About this work
The bass in Carcassi’s Étude op. 60 no. 15 keeps ringing while an arpeggio starts after a short rest. This small gap does not break the phrase: it lets the thumb establish the beat before the other fingers spread out the chord. Two different rates of motion coexist, with a slow bass beneath the flowing sixteenth notes.
Keep the bass ringing
Play the lower notes on their own for their full written lengths, then add the arpeggios without releasing the fingers that hold them. The rest before some figures belongs to the upper voice; the bass should not stop at the same instant. Softer middle strings help distinguish the two layers.
The dynamics range from piano to forte, with several crescendos and sf accents. Shape the crescendos across the full figure and reserve the sf accents for the marked attacks. In the closing bars, the arpeggios lead to more widely spaced chords. Let the ending settle instead of racing towards the final chord.
Score and listeningThe PDF contains the complete solo guitar study in three pages. Jeff Covey’s engraving, distributed by the Mutopia Project and made with LilyPond, has been placed in the public domain by its typesetter. The MIDI plays the piece without the printed repeats.Original files and credits are available in the Mutopia entry. Explore more music at LesPartitions.info.