Songs · Guitar · Intermediate
Romance (Spanish Romance)
Anonymous · Romance, a 19th-century Spanish guitar piece of unknown authorship, also called “Romance de amor” or “Spanish Romance”: the first part, in E minor
Guitar · SpanishfingerpickingE minor3/4 time16 barsstandard tuning
Arranged: Teddy Rook Book: the first part (bars 1–16) as written, without the second part in E major. Each beat is written as three notes, the tune on the first, as most guitarists read it.
Loading the music…
About this piece
One of the best-loved pieces for classical guitar. Every beat is three notes: the ring finger (a) plays the tune on the 1st string, then the middle (m) and index (i) fingers play the 2nd and 3rd strings, while the thumb (p) plays a slow bass. Bring the tune out a little louder than the other two notes. The left hand travels: the tune climbs to the 12th fret in bar 5, uses a barre at the 5th fret for A minor and at the 7th fret for B7, then comes home to first position.
What it practices
- triplet arpeggios: a, m, i
- a tune on the 1st string up the neck
- barre chords at the 5th and 7th frets
- shifting positions
Chords in this song
Each link opens the chord finder with more ways to play that chord.
Where the notes come from
Mutopia Project edition of “Spanish Romance” (anonymous, from a manuscript; CC BY-SA 2.5 typesetting, the music public domain). Melody, middle voice and bass read twice and compared with this file note by note; the second part (bars 17–32) is not included.
How to practice with it
- Listen first. Press Play and follow along. The note being played lights up in the tab, in the notation and on the fretboard, and the chord being played lights up in the row of chord diagrams.
- Learn the chords. Press each diagram to hear it, then practice changing between them slowly.
- Slow it down. Use − and + to set the tempo. 60% is a good place to start; the notes keep their pitch.
- Loop the hard part. Under More…, turn on Loop, pick the bars, and play them a few times in a row. Count-in gives you a bar of clicks before it starts.
Click a bar in the music to start from there. Space plays and pauses. Left-handed? Turn on the left-handed view: the chord diagrams and the fretboard are mirrored to match your instrument. Tab reads the same either way: the top line is always the first (highest) string.