Classical Guitar » Guitar Related Links

One Reason You Need to Go to a Guitar Festival

Christopher Davis — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:55:06 +0000

Guitar festivals are a good time. Imagine yourself immersed in lecture sessions, lessons, and masterclasses. Then throw in some concerts by artists you’ve been dying to see for years.

But those are not the real reason reason you should go to a guitar festival.

It’s all about the people. Guitar festivals are full of extraordinary people. These people may be the teaching artists or the guys who organized it or just some friends you met along the way. It doesn’t matter. A guitar festival is an opportunity to interact with great people from all over.

Some Great People I Met in the Last Two Weeks

It’s been a busy two weeks. I drove from Fort Worth to Macomb, IL then to Chicago, then back again. Along the way I played three concerts, gave four lectures, and spent the time hanging out with some extraordinary people. So let me introduce them to you.

Matt Warnock makes me feel lazy. He’s an amazing jazz guitarist (who can play with his fingers faster than most classical guitarists can ever hope to), runs a guitar program, is the editor of Guitar International Magazine, and does a lot of other freelance work. Matt is the guy behind the WIU Guitar Fest.

Tom Clippert and Jeffrey Silva of the Avanti Guitar Trio make a living playing and teaching in one of the harshest guitar environments in the world: Chicago. There are politics aplenty that keep many guitarists from working there, but Jeff and Tom maintain an active performance schedules and teach some amazing students. (Shout out to my friends in the guitar studio at ChiArts.)

Jesse Mazzoccoli loves guitar. He’s been playing and teaching professionally for years, but only recently decided to go back and do the guitar degree thing. Jesse is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

Guilherme Vincens is an incredible guitar player. I’m always amazed at how relaxed and chill he is on stage. He projects the sort of confidence that let’s an audience truly relax and enjoy the music.

Dan Koentopp is passionate about building guitars. And when you talk with him about it, you can’t help but notice. He uses a blend of old school methods and modern technology to produce some great classical and archtop guitars.

Most of you probably know Brad DeRoche. He founded Strings by Mail. He’s also a great guitarist and a nice guy. He knows a lot about strings and nice guitars. (A LOT.)

If I saw you at a concert or lecture, thank you so much for coming out!

One Reason You Need to Go to a Guitar Festival from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/27/2011]

Christopher Davis — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:01:29 +0000

Bradford Werner points out that having musical friends is just as important as practicing. I agree. Most college guitar programs make use of the first benefit of having musical friends: a low-stress environment where people can perform for each other. Having a regular performance opportunity will make you a better player. There are quite a few other benefits that Bradford outlines as well, and he gives a brief list of places where one can make musical friends.

Nick Cutroneo wrote a very brief, insightful post on the ways the left hand thumb can help navigate the fretboard. I use a lot of the second method: allowing the thumb to move vertically.

Lastly, you can check out an in progress guitar over on the GSI blog.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/27/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/13/2011]

Christopher Davis — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:08:32 +0000

Giacomo Fiore, a musicologist and guitarist currently studying and living in Santa Cruz, is recording a new CD. And he wants your help to get it off the ground. His project involved recording a lot of modern music, which means big licensing costs. So click here (or look to the widget at the right) and lend him a few dollars if you can. Giacomo is a great player, and his interpretations of 20th century music are really very good.

Nick Cutroneo wrote about left hand fingering considerations this week. “[D]epending on what you want to hear, and musically what you are trying to express, certain fingerings may work while others you have to fight to get your musical ideas across.” That pretty much sums the article up. If you’re looking for some thoughts or reasons why you should try out different fingerings, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Philip Hii wrote a bit about Cook Hii vs. Cook Ting. Sounds a bit abstract, right? There’s a fairly obvious meaning to this post, but I don’t want to ruin it for you. Go read it.

Bradford Werner explains Quantity vs. Quality in practicing. This is a great post that discusses something I tell my students repeatedly: the goal of practicing is play something perfectly as many times as possible.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/13/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/6/2011]

Christopher Davis — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:09:32 +0000

Steve Thachuk (aka Dr. Steve) continues his exploration of guitar fingerings. This week fingerings that fall under the interpretive/phrasing category. In other words, why do some fingerings appear to make things difficult? Well, probably because the editor was looking for a specific effect, such as consistency of tone or even a visual effect (a large movement to go along with a musical leap, etc). This is a fascinating article, so go check it out.

William Bajzek reminds us of some lessons from Pablo Casals. I especially like this point, “most guitar music involves multiple simultaneous lines and we need to shape those independently.” Yes. In fact, I’ve written about playing musical lines separately before.

Philip Hii outlines how the Art of Virtuosity and Tremolo fit together. Specifically, how his concepts of looseness, lightness, power, and speed all fit into a scheme for understanding what makes a good tremolo.

Nick Cutroneo explains why having goals is an essential part of practicing. Nick and I think slightly differently on this topic, but his ideas are very much in line with my own. Goals are a big deal, and you should read Nick’s post to find out why.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 3/6/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/27/2011]

Christopher Davis — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 21:18:12 +0000

Philip Hii explains the premise behind the philosophy of virtuosity he’s been laying out in previous weeks on his blog and in his book the Art of Virtuosity. Everything he talks about (rhythm, fluidity, looseness and lightness, etc.) are all part of a whole. You can’t be good at one and miss out on the others.

William makes the valid point that easy and simple are the same thing. True story. It doesn’t matter what the style or genre of music, a simple piece is not easy. I would add: pulling off a simple piece perfectly is much more impressive than any hard piece with some mistakes.

