With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, you might be looking for a special gift for that very special someone.
If you’re tired of the typical Valentine’s Day gifts and would love to do something more personal, why not a guitar serenade?
If so, I’ve got the perfect song for you.
It’s called “Romance Anonimo”. Actually there are several other names for this song including “Spanish Romance” and “Romanza”.
No one conclusively knows who the actual composer of this piece is, but regardless, it’s a fun piece to play on guitar and I guarantee your lover will be impressed.
Okay, let’s jump right in…
If you’re new to the guitar or finger-picking, spend a little time on my 4 preparatory finger-picking guitar lessons called:
Play Guitar: How to Finger-Pick Part 1
Play Guitar: How to Finger-Pick Part 2
Play Guitar: How to Finger-Pick Part 3
Play Guitar: How to Finger-Pick Part 4
The above finger-picking lessons will get you up to speed on the basics of finger picking.
Before we start on the song, you should click on the following link: PDF guitar tab sheet music arrangement for Romance Anonimo. Print off a copy for yourself and grab your guitar.
You’ll notice that the song is arranged in standard notation and tab, tablature. The tab shows you which frets you need to place your fingers on.
In the standard notation, there are small numbers next to certain note heads. These numbers represent the fret-hand fingers that you should use.
As you can see in the first measure of this song, you will pluck some strings simultaneously. In measure 1, you finger-pick the 6th string and the 1st string simultaneously.
What fingers should you use? As you’ll recall from Play Guitar: How to Finger-Pick Part 1, the sixth string is played with “p” and the first string is played with “a”. So all you do is position the 4th finger of your fret-hand on the 7th fret of the sixth string. Now all you do is pluck the 6th and 1st strings simultaneously.
Next play the open 2nd string with your “m” finger.
Next play the open 3rd string with your “i” finger.
Your goal is to let these notes ring into one another.
Now you repeat the pattern twice more except this time you don’t re-pick the 6th string. You just pick strings 1-2-3 with fingers a-m-i. Repeat this one more time: pick strings 1-2-3 with fingers a-m-i and you’ve played the first measure of this song. Remember, you want to let the notes ring into each other as much a possible.
You’ll be using this picking pattern or a variation of it through the song.
Now simply repeat this picking pattern in measures 2-6. The only thing that changes are the notes that your fret-hand plays on the first string.
In measure 7, you’ll notice that the picking pattern changes. Now instead of playing the 6th and 1st strings simultaneously, you play the 5th and first together.
Barre Chords (Bar Chords)
When you see a chord that has the same finger on more than one string, you need to place this finger flat across all of the indicated strings. This is called a barre chord.
In measures 7 and 8 you will need to place your first finger (of your fret-hand) across strings 1-2-3 to barre these notes.
In measures 9 and 10 you will need to place your first finger across all six strings.
The barre chords are the trickiest parts of this piece but are well worth the effort. If you find the barre chords difficult, experiment with the amount of pressure you apply to the neck of the guitar.
At first you will need to use a lot of pressure. As your hands get stronger, you will find that barre chords will get easier and easier.
One other tip for barre chords: if you find that you are having a hard time getting clear notes, you should also experiment with where you are placing your fret-hand barre finger. Try moving your barre finger slightly up or down. This will change the spots that the strings make contact with your finger. Also experiment with how close your fret-hand barre finger is to the metal fret wire.
Well that’s pretty much it for this piece. By the way, there actually is a second part of this song. I haven’t included it here because it is more difficult for beginner and intermediate guitarists. With that said the arrangement you have here stands on its own and will definitely impress your Valentine’s Day Sweetheart and that’s what really matters, isn’t it?
