Recording Damages the Ego

Classical Guitar Recording
Recording Damages the Ego

Back in the daytm guitar was my job. I taught, I played some concerts, I gave lectures (mostly about digital marketing and music business) — guitar was my identity. My online identity is still tied to the whole guitar thing: . So when I heard myself on a recording, it hurt. That’s not what I […]

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Find Space to Relax

Classical Guitar Practice Tips, Classical Guitar Technique
Find Space to Relax

Recently I re-homed my sheet music collection into a proper filing cabinet and rediscovered a . The book itself has some often repeated advice and some scale patterns, but one thing did stand out. Tension and realization are two concepts that must always be combined, like day and night: their alternation is present in all […]

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The Danger of Thunk Practice

Guitar Practice Techniques
The Danger of Thunk Practice

Thunk practice is used to work on arpeggio (or scale) right hand evenness by muting the strings with the left hand. The result is that it’s really easy to hear uneven rhythms or accidental rushing/dragging. It’s a great, powerful tool. But there’s a downside: thunk practice hides all other right hand noise. An imprecise finger […]

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Technique Starts with Nail Care

Classical Guitar Fingernails, Classical Guitar Technique
Technique Starts with Nail Care

Classical guitar technique starts with fingernail care. The most important part of nail care — before even finding the correct shape of nails for the right hand — is consistency. Technique is also about consistency: movement patterns must be consistent and consistently drilled in exercises and in real music. Those movement patterns will never be […]

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Johannes Möller Performs His Own “Chinese Impressions”

Johannes Möller also has a with these pieces as well as some arrangements of traditional Chinese songs and pieces.

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2018 Texas Guitar Competition Winners

Guitar Competition Winners

The was held at UT Dallas March 1 – 3, 2018. The competition itself had some required works by Ponce and Castelnuovo-Tedesco as well as some free choice programming. International Concert Guitarist Category First Place: Second Place: Third Place: and (tied for third) Youth Division II (ages 15-18) First Place: Sean McCrary Second Place: Eliza […]

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The 2018 was held February 24th and 25th. There were three divisions each with a free choice program. Division I (College & Professional, No Age Limit) First Place: Ying Xu Second Place: Agustin Rosado Third Place: Fourth Place: Division II (Grades 9-12) First Place: Mia Padilla Second Place: Zhengzhi Zheng Third Place: Preston Anastas Division […]

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Jason Vieaux on the Segovia Scales

Classical Guitar Technique, Classical Guitar Videos

In this video talks about how he uses the as a vehicle to practice shifting. Jason also talks a bit about looking at where you’re going rather than trying to follow your hands as they move and using different tempos and rhythms to help reinforce the shifts.

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Earlier today, GFA president Martha Masters sent out an email asking for some help. Dear GFA Members, In the past six months, GFA has begun dialogues with five school districts in Southern California about adding guitar programs throughout the district. These dialogues have all originated from personal connections with Superintendents, members of the Board of […]

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Interview with Michael Karmon, composer

Classical Guitar Repertoire, Interviews with Classical Guitarists
Interview with Michael Karmon, composer

Michael Karmon is a California-based composer who dedicates much of his output to the classical guitar. We sat down (virtually) for a little interview about his background, composition process, and new models for commissioning music. CG.org: Tell us about your musical education and the path that led you to the guitar MK: I took the […]

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