March 22nd, 2008 Karl
Greetings!!!!
Let’s see…one of the most fun Maca (www.macahome.com) gigs ever, complete with a lovely party for an elder Catalan gentlemen, getting the St. Patrick’s season off to a great start with Fibb’n gigs at the Shamrock Club, Byrne’s Pub and the Josephenum, getting stuck on the road to Buffalo and Hamilton during the near-blizzard (apparently it didn’t last long enough to be a real blizzard) of 2008 - shoveling, shoveling and more shoveling, getting stuck in the airport coming back from a great gig at Cherokee Casino in Tulsa, including a complimentary stay in Minneapolis, (thank you American Airlines) working on recordings for Shotgun Wedding (www.myspace.com/shotgunweddingmyspace), Cajun Blue, and LJ Pennington, wrapping up another quarter at Otterbein, and trying to find time to practice for the five, yes, five programs I’m preparing before the middle of May…
Did I forget anything? Besides sleep, that is.
Ok, pay attention, ’cause there’s lots of fun coming up here:
Wednesday, March 26, 7:30-9:30 solo classical guitar at Maca Cafe (www.macahome.com), 5 South Liberty St in Powell
Saturday, March 29, 8:00, I’ll be a featured soloist, performing in Anne Wilson’s “Cincy Suite,” a beautiful second movement with the Columbus Guitar Society Members’ Ensemble. Huntington Recital Hall, Capital University (www.columbusguitarsociety.org) I’ll be playing on my new Gary Demos guitar (www.demosguitars.com)
Thursday, April 3, Happy Hour (5:45ish), Mac, Dan and I (from The Mac www.themacmusic.com) will be doing a short “acoustic” gig at Wendell’s Pub in Westerville (www.wendells.net/contact.html) This is a kind of “audition” for us, and we’d like to play there again sometime, so please come out and help us convince them to ask us back.
Friday, April 4, 8:00, I’ll be playing Takemitsu’s “Toward the Sea” and Ned Rorem’s “Romeo and Juliet,” both truly warhorses of contemporary concert works for flute and guitar. I’ll be playing with the incredible Dr. Kimberlee Goodman, as part of a really cool faculty recital program at Otterbein College (www.goodmanflutestudios.com/calendar.htm)
Sunday, April 6, 3:00 Kim and I will be playing the Rorem again for Women in Music in Columbus’ Huntington Concert Series in the Huntington Hall at Capital University. (www.goodmanflutestudios.com/calendar.htm), in case you missed it on the 4th, or in case you loved it so much that you had to hear it again!
Friday, April 11, 10-2, The Mac (www.themacmusic.com) will be playing a NEW VENUE!!!!! Cadillac Jack’s, at 1849 Stringtown Road in Grove City
Saturday, April 12, 9-1, Knot Fibb’n (www.knotfibbn.com) will be playing at Byrne’s Pub, our favorite place in Columbus.
Sunday April 13, 7:00, I’ll be helping out my buddy, colleague, and Mac Soundguy, Eric Van Wagner for his faculty “recital” at Otterbein College. This performance is a culmination of music that we’ve been working on for a really cool songwriting collective called VanGO (www.vangomusic.com). I’m excited to be involved in this, and the recordings have been really fun.
And a couple of other dates, in case you are going to be in and/or around York PA or Dayton OH:
Saturday, April 26, 7:00, I’ll be playing in York, PA with my dear friend, Demi Fair, on a concert series for the Unitarian Church at 925 South George St. Demi used to live in Columbus, and we played together alot during that time, but it’s probably been about 10 years since then. I’m so excited to be working with her again. We’re also planning to do a recording sometime in 2008.
Sunday, May 18, 7:30, I’ll be performing for the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra as part of my duo, Gruviera Armonico (www.columbusclassicalguitar.com/gruviera.html) at the Mathile Theater, Benjamin & Marian Schuster Center for the Performing Arts, 1 W. Second Street
Dayton OH 45402
Hope to see you around!!!!
Karl Wohlwendwww.columbusclassicalguitar.com503 East Weber RoadColumbus, OH 43202614.405.2300www.dbmusicproduction.com
Posted in chamber music, The Mac, Maca Cafe, Columbus, otterbein college, guitar, music, performance, practicing, Irish Music, Classical Guitar | No Comments »
September 23rd, 2007 Karl
The most effective practice tool we have is what we carry between our ears.
When teaching beginners, I often say “Use your mind to figure things out, use your hands and the guitar to play them.” Our mind, or imagination, is capable of grasping things that seem beyond our ability to execute.
