Carlos Paredes was a brilliant Portugese player and composer, known as much for his studio albums as his soundtrack work for various films throughout the years. Regarded as one of the best players of the Portuguese guitar of all-time, his debut album Guitarra Portuguesa displays his mastery of the instrument in nearly every single note. Simply stellar stuff.
For those not in the know, the Portuguese guitar differs slightly from your typical North American six string in a variety of ways, the most notable being it is strung with 12 total strings in six courses of two strings. The lower three pairs are tuned to the same note in octaves (i.e. one string per pair are separated by 12 whole notes), while the top three pairs are tuned in unison (i.e. the same exact note). As you can hear throughout Guitarra Portuguesa, this gives the whole sounds a richly dynamic and classical flair, very Medieval-sounding, which perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise considering it is a descendant of the Citole which was very popular in the 13th century. It also has a wildly different way of playing the instrument compared to your standard acoustic– pn the Portuguese guitar the strings are picked with the corner of the fingernails, avoiding contact of the flesh with the strings. The unused fingers of the picking hand rest below the strings, on the guarda-unhas on the soundboard.
All in all, this is a wonderful album to experience a little bit of that beautiful Portuguese guitar playing that is so enrapturing when done right. And there isn’t a better place to start than Carlos Paredes Guitarra Portuguesa.
Standout Songs: “Canção Verde Anos”, “Porto Santo”, “Divertimento”
