Classical Guitar Blog Roundup [Links – 1/23/2011]
Another great week on on the classical guitar blogs. Lots of good stuff on teaching, listening, and interpretation. Also a great interview!
The Guitar Salon blog posted an interview with Jason Vieaux. My favorite part is towards the end, where Jason talks about using color. “Using color not in a random way, but to highlight structure. So for me using color on the guitar and form and structure are very much linked together.” I a big believer in this approach to using color — much more effective than random usage.
Nick Cutroneo gives some advice on how a parent can help during a child’s music lesson and during practicing. Nick is a Suzuki guitar teacher, and he knows a ton about teaching young children. This is an extremely complete article that covers everything from in lesson involvement to how the parent should help with their students music practice at home.
William Bajzek reminds us that you have to really listen. Too often we get sucked into the passive listening void (do you have music playing in the background right now?), and that can really carry over to your practicing. This is a crucial point. You have to really listen (and record yourself) to improve. So what sort of habits are you developing by passively listening to everything?
Steven Thachuk outlines how recordings influence his interpretation of the Ponce Sonata Romantica. Since the urtext edition of this piece was only recently made available, most recordings are of the Segovia edited Sonata Romantica. What does that mean for interpretation? How does your perception, as influenced by recordings, have to change to deal with the differences in the manuscript version? These are issues that Steven addresses.
Justin
Hey Chris, Really enjoy these link “roundups”. Good exposure to some blogs I did not know about. Started following Steve Thachuks blog thanks to last weeks roundup. Just wanted to say thanks!
Christopher Davis
Justin, that’s great! I’m glad you like these posts — I intend to keep doing them, and I hope the other classical guitar blogs have as much success as I have.
We need more of them!
Rich Wahne
GREAT site about the classical guitar! I am glad that I found your guitar blog! I love everything about guitar…playing, listening, investing, and now with the internet…the advent of online guitar lessons. Boy have things changed.
I just turned 57 years old this year (2011), and remember back in 1965 when I started taking guitar lessons at this funky little guitar shop
in the SE part of Portland, Oregon, USA. Looking back I REALLY wish that I had some pictures of that little shop where I got my start in
guitar. I am sure that my memory is a lot less clear as well as a lot less accurate than a few pictures would be. But then again, taking
pictures back in 1965 was a big thing! Back then you actually had to purchase “film,” take the film out of the sealed foil package, insert it
in your camera, and THEN take pictures; maybe as many as 36 if you purchased the large film pack. THEN you had another step prior to
actually viewing your pictures, you had to take them to a special shop where the film would have to be “developed.” Once the developing was
finished (you know that “dark room” stuff), you could see your pictures…maybe a week after you took them. LOL But I still wish I had gone
through all of that just to have a few pictures (black and white too) of my first guitar shop; the place were I got hooked on guitars.
You would think that guitars, like cameras, were a lot different back then. We we would be wrong. I still have my first two guitars, and
there is VERY little difference in the guitars of the 1960’s, and now in 2011. As a matter of fact, the older a guitar, the more wanted they
become. They sound better, they look cool, and they are truly collectors items. Cameras from the 1960’s might be a collectors items, but I
would argue that they wouldn’t have been as good then as they are now.
Back to my first guitar shop…I’m not sure, but if my memory is working right (and pictures might have helped?); my first guitar lessons
were about $5.00 per hour. And that is when the minimum wage was about $1.00 per hour…YES $1.00 an hour! But to spend $5.00 on guitar
lessons as an 11-year old kid was GREAT!
For now, here is the one tip that my guitar teacher told me that I WISH I had followed to the letter…”Spend just 15 minutes a day on your
guitar, every day of your life, and you will be AMAZED with your progress.” Now just imagine if you spent 15 minutes EVERY day of your life
to improve on your guitar playing. What would the results be?
Well…how about this challenge? I challenge myself to pick up my guitar and work on something, new or old, every single day for just 15
minutes. How about you? Do you want to take on my challenge? Just imagine how incredible we will be 60 days from now? Sixty days, times 15
minutes a day is a WHOPPING FIFTEEN HOURS of practice…WOW.
Are you up for FIFTEEN hours of rehearsal over the coming 60 days? I am!
I would love to have you post on my blog too; it’s at the best online guitar
lessons website.
Peace!
Rich