Memories is Tobias Rauscher's defining composition and the piece that introduced many players to the German percussive fingerstyle tradition. Unlike much of the Candyrat-era repertoire that relies on altered tunings, Memories is played in standard tuning — making it an excellent entry point for players who want to explore percussive techniques without restructuring their entire approach.
The piece opens with slap harmonics, a technique where the fretting hand slaps the strings near the nut to produce percussive pitched tones. This sound is central to Rauscher's identity and reappears throughout the piece at key structural moments. Learning clean slap harmonics in standard tuning is the foundational skill required to access this piece.
Body percussion is integrated naturally — taps on the guitar top provide rhythmic grounding beneath the melodic lines. Rauscher's placement of these percussive hits shows his compositional sophistication: they never interrupt the melodic flow but instead create the rhythmic scaffolding on which the melody rests.
The legato passages in Memories require a developed left hand. Hammer-ons and pull-offs across multiple strings maintain melodic continuity while the right hand handles percussive duties. Slow, isolated practice of each hand's role, then careful integration, is the recommended learning approach.
Standard tuning makes Memories one of the most accessible advanced-level percussive pieces for guitarists transitioning from conventional fingerstyle.