Guitar World

Rare video of Julian Bream in concert, Sor Rondo in C, Bach 2 Preludes, Walton Two Bagatelles, and encore, Villa Lobos Study no; 11. A little out of synch, due to file compression, but this is very rare video of a great artist at his peak.

Bach Prelude in E Flat.

Bach Prelude in D

William Walton Bagatelle no 2 and no 1. A video blemish near the beginning, but the magic of Julian Bream’s live recitals at the height of his career comes over in his playing…

Encore, Villa Lobos, Study no; 11

All players suffer from memory lapses during public performance at some stage. The main aspect is not to let it rattle you. It’s easy to panic in those situations, especially if you reach the point where you are “listening” to the silence of the audience! Although it’s fair to say every situation is likely to be different, and there’s no definitive way of coping after a memory lapse, I have tended to simply play on from a point from which I am sure of. This may well involve skipping a section of music, to the next section, not ideal maybe, but at least one is not sitting staring blankly at the guitar searching for divine intervention! Even if that is what we may well feel like doing ) But,  there are techniques we can employ to minimise these memory lapses in the first place…..

I’ve researched  a number of players techniques to help overcome this, and the consensus of opinion is that preparation is the key to performing music. Guitarist John Williams feels that lack of confidence is the root of all nerves, and the more you have prepared the music you are to play, the better you will be able to recognise all potential pitfalls. An analogy here…How many people get nervous of a certain route we are to undertake for the first time? We might look at the map thoroughly, but unless we actually have travelled that road before, we cannot visualise the journey ahead of us, hence, the fear of the unknown, a major factor in performance anxiety.

So make sure you really study your concert material beforehand, and here are some ways to aid you, which will also help memory…One way is to play from the music, but from the last bar onwards…The idea being here that when you play the piece forwards again you will know better the next bar in front of you. 

Another technique is more simple, you “listen” to the piece in your head, and play it through in your mind, picturing each finger pattern, as though you are at the guitar itself, only this time it is in your minds eye. You can do this at various points of the day, even on public transport, though NOT recommended while you are driving a car yourself!

I have been known to employ “working titles” to some pieces. Putting words to the music, it can be the first words that come to your head. This helps to associate the music with words or emotions. It is common for composers to have “working titles” for music in it’s early development stage. Examples, Paul McArtney had the title “Scrambled Eggs” for “Yesterday”, after first composing the musical phrase, and “Eleanor Rigby” was at first “Julia McKenzie”. This technique also helps you to be more relaxed about the music. I won’t actually relate some of my working titles to guitar works..Or will I

The key tip being, make sure everything you  are to play in public, you can first play in your head.

I started a series called “masterworks” which is aimed as an appreciation of my opinion of the classical guitars finest compositions.

Vals no. 3 by Agustin Barrios Mangore is sometimes called “vals Romantica”. It’s plaintive, Chopinesque  melody shelters two different themes, the final one, third subject, in the tonic major key, is more animated, sparkling and landler like in it’s gaiety, but always the sad theme returns to haunt. I call it Barrios “Tragic Clown” piece, beautifully played here by David Russell.

This is the first in a new weekly series of playing tips. This one helps with understanding the left hand barre, a major obstacle when learning the guitar.

Full Left Hand Barre

The left hand barre, sometimes called the bar, is possibly the main reason some young guitarists get no further with their studies. Unlike advanced guitar techniques such as tremelo, rasguedo, cross string trills, the Barre comes up very quickly in all players studies, and at the time there appears no going forward until you can “master” it.

Barre is of course where your left hand first finger covers more than one string. A full barre, like the above illustration, covers all strings, and straight away, the first mis-concept comes to the fore. And this because the player often thinks he/she has to cover all six strings at the same time, with same pressure across all strings.  Not only is that difficult, to get equal pressure, but in classical playing, prolonged barre playing (and this occurs a lot) leads to left hand fatigue, and the hand simply cannot function efficiently. The main problem here is left hand pressure, and the thumb pressing too hard on the fingerboard to try to get clean sound.

fig 1

To continue with my Beatles For Classical guitar series, I am grateful to qazpnlpn of Youtube, for this fine performance of “Penny Lane”.

Talented guitarist from Holland, Devapath was influenced early on by flamenco guitarist Vicente Armijo, and later travelled to India, meeting flute player Milind Date. These influences combined to form the East, West fusion of rhythms and styles, forming a unique style and sound, the Abysis Projects sound. This is perhaps best displayed in the great track Granada Bombay I am offering this track here, because I believe it to be commercialy unavailable.

At times, Abysis Projects music floats across the seas to the middle East, with tracks like “Little Burma Buddha” from the album Travels in Sound and Science, which oozes mystical atmosphere, with the Pipes taking up an anguished melody, vying with guitar for melody and counterpoint. From the same album, “Ignivomo” is a classic Abysis work, featuring guitar melody and accompanying Violin, later the Flute, developing into a more rhythmic middle section, only for the plaintive melody to return. “Para Montse” is a plaintive guitar duet.

The Album The Universe Will Never End features mostly soft, dreamy, landscape settings, the opening track “Air Minor, By Way Of Passion”, 10 minutes of repeated arpeggio accompanyment on guitar, with melody taken by guitar, many embellishments like trills and flamenco like ornaments. Later, Horns join in with the melody making a lush sounding track which sets the album scene.

