Guitar World

I’ve decided to do a series of posts featuring other fellow guitar bloggers who add great articles and videos. As enthusiasts we are all sharing our life and musical loves by adding content to our subject, most often unique, and hopefully, always entertaining. Although our sites come under the term “blog”, in reality these days a blog is only another way of running  a website without having to learn HTML or PHP, or put another way, without the need to learn a new, alien language. Put another way, without driving ourselves up the wall!

Acoustic Guitarist

The first website I’m featuring is Acoustic Guitarist which has been running for around two years by Tony Hogan, from Australia. Tony is a former pupil of the great Jazz guitarist Ike Isaacs, and an accomplished Jazz, Acoustic guitarist in his own right.

The site has many video’ s featured,  interesting articles and many learning tools for guitar, including different scale forms and the basics of improvising, something I’ve always found hard to do. In summary, Acoustic Guitarist is a great resource for guitarists of all styles.

Another of Tony’s sites is The Guitar Player

A friend of mine, Noel Taylor, has been experiencing left hand pain during his playing. Noel has written to me the following note, and asking for advice for anyone able to help. I’ve given a few suggestions below, first Noel’s problem, and his thoughts on the issue;

Left hand stretches and holding chords

 Very often with classical guitar pieces, the left hand requires finger stretches which usually means the second finger reaching more than one fret from the first finger and also onto another string. This manoeuvre can mar, by improper execution ( muffled or buzzing notes) what would have otherwise been a good performance. My hands are on the small side and have perhaps contracted a little due to age (I am 52). I play a standard size nylon string guitar, (cutaway) with a 65cms scale length and 51.5mm width at the nut.

I am finding that the stretches mentioned are becoming difficult and painful to reach and hold, with it being most pronounced in the lower thumb when holding down a chord

To counteract this I have thought of changing my guitar for one with,

1) A smaller width at the nut, say 48-50mm. This is similar to the folk steel string guitars, but then there could be problems of congestion, with the fingered note muffling an adjacent string ( I do not have slender fingers).

2 ) Alternatively a guitar with a shortened scale length say 60-62cms would make each fret along the fingerboard just that little bit closer and therefore easier to reach.

3) Then there is the possibility of having a guitar with the back of the neck planed very thinly so the the hand is able to wrap around the neck more easily.

Also having the guitar set up so the action is as low as possible.

4) Left hand exercises to increase flexibility, (a physiological approach)

5) Learn to play the guitar left handed!!

I post this article in hope to hear from other guitarists who may also encounter similar problems regarding reaches and holding chords.

Noel Taylor.

Mark’s suggestions;

 Noel, over use of left hand pressure, or squeezing the guitar neck is a common cause of pain. It’s important to understand why pain occurs (and not just in guitar playing!)

If LH fingers are not correctly in position on the fingerboard, the tendency is to press harder with the thumb to try to make the strings rattle less. The greater the inaccuracy, the greater the need to press harder with the thumb to compensate for incorrectly placed fingers. The longer you squeeze the guitar neck, blood supply to the hand, and fingers is reduced, and hand fatigue sets in. Keep pressing, and pain occurs. So, how do we best combat this…

To take your points in order, 1 and 2, it seems sensible to check out guitars with smaller scale size, but remember the fundamentals of guitar technique, and I will suggest some exercises later. Of course, and scale reduction is relative, so it’s possible if the guitar body is also smaller, sound projection may be compromised. Talk this over with guitar dealers who can advise you.  Lower action guitars are easier to play also, but if too low, fret rattle can also occur, so make sure you check any guitar you are thinking of buying first.

Point three, as far as I’m concerned Noel, this is a complete non starter! I’ve heard of using super glue on a guitar fingerboard to stick a matchstick on the end to make a new 20th fret, to enable a top C… But planing the neck down? I think with high valued guitars  the best thing is don’t mess with them! If the luthier who built the guitar was happy with it’s construction, why should we mess with the design? Other words, simply find another guitar!

Point 4, left hand exercises is definitely something to consider. I’ve posted on this before, regarding the difficulties with the Barre. When holding down a chord, try the “relax, switch, touch” method suggested by Bill Kanengiser….

 First, relax the hand by taking fingers off the chord, and only then switch the fingers to a new chord while the hand is still relaxed . Finally, touch, or press down the strings in the new position. The key here being to only move the fingers in a relaxed position. with practice, and patience, you can increase the speed. Check out studies by Fernando Sor that were written for this purpose.

Regarding the LH thumb, you should try to monitor how much pressure you are using. Try playing  barre chord, then lift the thumb away from the neck. It is possible to employ pressure with the Left arm and hand, leaving the thumb pressure minimal.

Your final point, play the guitar left handed…As a left hander myself, I should tell you any problems you are having now will also occur when you switch hands over! No, I never tried this myself, my tutor took the view I had done too much work to change at that stage.

