Fantasia No. 16 - Luys Milán Luis Milán was one of the most important figures of the Spanish vihuela tradition and the author of El Maestro (1536), the first known printed collection of instrumental music in Spain. Conceived as a didactic work, El Maestro presents its pieces in a carefully graded order of difficulty and preserves music that Milán tells us originated as improvisation on the vihuela. Fantasia 16 belongs to a later group of works that Milán describes as consonancias y redobles. These pieces alternate between chordal passages (consonancias) and rapid scalar or figural runs (redobles), a style associated with dedillo technique. Milán gives unusually explicit performance instructions: the chordal sections should be played with a slow compás, while the running passages should be fast, with slight pauses at fermatas (coronado). This approach prioritizes expressive contrast and gallant delivery (tañer de gala) over mechanical regularity. Like the earlier fantasias, Fantasia 16 moves freely through modal ambitus rather than adhering to a fixed tonal center, and its rhythmic flexibility can result in frequent changes of perceived meter when transcribed into modern notation. Played on a Michael Gee guitar.

The luthier Francois Laramée came to my house to let me try his latest guitar, I present you his work on the music of my good friend Suzie Auclair. Thanks for listening,

Hi, group! Almost a year ago I started writing a small "booklet" compiling the most effective tools I use and teach my students to use for solving methodologically any passage's difficulty either technical or musical. These are tools that many of us use most of the time but I never saw them all together systematically explained. The pdf was first distributed in spanish with great feedback from all over and I have now translated it into english and share it with you. The text is Creative Commons License. I'm not in the bussiness of monetizing my materials. I prefer to share with everybody, but if you think it is useful and want to contribute to the cause I won't get mad about it. Just let me know. You are free to use this as you see fit, share it with whom ever you think may profit from it and teach from it, if you think it is adaptable to your teaching process. I have posted some videos in my Facebook and Instagram pages (in spanish) about the uses and reasons behind each tool and you are welcome to look for them. I´ll probably also upload them to Youtube in a while with subs. I hope you'll enjoy them. Feedback is very welcomed!!

Is this site going to disappear into the dessert like a horse with no name? ==== I've been through the desert; On a horse with no name; It felt good to be out of the rain; In the desert, you can't remember your name; 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain;

A lovely piece I asked Vincent to write for a Scottish themed album. Can you hear the piping section ?