Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp perform Songs of the British Isles at Melbourne Recital Hall from May 12–14. For more information and tickets, call 9699 3333 or visit melbournerecital.com.au
Last week, the Wichita guitar society had Jerome Ducharme, the 2005 GFA Competition Winner. But they also let the world see his concert: Chained Sky Studios webcast the entire thing. That concert is embedded below (there will be some ads, sorry). Jerome is a really oustanding player. I saw him when he was on his GFA Winners tour a few years ago.
The video recording here is not outstanding, but the sound is okay.
Guitar has been cursed, in a way, by its omnipresence in popular music; extreme compression has rendered the instrument’s tone a flat, loud electronic signal. Not so, however, in its traditional forum. The dynamics, phrasing and techniques of classical guitar are impressive without the need for effects or amplifiers.
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet’s performance at Lawrence Saturday, April 16 reaffirmed the evocative nature of the instrument, covering a broad range of melodic and percussive sounds with only four musicians onstage. Their two-hour set covered a breadth of classic and modern repertoire, and emphasized their skill as an ensemble.
Stuart Weber, Bozeman’s resident classical guitar maven, will be
presenting his spring concert at The Ellen Theatre on Saturday,
April 30.Called “Technically superb and emotionally engaging” by Modern
Guitars Magazine, Weber will perform works from his 25-year solo
career and is planning a bonus for those in attendance at the
concert. The evening will be capped off with a guest appearance by
renowned violinist Angella Ahn. This energetic collaboration began
last summer during a taping of the Emmy award-winning series “11th
& Grant with Eric Funk.” Ahn, a Bozeman resident and member of
the internationally acclaimed Ahn Trio, graced the session with a
guest appearance and a friendship between Ahn and Weber was
born.
The Music Department of Sandhills Community College presents a concert by Dr. Robert Trent and the Radford University Guitar Trio Thursday, April 28, at 7 p.m. in Owens Auditorium on the college campus. This performance is free and open to the public.
Saturday, April 23, 2011, 8pm
Benjamin Verdery, artistic director & guitar
Odair Assad, guitar
Canadian Guitar Quartet
Ricardo Cobo, guitar
Eden Stell Guitar Duo
René Izquierdo, guitar
Raphaella Smits, guitar
Tickets can be bought here: 92y.org
Michael Chapdelaine, the international award-winning guitarist whose intriguing recital closed the GuitarSarasota concert season, is nothing if not varied in his tastes and talent.
Starting with two unidentified heavy metal pieces, Chapdelaine moved to the first of two compositions from the Beatles. The first, by Paul McCartney, was impressive in its delicacy. Later in the program, George Harrison’s “Something” held the audience spellbound by both the hypnotic melody and the guitarist’s technique.
Read the full review here: ticketsarasota.com
Imagine your self at a guitar concert. The music is beautiful, and you’re lost in it. There you hear a terrible buzz — a missed note — and your reverie is broken.
Most of you have probably been to a concert where this has happened, and perhaps some of you have been the ones making the buzz (I know I have). Are those buzzes and split notes true mistakes? Or are they one of these errors:
Most classical guitarists come from some sort of rock or popular music background. So think back to your first guitar lesson. What did you do? Chances are you played some chords.
Then you tried to move those chords around, and your teacher said that you should try to move all your fingers at once.
Moving all at once is not necessary in much of the classical guitar repertoire. Our textures are different, and we don’t really have a lot of instances where block chords need to land all at once. The solution is sequencing.
Put fingers down as you need them. Don’t worry about nailing the block chords; start thinking, “where can I add fingers later? Do I need to have every note of the chord down right away?”
This one little change makes a huge difference in how legato and consistent your sound is.
This goes hand in hand with sequencing. Good guitarists find ways to prepare for the next movement before it happens.
In other words, think how you can prep unused fingers for the next shift or movement. You could extend the first finger to prepare for a barre or hover an unused finger over the string where it will be placed next.
The other half of this is keeping unnecessary fingers down. Unless a finger is fulling a musical (controlling open strings, respecting note values, etc) or technical (a guide or pivot finger, etc) purpose, it probably shouldn’t be down. Why do we do this? Because it’s easy to be lazy and not worry about picking fingers up before we have to.
But the truth is that, while it is easy to keep left hand fingers down, often times those fingers create problems in shifting and legato later on. So drop them. And try to incorporate those newly freed fingers into your preparations for the next move.
Hand position matters a lot for the left hand. Does your hand need to be angled or straight?
Sometimes it’s easier to do one or the other. But the real value in paying attention to your left hand positioning is not that it makes things easier.
Find a left hand position that works well for a given passage or motive and you’re able to replicate it in practice — you can getting into and out of this new hand position instead of leaving it to chance. That’s awesome.
All of the above have one thing in common: they involve being aware. They involve you stepping up your practice focus and getting your left hand to do the things you need it to do.
The good news is the more you pay attention now, the more good habits — like sequencing, preparation, and good hand position — take over and become the default.
Here is a little business profile of the Hill Guitar Company:
FELTON – The aroma of wood shavings and varnish hung in the air at Hill Guitar Company along with more than a dozen guitars in varying stages of completion Monday.
Kenny Hill’s been producing classical and flamenco guitars in the San Lorenzo Valley for more than two decades, but with his new shop on Highway 9, he’s preparing to ramp up production to meet increasing global demand for his high-end concert instruments.
Full story: santacruzsentinel.com
NEW YORK—Earlier this month, renowned innovator of classical guitar and a 1998 Grammy nominee Paul Galbraith took the stage of the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.As part of his 2011 world tour, Paul Galbraith delivered a great performance with his unique style, unconventional cellist posture, and 8-string Brahms guitar. He took the audience on a journey through the musical works of some of his favorite composers, transcribed for the guitar by Galbraith himself.
