This is the first in what will be a weekly update highlighting an interesting song currently being played by my pupils. Each post aims to focus on a different instrument to show the depth and variety of music we cover. Today will be the turn of the Classical guitar and a delightful piece In Drop D Tuning titled Bell Towers by the Belgian Composer Armand Coeck

Analysis

What makes this piece so lovely to play and a great teaching song is how the composer uses Drop D tuning. Drop D tuning is when the bass string is lowered in pitch to D from the usual tuning of E. What this provides is a wonderful exploration of the key signature of D major as the bass notes all form part of the D chord and are allowed to reverberate throughout the piece to provide a deep and warm texture. This is fully utilized by the composer as demonstrated below with the very first bars of the piece:

Notice how the bass notes in Orange provide an underlying voice that allows the open strings to resonate throughout the music, starting from the dropped D bass note, while also interacting with the upper melodic voice in blue. In its nature it is very baroque, as the music flows with both melodic lines interacting with each other. This can be heard in the mp3 of the song played by myself:

This is a great teaching tool as it promotes independent finger playing, with the thumb used to produce an active bass line while the index and middle fingers play a separate melodic line. Also it is great practice for the accurate placement of the thumb, which in Bar 3 travels all the way from the 6th to the 2nd strings

The effect of layering the sound by adding more texture can be seen in the Outro:

Notice how fuller both the melody line in blue is, with the minim notes creating chiming bell towers, while the open bass strings are allowed to ring through in an underlying, almost hypnotic pattern. Again this is a very valuable tool for practicing accurate thumb placement and also independence between the thumb and remaining fingers which is often used in classical guitar playing. The passage can be heard at the conclusion of the mp3.

Bell Towers is composed by Armand Coeck and taken from his excellent book 5 easy Pieces published by Schott music. I would highly recommend.