Other albums currently available are Sufi Sound, and the very evocative Monte El Viento, both those albums having tracks that evoke exotic places like Cassablanca, Cataluna, and the Orient.

Classical guitar solos by Barrios, Piazzola, and Baden Powell have also been interpreted by Devapath, hopefully soon these recordings will also be available. If you enjoy world music with exotic rhythms and influences, not to mention haunting guitar melodies, lavish Flute and Pipes, then Abysis Projects is something you will cherish.

Abysis Projects music is available at Legal Sounds

Andres Segovia, playing Montemayor from “Castillos de España” by Moreno Torroba.

Here is the legendary Segovia sound, the likes of which we will never hear again. There was a magic in his phrasing, a distinction which set Segovia’s sound apart from any other. Sometimes critisised for his liberal use of Rubato, or excessive glissando, Segovia’s interpretations were always absolutely unique.

In recent years, John Williams has been critical of Segovia, calling him a “bad teacher”, and failing to recognise latent qualities in his students playing, prefering instead to attempt to teach them to play every phrase the way he himself would play it. There’s little doubt there was bad blood between John’s Father Len and Segovia, who both differed politicly, as well as the musical direction of the upcoming John. To what extent this influences John William comments is something he himself only knows. Williams claims his critisims of Segovia is motivated by “honesty forces me to re-evaluate” Segovia’s legacy to the guitar.

It’s a trait of many guitarists that, for some reason, instead of accepting and enjoying, the tendency is to seek out and destroy. Segovia himself was “guilty” of this sort of thing, in his pursuit of guitaristic direction made him very singular minded, to the point where no other direction was feasible in his mind. By that, I mean the taking the guitar away from Flamenco and Folklodic influences, and remain strictly classical music. Virtuoso guitarist composers, Agustin Barrios in particular, caught the brunt of the Segovia predjudice, to the point where Segovia banned his class from playing Barrios music in his class.

Whatever predjudices these guitarists may have harboured, there is a place in my heart for all of them. This Segovia video has that magic element in the sound, which will remain forever.

Here is a post for guitarists, two free scores. The first one is the theme from the film “Bilitis”, written by Francis Lai, which I arranged for solo guitar myself, some while ago. Obscure film, but the music score by Lai (of “Love Story” fame) was excellent. I thought it might suit guitar, so here it is. Guitarists please feel free to download it.

The second one is quite an easy piece called Noches de Este (Nights of the East) composer anon, but arranged by Len Williams (guitarist John’s Father, and founder of the Spanish guitar centre) Although technically very simple, full of exotic eastern flavour. Mind you, here in the West some of us think of the Orient as “exotic”, perhaps they feel the same was about the West! Anyway, here is the score, quite battered, but readable. Incidently, the markings on the score are not mine, but sometimes of interest how other people read the music!

Playing music in public creates dread in some musicians. No matter how good ones playing might be, performance nerves can destroy many a public recital, and there’s nothing more frustrating than the feeling of not being able to prove how you can really play.

An interesting aspect of performance nerves which comes up in discussion at times is the so called “Sound of silence”…The thing is, when one sits down to play, it is easy to be lulled into “listening” to the silence which invades the arena, creating in the mind the only sounds thereafter will come from your instrument, if you are playing solo. I read of a guitar student who saw his tutor play Albeniz in concert, and beforehand he was literally shaking with nerves, you could see his hands trembling. How then, thought the student, will it be possible for the player to perform the delicate finger movements needed to pull off the technically difficult Albeniz? Yet, the concert went well, the player/tutor played very well, with hardly a fluff, and with trembling hands beforehand..

How then, do some people overcome this fear, and others never find any effective answers? The most effective method, it sounds so obvious really, is practice to the point where your finger movements become automatic. Imagine yourself in a concert situation while you are practicing, perhaps even record yourself as often as possible. This can create an awareness of people listening to you. The ultimate aim being to be able to play as though it means nothing, with not a care in the world, but same time, it must mean everything. To marry the two elements, requires work and practice to the point of autonomy in playing, leaving room to shape and polish the interpretation and music.

 But to overcome performance nerves, your technique must be rock solid. It is technique you rely upon, when starting off playing, if this is not solid, or you are playing something you are likely to fluff when playing at home, mistakes will multiply for sure when in public. David Russell advices us to think of technique as “building blocks”, getting the foundations correct, and build up from there.

If all else fails, guitarist John Williams has this advice regarding performance nerves, quotation from a radio interview; “I get nervous only when I am playing something new, or in public for the first time. Until one has played it, you do not know the exact pitfalls, but I believe confidence (or lack of it) is the root of all nerves. I would say this, if you are the kind of person who absolutely dreads playing in public, DON’T play solo, play in an ensemble”. John’s went on to explain his point about getting to simply enjoy making music with other players, and this gives less time to allow feelings of dread playing in public to build up.

Guitarist Karin Schaupp  is an expert on stage fright, having written her Master’s thesis on the subject, and she says that musicians “have very little training in the pitfalls of performance”. Her research into sports psychology revealed the methods athletes use to overcome performance anxiety. Relaxation, imagery, and switching negative thinking are some of the techniques that come into play. Schaupp also recommends exploring the reasons why we perform; for her it’s a matter of “giving to the audience, rather than worrying about what she can get from the audience”.

I play in less stressful situations these days. Recently a works colleague of mine told me he gets very nervous playing in public. I replied I used to but I came to realise I’m going to mess up anyway, so why worry, and try to enjoy it I guess humor works best with many things, even music