Monday Motivation: Beatles Edition
Monday Motivation
“A good performer jumps on stage, looks out at the audience, and thinks, ‘Here I am!’ A great performer jumps on stage, looks out at the audience, and thinks, ‘There you are!’” –Steve Rapson Last week, I had the opportunity to watch Stanley Yates do a hour-and-a-half long concert/lecture on the Beatles. He chatted a […]
Read MoreChoosing Repertoire
Classical Guitar Repertoire
Choosing repertoire is hard, but a good teacher can help you pick out pieces that are suitable for you. If you’re sans teacher, you’ll have to choose your own repertoire. Guitarists seem to have the idea that it’s better to play entire programs of very hard stuff all the time. That’s okay, if you’re Jorge […]
Read MoreGuitar as a Gift
Classical Guitars (Buying, Care, Maintenence)
I just received my first email about giving a guitar as a gift. The most common situation is an adult buying a guitar for a child. This post contains my thoughts, as a guitar teacher, about what instruments young, beginning students should use. Most kids have trouble with two things: (1) the strings hurt their […]
Read MoreHumidity Reminder
Classical Guitars (Buying, Care, Maintenence)
It’s about that time of year (in the US, anyway) where the air starts to get cold and dry. This time of year is really not good for classical guitars. Unless your instrument is kept at a reasonable level of humidity — around 50% in most cases — bad things can happen. It can be […]
Read MoreMonday Motivation: Big Guitar Edition
Monday Motivation
“Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.” –Chick Corea Today we feature the Z.o.o. Guitar Duo performing on some very interesting instruments.
Read MoreInterview with John Williams, Greg Smallman, and Craig Ogden
Interviews with Classical Guitarists
On Australia’s ABC Radio National last night there was an interview with John Williams and the mysterious guitar maker Greg Smallman. The program is called Into the Music. The linked website includes a link to stream the audio; the entire interview is about an hour. There’s a lot of great stuff discussed, including why Williams […]
Read MoreSpeed Bursts
Classical Guitar Technique
In Pumping Nylon, Scott Tennant outlines speed bursts as a way to increase speed and fluency on both right hand alternation and tremolo. The idea behind a burst is that anyone can play fast, if only for a short period of time. Playing fast is like putting your technique into overdrive. But it’s also a […]
Read MoreThe Fine Art of Screwing Up
Guitar Performance Tips
We all make mistakes in performance (except John Williams). It just happens. It’s part of the game. The really hard part is recovery: those milliseconds after the mistake. The problem is confidence. Specifically, too much of it. We saunter on stage, start playing, then promptly screw up. The confidence we walked on with is gone. […]
Read MoreMore Free Music
Updates & Activities
If you’ve connected with me on twitter or Facebook, you already know this. There’s a new piece of music on the Free Stuff page: an arrangement of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1.
Read MoreWhat You Can Learn From My 10-year-old Student
Musical Interpretation and Musicianship
A few weeks ago I wrote a short etude for a student. He’s been studying with me for about a year and a half now. The next week, he came back well prepared and practiced, and dropped a knowledge bomb. My student likened the piece to a drama (which they’d been studying in school). The […]
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