New Reference Video: Dialogue by Marc Bélanger

It is sometimes difficult to keep life in focus. With the recording and release of the Speeding Up Your Scales course this fall, preparing for and teaching students, and preparing for performances, I lost focus on developing reference videos for students. Dialogue is the first one since spring and the only the second one on the Vimeo platform.

About Marc Bélanger

Marc Bélanger is a composer from our neighbors across the northern border in Canada. Though not a guitarist himself, he comes from a very musical family. His father and brother are both conductors. If you are so inclined, then you may find his biographical information on The Canadian Encyclopedia. You can find this work in La guitare dans tous ses états published by Les Productions d’OZ.

About Dialogue

For beginners, Dialogue is a great piece to work on the alternation of the thumb with the fingers. As you can tell watching the video, the left hand has very little movement throughout. It never reaches beyond second position. It has a few wonderful syncopated sections that give the piece vitality.

Due to its repetition, Dialogue makes learning the piece as a young student very attainable. I personally like to have students (and myself) use rest strokes on the piece to create a separation from the bass line. Many students initially overstress the bass in this piece. Because dynamics and tempo are not given (in the original), it allows the student to make some interpretation choices that other pieces don’t allow.

Check out some of our other articles:

• 3 Things I Am Learning From Beginner Guitar Scales in Open Position
• The Basics of Music Theory – Part 1 (The Chromatic Scale)
• Learning To Connect Two Guitar Scale Forms – Part 1
• Positives And Pitfalls Of Études
• First Exercise on the E String by Mertz

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.