Free Guitar Lesson # 4 - Andantino

This little piece by Felix Horetzky will help with practicing music in 6/8 time. That means there are six eighth note beats per bar (or the mathematical equivalent). The "accent" of the beats or pulse thus become: strong; weak; weak; medium; weak; weak.

Felix Horetzky was born in Poland in 1796 and died in 1870. He learnt guitar when young but it wasn’t until his mid-thirties that he went to Vienna to study guitar under Mauro Giuliani.

He had to play in public performances to make enough money to continue his studies. He also landed a plum job as guitar teacher to the Austrian archduchesses of the Imperial Family, no less, which helped enormously when paying the bills to say the least.

Horetzky went on to tour many countries and was particularly successful in the cities of Paris and London where his popularity reached a peak. He even went on to teach and live in Scotland for some years.

Horetzky wrote many pieces for the guitar. Indeed, it is estimated he wrote up to one hundred and fifty pieces for the guitar alone.
It is interesting to note that the andantino is supposed be the diminutive of the andante and thus should be played at a slower tempo. Over the years it came to be played at a faster speed between andante (walking pace) and the faster moderato.

Here is a short outline of tempo markings with their Italian names to help you see the basic tempos...

Grave - very slow

Largo - slow and broad

Larghetto - not quite as slow as largo Adagio - slow

Lento - slow

Andante - "walking pace" or medium slow tempo

Andantino – Faster than Andante but slower than Moderato

Moderato - moderate, or medium pace

Allegretto – Between moderato and allegro Allegro - fast

Vivace - lively and brisk

Presto - very fast

Prestissimo - very, very fast

I hope this page is helpful for you when playing the music.

Here is a video of the piece...

PDF Tab Download