Remind me Noel, have I ever lent you Neil Smith’s guitar tutorial video? If not, I strongly advise you to take a look, he offers some great exercises and advice overall. Sadly, this video is no longer available to purchase, but I still have my copy

If anyone has further ideas to help Noel out we will be pleased to hear from you. Please post any comments you may have :)

Why Do Guitarists Make Lousy Sight Readers?

Okay, how many guitarists have just said “speak for yourself?” Yet it’s well enough known that classical guitar players often struggle when playing with other musicians for the first time, reading from the music. Even to the point where single lines of music pose reading problems. Why is this?

I think a good part of it is that, from early stages on, the solo guitar is cut off from other instruments. The guitar is not easy to integrate, not least because of it’s much quieter voice than most others. As young students we are often lured by the intoxicating cocktails of solo guitar repertoire, such as Barrios, Tarrega, Rak, transcriptions of Albeniz, Granados, and our main wish in life is to play these works fluently. Our very musical being is concentrated on solo playing, and developing technique to enable this.

Classical Guitar Difficulty

As opposed to playing single lines, solo guitar music is written in different parts, bass, middle voice, melody, sometimes counterpoint. This makes it easy to perceive the guitar as being harder to play than most instruments, and for sure, harder to read music, because we are wrestling with chords and counterpoint. Many times, guitarists assume that fluency of playing a piece can only be attained AFTER a great deal of memorisation taking place.

There are some problems with that approach…First, I’ve found it is a mistake to “abandon” the score too early on. Mistakes can therefore be “learned” and integrated into your performance from the early stages. How many times have you gone back to a score to revise the music, come to a phrase and thought “I’ve never played THAT note before” or used that fingering before? If you try to commit to memory too early, expression marks and dynamics can be easily overlooked.

Building Blocks Of Technique

But the worst part is that, by self studying, it is all too easy to leave gaps in your learning. David Russell advises us to think of technique as building blocks, your foundations have to be rock solid…By leaving gaps, how many guitarists, eager to press on with likes of Asturias,  sometimes ignore too many basic “building blocks”, so that, once confronted with other musicians at the music stand, we are far less proficient at reading single lines? If we have geared our studying towards solo playing many times perhaps we have been battling chords and not reading so much from music in the early stages.

Avoid Isolated Study

I guess one reason I am so well “educated” in learning problems is that I’ve fallen into many pitfalls myself! One such pitfall is isolated study. It can be fun to learn with other players, if you are not in any guitar society, or school, try to blend in with other musicians, even to the point of looking at their parts. It gives you a much broader view of the music in general. In guitar, learn duets, playing both parts yourself, if you have to.

Sight Reading Tips

As to sight reading itself, one technique I learned is to play each line separately. Making sure you can get the counting correct. Even sing or hum  each part, if you can. The metronome can be of great use, to sort out any counting issues. If the notes themselves are giving trouble, try tapping out the rhythm at first. Recording yourself also is useful, not least because it brings in an edge to your playing, or induces pressure to a degree, into the proceedings.

Along with rhythm, get the melody well into your head, then the harmony, perhaps even playing the chords in blocks. Try also singing the melody against the harmony, block chords first if need be.

Above all, try to give sight reading technique as much relevance in your studies as everything else. Have fun

I have added new classical guitar scores for download. These scores I originally downloaded copyright free, from sites now extinct, or as free arrangements given to me.

These include;

• Arab Fantasy by Flamenco guitarist Juan Martin
•  El Choclo tango, tango
•  Often requested arrangement for guitar of Pachabel’s Canon
• 12 Calendar Songs by Edurdo Martin

Also, here are two charming Sonatas, number 7 and 8 by Vargas y Guzman.

Sonata V11

Sonata V111

I was tagged by Chris of Classical Guitar Blog for seven facts about me.

1) I was a company director by the age of 21. It was my least rewarding job, in terms of satisfaction.

2) I help to look after the Elderly, Disabled, Mentally ill. It’s considerably more rewarding than the above.

3) My first football match in the school team I scored a hat trick and made two goal assists with five touches of the ball. I have still to see any player get near that feat, trouble is, after that debut, only one way to go…DOWN, in my case, fast! Suffice to say, I think I only scored two more in my lifetime!

4) The one time I played guitar with an orchestra I realised my 6th string was tuned a whole tone lower. Only thing to do was a quick mental calculation, where does my 6th string come into play, so I can miss it out altogether! Not easy

5) Favourite saying; Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing.

6) I am naturally left handed, but play guitar as though right handed.

7) My first website was dedicated to technology and the environment. I did not keep it up because my heart was not in it. I’ve always been gadget mad, my neighbours often come to me to install this or that for them, or help fix.  Some may reciprocate by odd jobs at my place, because I am such as DIY disaster I can’t even bang a nail in the wall properly!  So I thought technology a good subject for me to write about, even thinking that gadgets might attract potential buyers to my website, therefore I could sell more advertisements on my site. Bottom line though, I did not enjoy the site, and it’s difficult, at best, to write about something you are not enjoying, not least because life is too short.

