The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is one of the most technically demanding pieces in the repertoire.  Any guitarist or violinist must possess not only a technical command of his instrument, but also much patience and a willingness to invest many many hours in practice.  The payoff, of course, is well worth the effort.  Several technical discussions of the piece are provided here that will hopefully shed some performance insight to the guitarist.  Each item covers a different section that requires special attention above and beyond the normal difficulties.  Many sections are completely applicable to other parts of the piece and the techniques learned in one can be applied to another.

The piece itself is fraught with all sorts of mental and emotional angst and you can indeed hear a wide range of emotions throughout the piece.  Check out the Wikipedia article on the piece which provides an overview of the genesis of the piece as well as the famous controversy between the various violinists who consulted on the piece and were slated to give the first performance.  Perhaps back then, Tchaikovsky may have imagined that with such negativity surrounding his new piece that it never would succeed in the repertoire.  Well, fortunately, masterpieces endure the quibbles and foibles of every day life and today it’s taken it’s rightful place among the great Romantic violin concertos.

Listen.  Want an even better introduction to Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece?  You’re in luck!  For a fantastic introduction to Tchaikovksy’s Violin Concerto, I recommend Rachel Barton Pine’s podcast on the piece.  You won’t be disappointed.

Intro:

You are about to learn one of the top-notch licks in the classical repertoire.  That’s a subjective statement, but this is one of my personal favorites because it’s challenging, acrobatic, and sounds great when played up to speed.  You will not find a lick like this anywhere in modern shred guitar.  After all, you are learning to play the works of real masters.

In case you didn’t know, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 1878 was initially dismissed as being unplayable.  After trying out this lick, you’ll have a sense why that is.  Don’t worry, it’s not impossible.

While it’s only three measures, this lick has a lot to offer:  a lot of legato, acrobatic fingerwork, and even some tapping.  Yes, that’s two-handed tapping.  Also, the first measure really serves as a lead-up to the two measure run that first cascades downwards in a series of ascending triplets to be followed be a very interesting ascent back to the upper frets.

Learning the Lick:

There are a few things, that need to be called out to make this lick a little easier to understand and play.  The first measure listed here serves to lead into the interesting two licks, but it should not be dismissed lightly; it is quite an awkward lick and takes a while to get used to.  Much of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto features strange patterns like this throughout.  As usual, follow the fingerings and slowly work it up to speed.

Let’s move on to the more interesting licks now.  First of all, notice how the rhythmic pattern of the lick changes.  The high note lands on the downbeat of each triplet section.  The first note is on the E-string’s 18^th fret (a B-flat).  Pick that note, then forget about it.  Train your mind to now count each triplet – with the triplet’s high note landing on the downbeat.

Each triplet pattern on the descent is a little different.  These patterns just require repetition to become dialed into your head.  Strive to use hammer-ons as often as you can.  Obviously, you can’t do this when you are required to switch strings.  The last two triplets of this measure function as one section of six notes that leads the lick back to the upper frets.

Things are about to get interesting again.

For the next measure, the same pattern of counting each triplet with the high note landing on the beat still holds.  But, now notice there are three sets of triplets whose first note repeats.  These two notes must be picked, obviously, but strike to keep the third note of each triplet as a hammer-on to preserve the legato nature of the lick.

Also, notice that there is a section of two-handed tapping.  The “+” graphic above the B-string 18^th fret note indicates this.  This pattern is repeated twice and gives you a split-second of rest just before you need to make a big leap up to the 16^th fret for the last part of the lick.  If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations!  You have survived a very tricky lick.

Download the music

This video was created as part of a mini promotion for the recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.  There’s actually no instruction in here; it’s just a demonstration.  However, you can get a sense of some of the fascinating and challenging licks found in the masterpiece.  The whole thing has been tabbed-out in painstaking detail and you can find it here.

Like measure 36 in an earlier installment of this series, this one is also a lot of fun to play and features a ton of different techniques to explore and master.  This snippet of video, however, is much longer.  It runs approximately twenty-two measures.  This is the last section of really hard licks before the grand entrance of the full orchestra playing the famous uplifting main theme of the concerto.  However, after the video fades out, there are still many measures to go of difficult playing before you get a rest!