Creative Classical Guitar
We teach practical tools for musical creativity:
The classical guitar, as usually taught, is indeed a classical art, with a fixed classical repertory, and an emphasis on correct technique and on the reproduction of the classical repertory according to an approved aesthetic which is measured against the recorded performances of the great virtuosos of the past. As a rule, little attention is given to any ongoing creative process, and almost none to the huge question of just how the student (hobbyists aside) is ever going to make a living from playing this music. The successful student's choices are (1) to succeed on the concert stage, a crapshoot against great odds, and / or (2) to acquire a teaching position in a college or university. As lifelong lovers and players of the classical guitar, we took neither of these paths, but instead took the third path of learning to play "popular" music using the classic instrument.There are three areas of expertise that a classical guitarist usually acquires in the traditional training:
- Competence at reading staff notation
- Ability to interpret classical music in the approved classical manner
- Classical guitar technique
What tools?
- Reading staff notation is required and assumed. We will happily work with young beginners on both reading and
basic guitar technique until we see that they have enough "chops" to go on to our other tools.
- Jazz Harmony. This is the most critical tool, generally missing from classical guitar instruction,
which opens the door to a world of personal creativity
as well as to the common language of popular music. By "jazz harmony" we do not mean "jazz style", but rather the system of harmonic thought
and analysis which was developed during the course of the 20th century by jazz musicians,
and the uses and meanings of the chord symbols of that system.
This system is the working language of contemporary popular musicians in almost all styles (except for the simpler "Nashville Number System",
which may be easily learned as a subset of jazz harmony).
(The 19th century system of harmonic analysis, which combines Roman numerals for chord roots with figured bass symbols for the details, is a weak and outdated system which contains few practical tools for the modern musician. It is still taught in most university classical music courses in spite of its almost total lack of relevance to modern practice. Its best use is for analysis of the classics, not to facilitate or stimulate creative work.) - Secondarily (and only for more advanced students) we teach
(and practice ourselves) classical concepts of counterpoint and figured bass —
the ABCs of 18th century music education on which the
great classical composers (i.e, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) were trained — applied directly to the guitar.
We teach "species counterpoint" derived from Fux, applied to the guitar or to two guitars (four-part species counterpoint exercises are very difficult on one guitar, but routine on two.)
Figured bass is an 18th century version of jazz harmony, in which chords are calculated from a given bass note rather than a given root.
Counterpoint and figured bass provide windows into the historical development of harmony from the combination of moving voices, and provide a sense of historical continuity in music practice. They also provide a sophisticated antidote to certain limitations of thinking that arise from learning jazz harmonies as "chunks" in the early stages. - Guitar technique as necessary. We use a conventional classical technique with some modern extensions
(we use all 5 fingers of the right hand, and various strumming techniques).
A little about us:
Ever since we were kids and knew three chords more than the next kid, we have been teaching guitar. In recent years we ran a program we called Guitar Vacation Retreats, which is inactive now because we have been busy performing and have less time for teaching.We are "classical" guitarists who don't play "classical" music. There is room on the classical concert stages of the world for a relatively small and select group of performers, who must meet the most demanding expectations of technique and who must also conform to a narrowly defined set of aesthetic boundaries, and we meet neither of these qualifications! It has been our good fortune, through creativity and serendipity, to position ourselves as performers of popular tourist music in a lovely and historic tourist destination (San Miguel de Allende), playing our many arrangements of popular music and "guitar favorites" (i.e., Malagueña, Granada, Classical Gas, etc.) for people who are eager to be entertained, as well as a performing our original music.
This, we feel, is a valid path for guitarists who are lovers of the sound and the emotional quality of the classical guitar, yet who can't or won't meet the strict technical and aesthetic demands of the great concert stages. We feel ourselves to be musically more akin to the likes of Jose Feliciano and Chet Atkins than to the great classical players, although we have a sincere admiration and lifelong affection for the music of Segovia and his followers.
Our teaching practice now:
We sometimes say that "it is every generation's responsibility to come up with a musical style that their parents can't stand"; young people are always coming up with new things, and from one point of view there is no reason to play the classical guitar at all - why not just go with electronic toys or whatever the latest sound is? But there are some who love the sound of strings and wood, and this page is for them.To many young people, no doubt, our sound and style are completely archaic. However, the creative tools of the trade are timeless, and have served us well enough — have indeed been critical — in finding our own successful musical path. We have known many young musicians who have hedged their bets by studying engineering or law, against the uncertainty of a musical career, and many others who have waited tables or worked construction, or who have become street musicians. Studying practical musical skills with the aim of being a successful journeyman commercial musician is a reasonable hedge against being unemployed as a musician, and a reasonable fallback from the shoot-for-the-moon lottery of aspiring to the concert stage.
We have limited time for teaching, and prefer to spend it teaching young students who may be able to put our ideas into practical applications or to use them as material for their own evolving creative processes.
Study with us:
We are open to inquiries by (or on behalf of) young guitarists (13 to 25), who might benefit from studying our concepts. Send a resume and a recording, please.Our schedule permitting, we offer a five-day (M-F) intensive with two hours of instruction daily, for $600 USD. Longer stays may be arranged, with a less intensive schedule.
We can arrange student room and board, when available, in a home-stay situation in a Mexican household where Spanish language students stay, for about $350 USD for the week.
| You are warmly invited to come and listen to us play when you are in San Miguel de Allende. Our performance schedule is here. |
Last page update 07-28-2010