Tagging; Tony at The Guitar Players Addyho at Guitar Mania  Susanne at Sues Daily Photo’s Christina at The Beatles Fansite

This video is an extract from the video recital “Concert Of The Desert”, played by Daniel Bolshoy. Of all the renditions of koyunbaba, this one is my personal favourite. Thanks to Daniel who gave me permission to upload the extract.

http://guitar.markantony.net/video/koyunbaba.flv<

 Koyunbaba bay in Turkey, noted for it’s beauty and it’s wild weather patterns… It is also the title of a holy man, and a solo guitar work, a modern classic, written by an Italian guitarist Carlo Domeniconi, who lived for some years in Turkey, with a keen folklore interest.

          Koyunbaba by Domeniconi

In my experience, this four movement work is one of the most talked about works in the modern guitar repertoire. Whilst a few dismiss it as a “circus piece”, reliant on it’s unconventional tuning and “tricks” for effect,  others are enchanted by it’s exotic beauty and great power. But what exactly is the piece all about?

Koyunbaba by translation means “Sheep Father” or Shepherd. The late John Duarte wrote of the work having two concepts…The natural beauty and climate of the region,  and instruments emanating from there, in this case, the Turkish national instrument, the Saz. The second concept is the Sheperd himself, and his wise words and folkloric tales, who has the wisdom, and the time, to appreciate the wondrous  beauty and awesome power of nature.

In this way, Domeniconi presents the portrait of the Koyunbaba offering a prayer for the safe delivery of his flock.

         Skodatura

A key feature is the retuning of the guitar, Skodatura. The tuning is a C# Minor chord when played open strings, enabling different harmonic possibilities. From the bottom string upwards;

6th= C#  5th=G#   4th= C#    3rd= G#    2nd=C#   1st= E.

Probably no other piece in the repertoire has such a radical retuning.

After the opening movement, during which the main theme is established, beautifully capturing a world of sparkling sunshine, a theme which haunts the whole work in different disguises, the second movement is a short series of semi quaver patterns, interspersed by improvised harmonic featured contrasts. It is then that the thrid movement, Cantabile, comes into play…

Cantabile extract

The serenity of the opening part of this movement gradually gives way to arpeggio’s of increasing tempo and intensity, reaching a climax, before dying down, until the final movement Presto, where the guitar belts out notes like hail pellets, before the final repeat of the main theme brings the work to a close.

        Technical Factors

According to Domeniconi, too many guitarists simply play the notes on the paper, without feeling the need to improvise, for which the piece gives great scope. Myself, this particular passage in the Presto  has always given me the most trouble;

These bars, which are repeated, rely on a very high speed to be really effective, andI find it so easy to fluff the rhythm. If anyone has a tip on playing this movement at high speed, I’d like to hear from you

There have been many fine recordings and performances of the work, notably, John Williams, Stein Erik Olsen, William Kanengiser, Li Jie…My personal prefrence is Daniel Bolshoy, who’s video of the work, taken from his DVD recital  Concert In The Desert will be uploading, by permission, in my next post…

Top image Koyunbaba Bay  by ByteBak of flickr.

Alternative Versions of Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Following on from last weeks post on the famous tremolo study, over the years I have noted some vastly different renditions of the piece, some by artists in different genres to classical guitar, or even non guitarists…

Singer Sarah Brightman in her album “Classics” includes the piece with words added!

Mike Oldfield played Recuerdos on different instruments, in his soundtrack to the film “The Killing Fields”. It was played right at the end, over the closing end credits. The right hand thumb strokes on the guitar were played on a percussion instrument, and the melody in short, staccato bursts on a wind instrument! It was effective, I thought, but it depends on your tolerance to alternative ways of performing this guitar masterpiece…Many might well dismiss it as distorting the original too much

Free Guitar Score

Getting back to guitar, I offer this free guitar score of Recuerdos, arranged and fingered by Stanley Yates. The main difference in this version is the opening section the melody is written  to be played on the top string, as opposed to predominately second string. I’ve seen it played this way in concert by Richard Durrant also. 

It is not clear whether Tarrega originally intended second string tremolo at this point, or second string.. On one hand, second string melody sounds more mellow, but there are nice glissando effects that can be incorporated into your performance if played on top string. And it is far easier to play that way!

Recuerdos de la Alhambra 

The fact that Recuerdos has a widespread appeal to music lovers in general, not just guitarists, is eloquence in itself. Whatever your opinions of the many recordings of this work by non guitarists, there’s no denying the  evocative appeal of the original concept, from which stemmed the inspiration to covet.

I may add more different links to alternative Recuerdos as I come across them.

Image by Lucky Girl Kris of Flickr.