Guitar World

We all know nerves can shatter our performance…Whatever we play in practice is so much harder in public, and many times, I like many others, have felt I have not done myself or the music justice by the way I’ve played after a performance.

A lot has to do with preparation. The need to practice until finger movements become automatic. Which means of course, you have to have much time to practice and prepare. I have felt it is useful to have about a dozen or so pieces that are always “on the back burner” so I can call on them to be ready to play at almost any time. That leaves some room for new pieces that can be slowly developed in practice. BUT, constant repetition of pieces (to the point of playing on auto pilot) can easily lead to going musically stale.

John Williams in an interview said the root of nerves is lack of confidence. An extension of this I feel is negative thoughts, perhaps about oneself, or even the venue where you are asked to play, limited time for preparation ect. Maybe even bad past experience can play on your mind, such as “I hope it’s not like THAT again”…Other common thoughts can include “I am not as good as..” or “I have not practiced enough” or “my technique is flawed”. If you can focus on your most negative thought, you are on the way towards a more positive thought that can work for you, instead of against.

                                                    Self Discovery

One way towards a more confident performance is looking inside ourselves, as opposed to attempting to take on board formulas that claim have helped many other players. Towards this process, try to understand how your inner voice can shape your feelings. Whereas negative thoughts can stimulate fear and self doubt, positive thoughts can create a positive outlook. It is easier to control thoughts than feelings. What we say to ourselves, and how we say it, is a factor in how we will perform under pressure. When musical expression is in synch with our inner soul, it can create an inner strength built on assurance.

                                                  Determine your priorities

It helps to focus on your abilities and how to use them. If you feel a technical weakness, work on it at home, for example,  don’t play something like Recuerdos in public if you feel tremolo is not your strong point.

If practice time is limited before a performance our lives, and therefore playing, can appear out of control. Add an audience to that and panic can set in. Look at your priorities and take some tough choices. Consider the music you want to play and ask yourself if you are expressing it in the way you would like to express it. And not the way maybe others do. Does your technique allow you to do this? If not, maybe make a list of pieces to perform that you have more playing control over.

To overcome nerves, first you need to free yourself of impossible goals, or even hard to attain goals. This need not restrict your aspirations, just leave them to one side, and think of playing in public experience like you do technique, like building blocks. Start building from the bottom upwards.

Try to define what you want out of a performance…You will want to do your best, but “best” is VERY rare, for almost every player. Are you satisfied with a performance that is clean, memorised..I myself try never to “sell myself”. I prefer to attempt to express the music, to express what I feel about it.

                                                   Understand the fear

It’s easy to think beforehand “no one will respect me if I mess it up” or hating the thought of letting composers music down. It can help to discuss it with others, to open up the topic rather than keep it as a secret fear. Eventually, the goal here is to make performance anxiety a part of our musical training, as much a part of how to interpret and phrase. No guide will ever in itself help us to overcome the fear. But to understand the fear, and why it is there,  is maybe the first step towards overcoming it.

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

I’ve often thought about the difference between a decent amateur performance and a polished professional rendition of a piece of music. The elimination of buzzes, squeaks and clicks are obvious factors, but there is more to it than that..I think a lot of it has to do with cleanness of playing, like each note and overtone getting no more or less it’s intended duration, and rhythm.

Julian Bream Masterclass

I watched an old Julian Bream masterclass recently, where a player was interpreting Granada by Albeniz. This is a piece not too hard to play perhaps, but to get it precise is another matter. By that I mean it’s one thing to play the notes, but very easy to fall into the trap of indulging oneself in the music to the extent of dwelling on notes for effect, particularly if you have visited the city of Granada itself, and fell in love with it’s beauty.

Rubato Effects

The problem with pausing on certain notes is that it’s all too easy to lose the rhythmic pulse of the piece. In his class, Bream stressed to the student that the accompanying notes, the three quavers in thirds above the melody, must be exactly on the beat. And any “melodic bending” as Bream himself put it, or rubato effects, must fall within the same rhythmic framework, and not to take any longer overall than each bar indicates.

Watch a brief extract from the masterclass with Bream explaining;

 http://guitar.markantony.net/video/Bream.flv

The lesson here being that rubato effects can still be incorporated into our playing, but not to the extent of destroying the rhythmic pulse of the music.

At the peak of my classical guitar studies I practiced for around 4 hours a day. Now it’s, er, less than that I reached a plateau where mostly I just needed to refresh the pieces in my playing schedule, and to keep my fingers  in working order for playing. Also, with another job, practice time is far more limited, which often is the case for amateur players.

It’s all very well thinking, the more I practice, the better I’ll get. Not necessarily the case, with any instrument. You can even travel further than you should after taking a wrong turning….By that I mean, if you don’t do the right thing, you can do the wrong thing.  Four hours is a lot of practice, exactly HOW best to fill up that time? So here are a few suggestions;

Avoid Burn Out.

