What to Play After Romanza: Four Pieces for Your Next Step

Romanza is a piece almost everyone meets. Known also as the Spanish Romance or Romance Anónimo, it sits in our Intermediate band, Levels 4 to 6, and it asks for the things that make an intermediate player: a singing melody carried over a steady arpeggiated bass, a turn into the major-key middle section, and patience in the stretch up the neck. If you have just brought it up to performance shape, the question is the familiar one. What now?

Here are three pieces that build on what Romanza taught you, plus one to keep on the horizon. Each links to our edition, and each has a place on our ten-level map, so you always know what you are taking on.

Where you are: Romanza (Intermediate, Levels 4 to 6)

First, a reminder of why it earns its place. Hannah Murphy's performance shows the piece at its best: the melody floating clear above the arpeggios, the major section opening like a window, the quiet return home. Romanza teaches melody over accompaniment and right-hand evenness as well as any piece at its level. Everything below builds on those two skills.

1. Forest Waltz, Gabriel Diaz (Intermediate)

Stay in the intermediate band, but trade Spain for a Canadian forest. Gabriel Diaz, a Cuban and French-Canadian guitarist born in 1998 and based in Vancouver, wrote Forest Waltz from the lush forests of British Columbia and the colours of autumn. Like Romanza, it carries a singing line over a flowing accompaniment, now in waltz time. It is a lyrical, comfortable next step that lets you bring everything Romanza taught you to fresh harmony. Get the score.

2. No Juan Carlos, Justo Morales (Intermediate)

Your step into expression. Ño Juan Carlos is a triste, a "sad" in the Argentine folk tradition, written by Justo Morales (1877 to 1953) and dedicated to the father of María Luisa Anido, who became one of Argentina's most important guitarists. The notes sit close to where you already play, but the music asks for rubato, shading and a real sense of melancholy. This is the piece that turns clean playing into musical playing. Get the score.

3. Dance of the Ghosts, Aleksey Afromeyev (Advanced)

The stretch. With this one you cross into our Advanced band, Levels 7 to 10. Dance of the Ghosts is an atmospheric miniature, rhythmically propulsive and coloured with an air of the uncanny, by Aleksey Afromeyev, a Siberian guitarist and composer remembered as much for publishing guitar magazines in the early 1900s as for his own compositions. It will likely take you a season rather than a month, and that is the point. This is the piece that moves your playing forward. Get the score.

The horizon: Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Advanced)

Every Romanza player dreams of Tárrega's tremolo masterpiece, and you should too, just not yet. Goran Krivokapić's performance shows what waits in the upper reaches of our Advanced band. Our edition is free to download, so there is no harm in printing it now and pinning it to the wall. The pieces above are how you earn it.

Find your level

Every MusiCurate edition is graded on our ten-level system, so you always know what a piece will ask of you. Browse the Intermediate collection, the full sheet music library, or read the Level Guide to map your own path.