German Speakers help

Doug W

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Greetings,

I am working on a fairly simple piece on my uke, written for guitar called "Gaucho" by Luise Walker.

My three years of junior high German around fifty years ago is not helping me much these days. The tempo for this particular song is "Lustig, aber nicht zu schnell".

Does this really mean "Funny, but not so fast"? If so, what does that mean? Please help,

Danke,

Doug
 
Not a native speaker here. Like you, I studied German many years ago. Anyway, literally you are correct, but how about the replacing the word "funny" with something like "merry" or "jolly." Does that work better?
 
Not a native speaker here. Like you, I studied German many years ago. Anyway, literally you are correct, but how about the replacing the word "funny" with something like "merry" or "jolly." Does that work better?
Probably would make more sense than "funny" - good thought
 
"Lustig", for tempo purpose, is allegro, 120-168 BMP. See here. In times past, it was more commonly used as an equivalent of lively, cheerful, spirited, etc, though today it's mostly used like the word funny in English.
 
It most probably reminds you to smile while playing not too fast ;)

Jokes aside: what Mivo said. "Cheerful" or "lively" would be my translation of choice in this context. Keep the tempo somewhere between falling asleep and dueling banjos....
 
I came too late:) I'm German....These terms are quite confusing in German, even for a German.
But I'd have liked to help.
 
It's the - somewhat antiquated - German equivalent to the more commonly used Italian tempo indication "Allegro, ma non troppo". With the relativization "not too much", this is placed at the slower end of the "Allegro" range, more like 120 BPM (2 beats per second).
 
Hi I am German,
but in this case (as said by others above) translation makes no sense and Rakelele is right.
Allegro = 120 - 168 bpm in German sometimes referred as: "lustig", "heiter", "munter", "schnell".
And as it's described as "nicht so schnell" (not so fast), rather 120 than 168 bpm.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I will have to get back to that song and try it at the suggested tempo.
 
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