Playing music begins with an idea. The idea is some imagined sound-image that I attempt to realize in playing. Where does this sound-image come from? How clear is it in my mind? Am I paying attention to it as I play?
Sometimes I think that I’m practicing backwards. In other words, I sometimes feel as though I sit down with my guitar and a piece of music and as I start to “poke away” at the mechanical/technical aspects of reading and executing, I start to form a mental sound-image of how I want the piece to sound.
What if I turn that around? What if I focus on the idea, concentrate on it, and allow that idea to direct my playing? If I don’t really know what I want to sound like, my playing develops almost randomly, which is an invitation to confusion, frustration, and anxiety. What I’m talking about here is more in depth that the process of hearing a recording of a piece and knowing “how it sounds.” It entails imagining, in precise detail, my playing of a piece, perfectly executed. Whereas listening to a recording is a passive (yet very necessary) process, listening in my mind involves the active participation of my whole being. I hear the sound, I can see my fingers or the stage or the people in the audience or myself on stage; I actually feel the physical sensations associated with the emotional context of a piece of music.
Some things to try:
1) Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself playing a piece of music that you have memorized. Make the mental image as clear as you possibly can, invoking all five senses and even emotional feelings. Hear every note, perfectly executed with perfect tone. See yourself clearly: What are you wearing? Where are you playing? What is the lighting like? Is there an audience? Can you feel the strings under both hands? Can you feel the instrument in your lap? What is the temperature in the room like? What do you smell?
2) With a piece that you are working on, spend some time at every practice session looking through the score without the guitar in your hands. As you follow the notes on the page, try to hear yourself playing the music. Can you imagine it so clearly that it seems loud to you?
3) When you are working on a “trouble spot,” try imagining yourself playing it comfortably and perfectly. Do not attempt to play the passage until your mental image is crystal clear.
4) For the truly adventurous, try learning a piece of music without actually playing it, just by reading through the score and imagining how you would play it. Hint: start with something very simple. The ability to do this is a major component of good sight-reading ability.
Posted in practicing, performance, music, Classical Guitar | No Comments »
September 21st, 2007 Karl
When we learn a piece of music we imprint patterns of specific sequences of physical actions, which are tied to auditory and visual feedback. Each time we come back to that piece of music, we access memory of those sequences and the feedback we associate with them. Simply put, we move our hands and can judge our results based on how things sound and look.
In the earliest stages of learning a piece of music, it is very important to be very careful about those things that we imprint. If we can make those first steps as close as possible to the final intended result, we will imprint physical, auditory, and visual memories that will help us play more accurately. The easiest way to help insure this is to practice very slowly so that attention may be given to all of the little tiny details. It is also very helpful during practice to give attention to all three systems of memory/feedback: the kinesthetic (or physical), the auditory, and the visual.
When we play from memory, we access the imprinted information of these three systems. Most guitarists seem to favor one of these systems over the other two, focusing attention almost solely on it while playing. If there is a lapse in that dominant system, and there are not easily accessible and strong patterning in one of the other two systems, a memory slip or technical error occurs. There is redundancy, and if one system fails, the others can help. I think of it as a three-legged stool. If one of the three legs is weaker than the other two, then I will fall in that direction.
Think of a piece of music that you play from memory. What is the first memory you access? Is it how your hands move to execute it? Is it how it sounds? Or is it how the notes look on the page or how your hands look while playing it? Can you imagine the entire piece from beginning to end, focusing on each of the three systems individually?
Find your dominant system, and then eliminate it in order to strengthen the other two. If you find that your physical sense of memory is dominant (as it is for most of us), practice reading through the score and hearing the music very clearly in your head without playing it. Singing is also very helpful. Close your eyes and see if you can visualize either the notes on the page or the shapes of your left hand all the way through the piece.
If you find that you rely heavily on your visual memory, whether it be looking at the music or your hands, play with your eyes closed or play in a dark room. Concentrate on really hearing what you play.
For most of us, the auditory memory and attention is usually the weakest. It was a depressing and incredible discovery for me to realize that I often play without really hearing myself. However, eliminating the auditory sense from playing can be very useful in strengthening visual and kinesthetic memory. Try completely detuning your guitar, and try to play a piece you know, or mute the strings by placing a cloth between them and the top of the guitar (this is also a good way to keep from disturbing people who might not appreciate hearing you practice). Try writing a piece of music on staff paper from memory. You might find that you often don’t really know the music that you thought was memorized.