Kai explains the Buleria Compás over at the GSI blog. He makes the point, however, that you probably shouldn’t tackle this unless you’ve been working on Solea for a while.

Nick Cutroneo outlines what he expects from students. This is a great article, and all teachers should think about working something like this up to give to parents.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/27/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/20/2011]

Christopher Davis — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:48:39 +0000

Bradford Werner from Classical Guitar Canada outlines his week of guitar teaching. He makes the valid point that students shouldn’t let a few bad notes ruin a performance. Instead, when you make a mistake, focus on the next note. Trust that you have the rest of the piece. Also good is Bradford’s practice guide: what, how, why, and when.

Speaking of trust, William Bajzek reminds use that we have to trust ourselves during performance and outlines several ways to make sure we’re able to do so. Topping the list is preparation, of course. But at some point you have to get out there and play. The only way to know if you’re able to trust yourself (and your preparation) is by performing.

Flamenco month continues on the Guitar Salon Blog. This week Kai shows us how to do triplet rasgeuado, among other things. I’m loving these videos lessons, and I would strongly encourage you to drop in at the GSI blog to check the rest of the out.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/20/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/13/2011]

Christopher Davis — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:00:45 +0000

Kai from the Guitar Salon Blog gives you an introduction to rasgueado. This is a video lesson that explains a lot of the basics of rasgueado, and gives some technical tips. It’s really good, so go give it a watch.

William wants to know what what you focus on while performing. Your fingers? The music itself? Personally, I focus on looking and hearing ahead of where I am in the music.

Nick Cutroneo found a great video of David Leisner discussing Focal Dystonia. Leisner gives advice that is good for anyone, not just those dealing with focal dystonia.

Finally, Manuel Barrueco does Podcasts and he just released a new one this week. The podcast opens with a good discussion on competitions, and Barrueco talks quite a bit about his experiences at the Toronto Competition.

CGB Updates

The classical guitar news page has been updated to include a lot more guitar festivals. There’s also a new page with a more complete list of guitar festivals and competitions.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 2/13/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 1/6/2011]

Christopher Davis — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 16:35:08 +0000

Philip Hii explains how to product a powerful, loud tone without tension. Sometimes people tend to criticize the fast and loud players, but Hii points out that if you’re able to play like that, “it means you’ve managed to acquire an extremely efficient and relaxed technique.”

Steve Thachuk gives some explanation about how he deals with fingerings in edited scores. This is a great article. Thuchuk divides fingerings into two big categories: The Absolute Positively Only Way to Do Something (probably…) and Fingerings that will help you learn the piece. Essentially, Steve is asking you to figure whether or not edited fingerings convey the editors technical and musical biases. If so, should you let them influence your own musical and technical decisions?

William Bajzek explains some rhythmic exercises that deal with moving the accent in a given passage. I’m a fan of this, and it’s a big part of how I practice tremolo.

Kai from the Guitar Salon blog gives a brief introduction to flamenco with two video lessons. This is a great set of lessons, and if you’re new to flamenco or just curious about it be sure to give it a watch.

There’s new a classical guitar news page on the CG Blog. It includes news stories that I find around the web relating to classical guitar, and links to upcoming guitar festivals. If you’d like to get a festival listed, use the form at the bottom of the news page.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links - 1/6/2011] from Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup

Christopher Davis — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 18:00:38 +0000

Another good week on the classical guitar blogs. Lots of teaching-centric things.

First up, Bradford Werner of Classical Guitar Canada goes through his week of guitar teaching. The post is about the things Brandford talked about most while teaching this week. Like Bradford, I notice certain trends coming up in teaching from week to week. So you end up talking about a lot of the same stuff over and over, but it’s still fascinating. A lot of times those things are aspects of your own playing that are on your mind and come out in the teaching stuido. I love the idea behind this post. If every classical guitar teacher in the world did a blog post like this once a week, there’d be a lot more great knowledge floating around.

Nick Cutroneo covered some practice games for children in his lastest post in a series about teaching young guitar students. This is particularly fascinating, because most of us are not young children (only in spirit). So these games seem corney, but I would bet every young music student would love them.

Philip Hii wrote an extensive post about rhythm. Why? Because it’s probably the most important aspect of anyone’s playing. Two quotes stand out. “[A]lways play everything in time, all the time,” and, “the best way to test your rhythm and develop good time it is to play with other musicians.”

The Guitar Salon Blog has put up several video interviews with Grisha Goryachev. The third part is linked. It covers Grisha’s development as flamenco guitarist and how/why he got into it when he was growing up.

Two Guitar Videos

Composer Milton Babbit passed away yesterday (Saturday – 1/29/2011). Whether or not you enjoy his music, Babbitt was a major figure in the art music world. His Composition for Guitar follows.

Ever wanted to look inside David Russell’s guitar? Now you can. The video below is a look inside a 1988 John Gilbert guitar build for David Russell.

Classical Guitar Blog Roundup from Classical Guitar

For You Electric Guitar Moonlighters…

Christopher Davis — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:15:10 +0000

For those of you that still keep up those electric guitar skills, there’s a new ebook on the market today.

Jon Bloomer over at Guitar Noize just released a new book call Shred Master Exercises and Studies. I got a chance to look through it ealier, and it’s very good. 25 attractive sounding exercises, with videos of each at slow, medium, and fast tempos, for $13.

Click here to buy Shred Master Exercises & Studies.

Back to your regularly scheduled classical guitar programming.

For You Electric Guitar Moonlighters… from Classical Guitar