain intact. The tricky bit is that B7 halfway through, so I imagine you'll spend more time practicing that ... if you can nail that part, you'll have nailed the whole piece.
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