Master Harmony Through One Short Piece

Did you know that Francisco Tárrega’s Adelita contains a treasure trove of harmony lessons?

It’s almost like having a whole theory book put into one beautiful piece.

When I was first learning about music theory, I found that there was a huge gap between what was in the textbooks and the music I was playing.

So bit by bit, I tried to see how the things in textbooks were used in guitar pieces. It took a while - it was actually almost painful sometimes! There were lots of gaps and questions I had. But I kept doing it and soon, everything clicked.

And what happened next? Music became like a second language for me. All those notes that used to be hard to make sense of started to become like words and sentences.

This is what I’d like you to experience. Let me know how I can help you if you have questions.

Below are some of the things you can learn from Adelita. What’s really cool is that these structures are found in many other guitar pieces too.

Let me know if you find these structures in any of the pieces you’re playing.

In the video below, I’ll guide you through Adelita step by step, showing you how:

🎵 How Tárrega uses key changes and how that helps you add story telling to your interpretation.
🎵 How Adelita uses the two most common types of phrase structures and how that can help your phrasing.
🎵 How Tarrega uses simple chords under the surface and how that can help your shaping of the piece.

Please remember what I believe is the most important point of all:

Theory isn’t about putting labels in music. It’s about bringing music to life! It also teaches us how to construct music, giving us tools and inspiration to be creative.