Posted in memorization, practicing, performance, music, Classical Guitar | 1 Comment »
September 20th, 2007 Karl
Why do we perform? We like to share our experiences with others, to give them a gift of sorts. We like to show off the results of our hard work. Maybe we feel as though we have something to prove to ourselves or to someone else, or we have some sort of obligation. No matter what the reason, most of us feel compelled to perform somehow, even if it’s just for family or friends. However, most of us also look forward to performing with a certain amount of trepidation, or even dread. Isn’t it strange that we often continue to feel compelled to perform, even with these unpleasant fears?
I’ve always been surprised by the intensity of performance anxiety relative to the actual threat. I once had a student who had been on the police force for 30 years who told me that playing guitar in recital was the most frightening thing that he had ever done! I’ve never been shot at, but I think I’d much rather play guitar for people. It can be helpful to think that the worst thing that could happen during a performance won’t cause injury or death. It’s just playing guitar.
Any performance is merely a “snapshot” of a particular piece/performer/experience taken at a particular stage in development. We and the music that we play are always “works in progress.” Realization of this only comes about through performing frequently enough to see how we and the music we play transform from experience to experience. Very often, we look forward to a single performance as a huge and momentous event rather than just one of many similar experiences. This can place a very distorted perspective on the event.
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that how we interpret the quality of one of our performances is colored by how we are feeling at the time it is taking place. During one of my better performances, I was convinced that I was playing horribly. When I later heard the recording, I was surprised by how good it sounded. Thinking back to the performance, I realized that I had been tired and not feeling very well on the day of the performance, and that this led me to believe that I wasn’t playing very well. This tells me that I can’t necessarily trust the judgment that takes place during the performance. It also tells me that I need to do everything possible to make sure I’m well-rested, happy, and relaxed on the day of a performance.
There is something almost magical about a musical performance. Although we can listen to any piece of music we want to hear through recording, most people would much rather listen to music played live. There is something that happens in live performance that is simply impossible to capture. Whatever this ineffable, almost sacred, quality is, it is the reason we attend concerts, and it is perhaps also that thing that motivates us to perform in spite of any anxiety about being on stage.
What is most important about this is the realization that when performing, we are not “on display.” Rather, it is an interactive experience, sharing music, feelings, and time together in an absolutely unique way. This is something wonderful, human, and beautiful – hardly something to be afraid of!
Posted in practicing, performance, music, expression, Classical Guitar | 1 Comment »
September 18th, 2007 Karl
Imagine an event when you felt as if everything was going well, as if you were “in the flow,” something you might call a peak moment. It can be anything at all, guitar-related or not. Maybe it is something in sports, or at work, or even a special time with people who are special to you. Concentrate on how that feels, and make a list of adjectives to describe that feeling.
Now, recall an event that might be described as being the opposite of that, when everything was just all wrong, no matter what you were doing. Again, it can be from any aspect of your experience, not just related to playing guitar. Again, concentrate on the feelings associated with that event, and make a list of adjectives to describe that feeling.
If you were to make a list of adjectives to describe how it feels when you play guitar, would it more closely resemble the “peak” list or the “valley” list? Is there a different set of adjectives for practicing and performing?
We tolerate a high level of confusion, anxiety, and even physical tension in our work. We do this under the assumption that something is hard, that we are just beginning, that we don’t play well enough, or that we don’t know enough. When we tolerate those things, we condition ourselves to make them part of our playing, even to the point where we associate some level of this “fog” with playing the guitar.
It is possible for any of us to feel “in the flow,” or comfortable or relaxed or open or (insert your adjective here). It is a natural, common human experience. What if we were to work in such a way that we put ourselves in a state of “open” (my adjective) before we even touch the guitar? Sit comfortably in your chair and concentrate on your peak event. Find that feeling, and concentrate on it. Only when you are really there, pick up your instrument. Can you hold on to that feeling? What if you place your hands on the instrument to play, or if you play a couple of open strings? What if you play a few chords or a scale? When does the tension start to creep in? Find the point at which the open starts to close, and work there. With a little awareness, you can find that you can draw that feeling into your practice and eventually into performance.
In response to the above, one of my students wrote the following:
I remember being in seventh grade science class, and Mr. Lehman, the teacher and also the high school track coach, making a pitch to the students in the class to go out for track and field. Mr. Lehman went so far as to say that the skills you learned through participation in track and field could enhance your performance in any other sport. Another student immediately expressed his doubt and stated that he failed to see how track and field could help him with marksmanship. Coach Lehman quickly fired back that by getting in better physical shape, the student would lower his heart rate which in turn would improve his marksmanship.
