Francisco Tárrega’s Gran Vals is a cornerstone piece in the classical guitar repertoire, known for its graceful melody with a Spanish flair. You might recognize it from the older, iconic Nokia cell phone ringtone! 

Dive in to learn this piece filled with beautiful picking patterns and chord voicings. Get ready to add this gem to your playing!

Notation symbols explained

Here is some brief information on guitar notation symbols used in this piece. Feel free to skip this section if you’re already familiar.

The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand.

You might see barre chords written as C.1, C.2, etc… to represent the Spanish word “cejilla” which means barre. I replace this with B.1, B.2, etc… to represent a barre on a certain fret. 

Note that these symbols don’t always require barring all strings, so check the notation to see which string the barre starts on. The dashed lines indicate how long to hold each barre.

If needed, you can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols.

Gran Vals guitar tabs

To learn other songs by Francisco Tárrega, check out Adelita, Malagueña, Lágrima, Recuerdos de la Alhambra, or his arrangement of Moonlight Sonata.

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Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.

JG

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