Guitar World

Ever attended a guitar summer school? It’s a great way to meet other players, students, performers even composers. I doubt any of us will come out better players for simply being there, but it’s a great way to find seek motivation and direction.

Here is a list of upcoming attractions:

Dillington summer school and festival, Ilminster Summerset UK. For details e-mail guitarandcompany@ukgateway.net

Tutors    Peter Rueffer, Lorraine Eastwood, Steve Marsh, Arne Brattland (Good to see this fine player in the UK again)

As well as summer school there is also a guitar festival featuring…

“Together” – Music for Guitar and Harpsichord. Peter Rueffer, Lorraine Eastwood, Steve Marsh, Arne Brattland, and special guests Debra Adamson, Nick Hunt and Bruce Grindlay.

Sunday 3 August 2003 - 6.30pm

The Katona Twins - Classical Guitar Duo

Monday 4 August 2003 - 8.00pm

Arctic Guitar Trio – Guitar trio from Norway

Tuesday 5 August 2003 - 8.00pm

Eduardo Niebla Duo – Spanish Guitar Duo

Wednesday 6 August 2003 - 8.00pm

Groningen Guitar Duo – Classical Guitar from Holland

Thursday 7 August 2003 - 8.00pm

West Dean International Guitar Festival  Chichester, UK.

Featuring concerts and masterclasses by Roland Dyens, Ben Verdery, Berta Rojas. I had the pleasure of seeing Rojas last year, if you ever get the chance to attend a concert by her, I strongly recommend do it! Event commence early July to late August.

Cheltnham Guitar Festival   University of Gloucestershire, Cheltnham, UK,  24 to 30 July 2010.

 Guests David Russell, Nigel North & Scott Tennant

Tutors Tom Kerstens & Amanda Cook

If you are attending any of these, please let me know hwo you get on

John Williams, on this BBC Radio 4 programme ”Great Lives”, explains his love of Agustin Barrios music, and is joined in discussion  by Berta Rojas. The radio link will dissapear after a while, in it’s place I hope to offer a transcript.

Williams explains the chordal harmonies of Barrios music, and Rojas relates some history and the origins of Barrios music.

Montse produced this charming video, some while ago. Her guitar sessions site is dedicated to those wishing to rediscover the guitar, maybe after an absence of playing. Here she is playing Lagrima by Tarrega, in church.

Lágrima at Piedeloro church from Montse ARDEVOL on Vimeo.

To rediscover one’s love of music and the guitar (or any instrument you happen to play) can be the most enjoyable experience you can have in music. So, if you’ve not played for a while, and take a leaf out of Monts’e book, and “take your guitar out of it’s case”…

Now, where’s mine…Case that is…

Making Two Hands Sound As One

Developing Hand Co-ordination for the Classical Guitarist

By Matt Warnock

As a classical guitar player, or any style of guitar player for that matter, one of the most important skills to have under our belts is solid right and left-hand coordination. Without good hand coordination our lines and chords can sound choppy, disjointed and/or muddy. While there are countless exercises we can do in order to further develop our coordination, some of the best exercises available involve working on 2, 3 and 4 note chromatic patterns within the first four frets of the guitar. By working slowly on these exercises, and focusing on letting each note ring for its full duration, we can greatly improve our hand-coordination, tone and legato feel all with only a few minutes of focused practice a day.

Ascending

When practicing these chromatic exercises in an ascending fashion it is important to keep the first note ringing right up until the second note is sounded. For example, in figure 1 the note on the first fret, which is played with index finger, rings until the note on the second fret, played with the middle finger, is sounded. If you notice a space between the two notes than you are lifting your index finger a bit prematurely. Try and keep it down for a second or so after the second note is plucked to eliminate the gap between notes.

The next level of coordination is developed between the note on the second fret on each string and the note of the first fret of the next string. With these two notes the goal is to have the second fret ring until the first fret is sounded, then remove your middle finger so that the note on the second fret does not ring “over” the note on the first fret. Being able to eliminate the gaps between the first two notes of the exercise, and to keep the second note from ringing over the third, will increase your legato while allowing each note to be heard for its required duration.

Start at a slow tempo, perhaps eighth note equals 30 or 40, and slowly build up the speed as it becomes easier. Always remember, playing an exercise slowly but perfectly is better than playing an exercise fast but sloppy.

Fig. 1

Descending

As well as practicing the 1-2 finger pattern ascending we can also practice it descending to further our coordination. As was the case with figure 1, the goal for figure 2 is to have the note on the second fret ring right up until we lift it off and strike the note on the first fret. If you notice a gap between these two notes than try slowing things down and focusing on keeping the middle finger down right up until the last millisecond before you strike the note on the first fret.

We also need to make sure that the note on the first fret rings right up until we strike the note on the second fret of the next string, without ringing over. As was the case with figure 1, hold the note on the first fret until you strike the note on the second fret of the next string. As soon as that note is sounded lift you finger off of the first fret of the previous string. This should prevent that note from ringing over and muffling the sound of the new note.

Further Study

Once you are comfortable with the ascending 1-2 and descending 2-1 patterns you can try other combinations to further your right and left hand coordination. Try any/all of the following finger patterns as part of your daily technical routine. Remember the goal is not speed but using proper left hand technique and connecting the notes as much as possible.

Finger Combinations

2-3 and 3-2

3-4 and 4-3

1-3 and 3-1

1-4 and 4-1

2-4 and 4-2

1-2-3 and 3-2-1

2-3-4 and 4-3-2

1-3-4 and 4-3-1

1-2-3-4 and 4-3-2-1

Chris at Classicalguitarblog provides some hints at how best to tackle the issue of getting venues to play your guitar. I agree with his points about Nursing and Residential homes being good places to play to gain experience and public exposure. I also offer another tip;

Get Public Exposure with your Guitar

Turn up at a Hotel or Restaurant and simply ask if you can play for nothing, in order to gain some experience for yourself, also the possible benefit of your guests…Then, after you have finished playing, just thank them for allowing you to play, and leave your card with them, as in “if you ever need anyone to play another time…”

Ever tried that one?

There are a number of sites offering online guitar video courses. Here, I am giving a link to one of the best classical online guitar lessons, and it’s free. It’s a site run by my frind  Montse, a Spanish guitarist who has a course entitled “Take Your Guitar Out Of The Case”…In my own case, my guitar right now is not actually IN it’s case..It’s on the guitar stand

This particular lesson, Montse dedicates to me, and it’s on the all important topic of the combination of rest and free strokes in the right hand. The mastery of this technique will enable individual finger control, and voicing, by developing melodic lines while playing accompaniment.

Take Your Guitar Out Of The Case

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