I hadn’t thought of this scene since it happened almost 24 years ago. That is until recently practicing a particularly difficult passage one evening, I took a break and noticed how tired my lower jaw was. “That’s odd,” I thought, “Am I clenching my teeth?” I must have been because I’m sure feeling it now. I began the passage again and this time did so with the intent of keeping some space between my teeth. Through this one change, I played the passage more legato than I ever had before. “Wow!” I thought, “Could the tension in my face have that much of an effect on my playing?”
Then I had another thought, “Could the skills I learned in track and field enhance my performance on the guitar?” I was specifically remembering our “form running” sessions at the end of practice. One of the drills we did was called, simply enough, “loose jaw.” The idea was to keep your face relaxed while running thirty or so yards. If you did it right, you would have some space between your teeth, and your cheeks and lips would bounce up and down as you ran. I’m sure it seemed pretty silly to several of us at practice, but if you’ve ever seen world class sprinters coming down the home stretch, most, if not all, will have a relaxed face, space between their teeth, and their lips and cheeks will perfectly conduct the vibrations going through their body from each step they take.
Those sprinters know that any tension in the face will be transferred to their arms, and, in sprinting, as the arms go so go the legs. That is, any tension in the arms will inhibit the arm swing which, in turn, will lower the stride frequency and stride length. Speed is directly proportional to stride frequency and stride length. So, to come full circle, facial tension means less speed and less speed is bad for sprinters.
Facial tension will not only inhibit our “sprinting” on the guitar but are general “running,” to continue the analogy, on the instrument as well. Any tension in the face will be transferred to the arms, hands and fingers. Tension in those areas can only negatively impact our playing whether it be while playing a fast passage, playing legato or simply trying to play the right notes.
The next time you are practicing a passage over and over with no immediately obvious improvement stop. Take a moment to assess what else may be going on when you are playing. Then begin the passage with your attention not so much on the notes on the page but on your reaction to those notes whether it be physical, mental or emotional. If the reaction is negative, such as clenching the teeth, then try to remove it from the process as you practice the passage. More than likely, you’ll notice an immediate improvement in your playing of the passage and in your playing in general.
- Andy Ruzicho
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September 17th, 2007 Karl
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”
-Martha Graham
Practice makes perfect. Or does it? Or maybe perfect practice makes perfect? Actually, practice makes something “one step closer to habit.” Practice doesn’t have automatic quality control, so whatever is practiced and how it is practiced become easier to do again, whether the result is pleasing to the practitioner or not.
A typical practice session:
The student starts at the beginning of a piece of music. He plays at tempo, without the metronome until he makes a mistake, or at least a mistake that is substantial enough to bother him enough to stop. He then goes over the trouble spot a few times, and continues onward until the next time he decides that an error is bad enough to warrant stopping. By the time he gets to the end of the piece, he has done the stop-start thing several time.
What has this student practiced? He has made starting at the beginning, trying to play, looking for mistakes big enough to stop, stopping and restarting all one step closer habit.
This week, look at how you practice, look at the things you are pushing one step closer to habit.
We practice at tempos that are faster than we should be using. Slow down.
We are impatient and have a subjective sense of time. Use a metronome.
We waste practice time by playing through pieces from start to finish. Be honest in identifying your trouble spots, and begin your practice by going directly to them.
We condition habits of struggle and frustration by practicing them. Be comfortable and practice for ease. SLOW DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION.
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September 17th, 2007 Karl
The performance of a piece of classical music can resemble the exhibition of a museum piece. Each tiny detail has been worked out in advance and each performance is an exact replica of the last. This is in contrast to other styles of music, in which improvisation is emphasized, and only the most minimal details are worked out in advance. Interestingly enough, most of the “classical” music that we play was written by musicians who did improvise, and who did not often perform the same pieces of music over and over again. In addition, these composers played mostly music that they themselves had written. Somewhere along the line, the demands of simply playing the instrument and approaching the huge and complex repertoire separated those who compose (and improvise) from those who perform. The positive side of this is that virtuosity has been developed to an amazingly high degree, and achieving a moderate level of playing is accessible through focused study. However, without giving attention to the creative element of music-making, we become incapable of saying anything meaningful, in spite of having developed a huge vocabulary.
