Thinkin' about taking some lessons.

[guhlenn]

Dude, i'm tellin ya, I know the notes... i fuck around with tunings and shit so i need too know. it's just that the readin noptes and then playing them part SUCKS! I mean i know the way the notes are distributed and i know how a "notenbalk" (don't know the word... fill me in) works, i can read it (slowly )...

IT's just that there are so many more interesting things to learn (I'm doing chordstructures right now... pretty much nailed the one note thing )

But do convince me

Guhlenn

 

[Roel]

Well, I don't need chordstructures since I know my notes, and know the theory behind the chords so I make them up myself.

There's nothing as good for your right hand technique as playing classical guitar. Every finger needs to work on it's own. They have exercises that focus on each technique seperately, and still sound ok... Really, if you can read music, this is an easy thing, just 10 minutes a day is enough to do 50 of those silly exercises. Before you know, you CAN read it, and you can buy cheap books with REAL scores that show you stuff you'd never even think of.

And it frees up the way to decent jazzbooks. Not the crappy ones. Bah! Studying jazz will teach you more than anything else... Oh, and classical harmony, but the only use of studying that is to have a better idea of what the jazzharmony is all about, and by way of practicing 'calculating' all those fancy chords and stuff...

The guitar is a wonderfull instrument, with it's logical structure. But that logical structure becomes twice as powerfull if you combine it with the normal way of playing an instrument -playing notes-. Combine the logical visual aspect with the abstract theoretic stuff, 2 entirelly different approaches to the guitar, and they can only enrichen your playing. Just as studying different styles will....

Is that still too the point?

 

[guhlenn]

Well, I don't need chordstructures since I know my notes, and know the theory behind the chords so I make them up myself.

Damn Roel,
'
Your snobby conservatorium attitude is pissing me off !

well, about the chord structures...the thing is, as i said, I know the single notes... i know the theory

but the same as you can now the major scale, playing it is something different. I did the modes thingy and learned a lot a scales from minor to arabian... (just to show i'm not a total dumbfuck)

Now i wanna get better at fast chord playing... i know the theory (i had a really great teacher who pointed me in the right direction but refused to tell me anything... found out for myself never forgotten it... )

anyway, maybe chpordstructures is the wrong namne... i'm not talking about the this is the Emsus7 and this is the... blablabla

Ofcourse ANYONE can make up their own chords... i'm trying to be a little better in recognizing what chords when to play and being able to put my fingers in the right spot at the right time if you catch my drift...

Now, STOP FUCKIN WITH MY HEAD MAN! LMAO
gUHLENN

 

[Chris Tondreau]

Okcan you suggest any classical guitar players to listen to, I love the sound of the classical guitar but I have to admit I can't think of one person I know that plays classical.
Point me in the direction of a cd to check out if you would please
Thanks

Hey Bass.... The two players I would recommend, HANDS DOWN, are Andres Segovia. He played concerts right up until the year he died when he was 94. He is credited with refining classical guitar technique as we know it today, and is by far, the best player you will find a recording of anywhere. Another player to check out is John Williams (not the composer who wrote Star Wars....) He is probably the best living player today. Both of these players have full-length albums out in their own names, and should be fairly easy to find. I won't recommend any specific ones, because the players are such that ANYTHING they do is awesome.

Also worth checking out.... Christopher Parkening, Leona Boyd, Narcisso Yepes.... others too, but go for Segovia and John Williams. These are the players that all the others aspire to play like.

Chris

 

[Roel]

Another player to check out is John Williams (not the composer who wrote Star Wars....)

I always thought it was the same guy.... Are you sure it's not?

 

[bass331964]

Thanks Chris I did a search on segovia on a cd site and turned up some of his stuff.
Roel one of them was called "bach on guitar featuring John Williams", when I did a search on John Williams all I got was the starwars guy and someone involved with the boston pops so I don't know if they are the same guy or not.

 

[foo]

John Williams movie soundtrack guy and John Williams Classical guitar player guy are definitely not the same guy.

I prefer the 'Spanish' repertoire so try these on for size:

Andres Segovia - 'My Favorite Works' It's #3 of 'The Segovia Collection'

John Williams - 'Spanish Guitar Favourites'

I would also recommend Sharon Isbin's 'Estrada do Sol' which has some modern and some traditional 'Spanish' material, some of which is very jazzy - sort of!

Many modern commentators poo-poo Segovia as 'too mushy, too romantic' etc. But his interpretations allow for the humanity of love and sorrow and hope and . . . all those emotions that just don't seem to be there with anyone else (IMO).
He plays with the time, plays with a wide tonal palette, and generally is 'El Jefe'

John Williams is a great technician, and Julian Bream is also a great player, but for my taste Julian's timing is too perfect.

Who's the best?

Sr Segovia - Still - Ain't no doubt about it.

foo

 

[Chris Tondreau]

Foo is right - there are TWO John Williams - one a composer, the other a classical guitarist. He kinda one-upped me on recommending Julian Bream. Yes, a VERY technical player. I'm glad we're on the same page with the Segovia recommendation. Anyone who disses Segovia needs to reassess some things.... (though many people feel the same way about Hendrix.... reminds me of another thread....)

Good idea for recommending pieces/albums. Here's my two cents... My two favourite pieces are:

Fernando Sor - Theme and Variations on Mozart's Magic Flute
J.S. Bach - Lute Suite #4.

There are essentially two "schools of thought" when it comes to guitar playing - in fact, any instrument. One says that you should play exactly what's on the page, exactly what it is written, "who are you to make changes to Bach's work?" The other says that musical notation is limited in what it can realistically say, and the player needs to draw from it an interpretation of what the composer likely desired in the performance of his/her piece, also considering things that were typical in music of the time period in which it was written. I was fortunate enough to have one teacher of each type, so I got both perspectives.

Chris