It’s far better to practice in fits and starts. Particularly when learning a new piece. Take a break every five or ten minutes, to let what you’ve learned sink in. Even when playing scales or arpeggios, it’s important to let the hands relax, and not move under stress while fatigued. If you avoid this, your fingers will move far more efficiently afterwards.

Practice by a mirror.

It can be of benefit to actually view your hand positions by looking at yourself in a mirror while you are playing. Even better, if you are brave enough, video yourself playing. This will even get you more accustomed to playing under “observation”, and help keep performance anxiety to a minimum.

Warm up routines.

Work on a method for warming up to your playing. Often this can be simple exercises like chromatic scales, just to get your fingers moving freely.

Exercises and studies 

Sor and Carcassi wrote some great studies, also Tarrega. Often it’s more value to work through a book of these than mindlessly whizzing up and down the fingerboard against the metronome, which you may grow tired of anyway, if practice is aimless.

Practice Goals.

I think nothing will tire your mind more than “aimless practice”, that is, without any direction or goal to set yourself. Even if you have no upcoming gig, imagine one, and prepare a few pieces to perform. It helps to keep a core repertoire of pieces on the back burner, which you can always perform, well within your technical ability. So that, if called on to play at short notice, you will always have something to perform.

 So what kind of practice rituals help  professional guitarists?

Julian Bream.

When in his late thirties, Julian Bream had to re-think his left hand technique, due to a paralysis of his left hand. The problem being, as self taught, he developed some muscles at the expense of others. So every morning, in front of a mirror, he played single notes on each string, making sure his fingers were in the correct position on the fingerboard.

Augstin Barrios.

Barrios was a hard taskmaster…He would practice a section of music, and each time he plaed it correct, he would place a pebble in a bag. When he made a mistake he would empty the bag and start over.  He repeated this until he had a preset number of pebbles in the bag, sometimes 50 or a 100 stones needed to be in the bag! How’s that for playing under pressure…

David Russell.

A favourite tip of mine from David Russell is offering this advice on to play or not to play;

“To play or not to play a piece of music is a choice you must make with care.
Try to have a concert programme that shows what you can do well and not what you do badly. That way you will bring more musical pleasure to your audience.
It is better to listen to an easier piece played well than a difficult piece played badly. Never let your concert playing announce “Look what I can’t do!” Your audience will be grateful.”

If you have any practice tips you found helpful, I’d like to hear them..Most of all, enjoy your guitar :)

image by looking.at.life at flickr.

The age old problem of bass string squeaking….Some years ago, I remember reading that Julian Bream was on Radio Three early morning, playing Valses Poeticos by Granados. For me, no one plays Albeniz and Granados like Bream, for all his “Saxon accent”. Pure sublimity, and these Poetic Waltzes by Granados are a classic example…

I was keen to share my joy with my family, at this early morning radio treat, even to the point of tuning my Father’s car radio to radio three so he could hear it on his way to work. That night, when I asked him did he hear it, he said yes, most of it, until he got to work. Whilst attempting to wrestle with the incomprehensible thought of anyone simply walking away from a Bream performance of Granados, my Father assaulted my senses further with; “You could hear his squeaks as his hand moved up and down the fingerboard…”

For some while after this conversation, I was in a state of shock. Mainly because, if Julian Bream’s playing gets noted mostly for his left hand squeaks, ahead of his otherwise  majestic beauty in his  playing, what chance in the world, or hope for that matter, for likes of myself??

But then, many guitarists seem far less aware of string squeaks than those who simply enjoy listening. It’s almost as though we are aware bass strings squeak, there’s not much we can do, so we don’t care. Why bother? Why are we less aware? Do we listen less to our own playing, and tolerate this in other players out of sympathy? Are string squeaks less of an interference than fret rattle, or the odd muffled note, which we all strive to avoid?

If you listen to Bream and Williams playing duet of Ravel Pavane, you will hear some of the loveliest guitar sounds ever recorded. Interspersed with some horrendous Bream squeaks (yes, I do know it was him) I think though these days there is much more awareness of the squeaking problem, than when likes of Bream first took up playing. He never incorporated the avoidence of the problem into his studies. And that I think is the first stage of helping minimise the string squeak issue; Awareness.

Simply listen to various passages, and assertain where the problem is more likely to occur. And then perhaps look at the fingering, maybe making changes.  I read that Villa Lobos actually said string squeaks gave the guitar some character! Though Segovia had stated Villa Lobos had played using worn strings, less likely to squeak! The sourse of this came from a published interview of Segovia.

 Indeed, the music of Villa lobos often calls for the same left hand pattern employed up and down the fingerboard, such as in the five preludes. If you want to work on “squeak avoidence”, try working on some of those passages! Bill Kanengiser in his classical guitar mastery volume two has some good advice on this issue, which involves the lifting of left hand fingers and lateral finger movements as the hand shifts up and down, to keep noise levels to a minimum.

Finally, if all else fails, there are  available composite bass strings by D’Addario, as I talked about in an earlier post. These lightly polished strings are much less prone to squeaking, but in my view there is a side effect, to the detriment of the bass tone quality.

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

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

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.