There is an inherent paradox here, as we are drawn to the repertoire, and it takes a tremendous amount of hard work to be able to play a piece clearly. In addition, the structures of even the simplest piece of classical music are very well defined in the composition: exact pitches and durations, articulation and dynamic markings, phrasing, tempo, etc. It seems as if the composer has given us perfectly exact and detailed instructions as to how to replicate his idea. It is indeed very important to pay attention to these details, and to learn them and execute them. Yet, it is precisely this kind of approach that encourages us to build a “museum piece,” which we will attempt to dust off and display in performance. How is it with this approach that we can make music and be connected to the experience in real time, as it is happening?
Think about the tools we have to invite contrast and change into performance. Tone color (sweet to harsh), dynamics (soft to loud), articulation (short, accented, separated, legato, long, etc), and phrasing (pushing and pulling, tempo choices) are devices that we use individually and in combination to keep the listener interested in what we are playing. These details can, of course, be worked out in exact detail in practice, based on sound decisions and informed musical logic. How boring this is, especially when we can experiment with them during performance! These are the classical musician’s tools for improvisation.
Take a phrase in a piece of music that you are working on, and try to find at least three different ways to play it, each of which is pleasing to you. Use changes in color, dynamic, articulation, and phrasing to find exciting possibilities and new ideas. Set a timer and make yourself improvise for at least a minute. Play anything. Pay attention to how it feels to be “in the moment” and try to bring that connectedness into your playing. In your next lesson or performance, experiment and play.
Posted in performance, practicing, music, listening, Classical Guitar, expression, Uncategorized | No Comments »
September 14th, 2007 Karl
Over the years I’ve worked with students from every “walk of life.” I’ve taught working folks with families, children, retirees, people with disabilities, professionals, homemakers, and everything in between. Besides an interest in playing guitar, one thing all of my students (and I, too) have shared is the challenge of finding practice time. Everyone is busy.
Often people are told to practice a certain amount of time every day. There seems to be a commonly agreed-upon 30 minutes a day for the beginning student. I don’t know where this idea came from, but it is very pervasive. It’s really not a bad idea, I just think it maybe puts too much importance on the amount of time one should practice. When a student becomes unsatisfied with the quality of his practice, very often there is an automatic response to try and increase the amount of time to 45 or 60 minutes. Again, this might not be a bad idea. However, most often a student is not able to meet the goal of the 30 minutes per day anyway or she is simply not using that time very effectively. Increasing the amount of time practiced per session really won’t help.
When I first started teaching professionally, I had been in the habit of being able to comfortably and consistently practice 4-6 hours every day. That was the schedule that was offered to me by being in music school. After I graduated and started working, I found that I didn’t have that kind of time available anymore. I would think about needing to practice then tell myself, “Well, I don’t have a couple of free hours here, so I don’t have the time.” Over months of this, I ended up really not practicing at all, and of course, the quality of my playing suffered. It seems so simple, but I had to get to the point where I was so desperately unhappy with my playing that I resolved to pick up the instrument whether I had an hour or 5 minutes. I did alot of my practicing during times when a student had canceled a lesson, or when I was preparing to leave for an appointment and maybe had 10 or 15 minutes before I had to depart.
I learned two very important lessons during that time. First, I learned that any amount of time put into my work was a positive step. I was able to learn a good deal of new music and address some important technical issues during this time, and it was rare for me then to be able to sit down for more than an hour or so at once. Second, I learned that when I only had a short period of time to work, I really made the most of it. I would speculate that given 15 minutes or an hour, most students would get the same amount of work done. There is a much clearer sense of efficiency with shorter periods of time. If you only have 15 minutes, you will feel a stronger need to make the most of that time, whereas given an hour, you might only really make good use of 15 minutes.
The other big issue in planning practice is that the consistency of practicing day to day is far more important than the amount of time spent in an individual session. I think that most students should set a goal of practicing 5 days each week, for any amount of time.
When you have trouble finding time to practice:
1)Understand that picking up the instrument in the first place is the hardest part of practicing. Keep your instrument somewhere where you can see it often. This will inspire you to pick it up.
2)Set a goal of practicing 5 days a week. After you are in the habit of giving yourself that time, then concern yourself with what to practice and how long you should spend at each session.
3)Write practicing into your calendar, PDA, etc, as you would any other appointment. Some students find it especially helpful to practice at the same time each day. Try getting up 15 minutes earlier or going to bed 15 minutes later each day to “make time.”
4)Commit to the long term. Real growth doesn’t take place quickly, nor does it fit nicely into 7-day segments. Have faith that after months or even years of consistent work, you will build your playing.
5)Be realistic. Accept that you are only able to do what you can do, and enjoy the process as it develops.
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September 13th, 2007 Karl
Committing a piece of music to memory is the final step in learning the piece, and the first step in playing it. We memorize music not for the accomplishment of being able to from memory, but rather to insure that we really know it. In addition, playing from memory helps free us from the printed score, which frees us from the deception that the music is actually in the score.
Many students will have memorized a piece simply by going over it enough times to be able to play it well. It is helpful to make memorization a conscious step to “fill in the gaps” that might be left behind with this approach.
Some students read so well that they never really learn a piece, they just continue to read it over and over again. In these cases, memorization is a critical step, and should be undertaken even if the student continues to play from the score.
Some students memorize as they learn, because their reading skills are so poor the only way they can play a piece is to memorize it. These students can use their memory skills and their innate physical sense of the instrument to help their reading skills by working with very small sections of music and keeping the eyes on the music as they play at slower tempos.
Memorize in small sections - a phrase or two at most, even if you are capable of getting more material. This makes you really know every little bit of the piece, rather than allowing your kinesthetic or rote memory to take over and get you through the sections which aren’t really strongly memorized. This also provides greater security from memory slips, as you will have given yourself more “landmarks” to help out if you should have trouble.
Working from the end of the piece towards the beginning is an excellent way to reinforce your memorization. Start with the last phrase or two, and when you are confident that you can play that from memory, add the phrase or two before that, playing always to the end of the piece. When we memorize from the beginning, we are always playing away from the material we know the best. By working from the end, we play into the stuff that is most solidly memorized. This is a great boost to confidence, especially in performance. After a piece has been committed to memory, try starting at different places in the middle of the piece, rather than always at the beginning. This technique also works very well for learning new pieces.
Being able to describe a passage verbally can help you to memorize it as well. This does two very important things. First it forces you to look beyond the patterns that are ingrained in your fingers and ears. By describing in words, you will tend to look more carefully at what is really there in the music, rather than whatever subconscious patterns you have imprinted. Secondly, it helps you to condense many discrete pieces of information into one generalized thought. Rather than having to remember seven different pitches in a line, it is very helpful to be able to think of a certain scale. Rather than having to remember five pitches in a chord, it is helpful to be able to name the harmony. This is where knowledge of music theory comes in handy. Even if you don’t know the textbook name for a structure, it can still be very helpful to name it in your own words.
Working without the guitar is also an excellent tool for helping with memory. It is a very powerful tool to be able to think through a piece from beginning to end without the guitar or the score. This is also a good tool to use in places where the memory is a little weaker. Use your mind to figure things out, use your hands to play.
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September 11th, 2007 Karl
Very often, we are caught up in working on the physical details of playing, or in some sort of deadline (”I’ve got to memorize this piece before my next lesson,” or “I have to get this ready for the recital performance”). This kind of work is certainly necessary for us to feel as though we’re making progress and it helps us to meet very practical goals. However, there are many other elements which influence our playing, other than the “nuts and bolts” work we do in the trenches of the practice room. One of the most important of these things is listening to music.
It could be said that music is a form of communication. It has it’s own conventions, syntax, dialects, grammar, etc. We could not expect to learn a foreign language without hearing it, nor should we expect to learn to speak the language of music without spending some time listening to it.
What does this mean for a classical guitarist?
Obviously, we need to listen to other guitarists, as many as we can get into our ears. Everyone has his or her favorites, and often these performers inspired us to start playing in the first place. Listening to guitarists is also an excellent way to find new repertoire. In addition, listening to guitar recordings helps us to build good tone. If we don’t have a clear idea of what a good sound is, we can hardly expect to develop it in our own playing.
Not so obviously, we also need to listen to other musicians. Sometimes, recordings of guitarists are the only classical music a student listens to. This is a very narrow view of the world of classical music, and the language was developed by composers who wrote symphonies, operas, string quartets, piano concertos, etc.
Finally, we need to listen for style. Articulation, dynamic shaping, phrasing, tempos, and countless other interpretive decisions can vary widely depending on when and where a piece was conceived. By listening to recordings of Baroque music when we are working on Bach, or by listening to Haydn and Mozart when we are playing Sor or Giuliani, we can develop a deeper appreciation of how these pieces should be treated.
When listening, it might not be so important to draw absolute conclusions about what it is that you are hearing. Just listen all the time and let it sink into your mind. Turn on your local classical music radio station, check out some CD’s of symphonic music from your library, go to free concerts at your local college and learn to hear the language that you are trying to speak.
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