A bit of a rant

One thing that has always frustrated me about classical guitar is something that many people find to be one of its primary assets. I've lost count of how many times someone has said to me, "oh, I love classical guitar! It's so soothing!"

It comes off as a sort of unintentionally back-handed compliment, so I am most surprised when this comes from other musicians whom I feel should know better... It reminds me of a classical radio station in the SF Bay Area, which has the slogan, "Casual. Comfortable. Classical." Because we all know that the reason for all the blood, sweat, and tears that go into composing and performing classical music is to make your morning commute a little less stressful.

There are two similar notions I have been pondering, especially today, as I have been at a music teachers' conference in Oklahoma City.

• As a guitarist, I must only be interested in guitar stuff. (Guitarist/composer Brad Richter gave a talk and performed a new piece that the music teacher's association commissioned from him. Therefore, since I am a classical guitarist, this must be the only reason I am here.)
• It is surprising that I may find presentations interesting even if they do not involve the guitar. 

Now, I don't take these personally or hold them against the people who express them, because it does genuinely seem to be true that guitarists tend to be interested only in guitar stuff. This is something I have struggled with, too, as I see it as a shortcoming of the guitar community and because I see myself reflected in it.

On the flip side, I play Irish music on flute, and have often ended up in uncomfortable conversations in which I had to explain to people that I don't play Scottish or "Celtic" music. Many people don't know the difference, and many people take it as a sign of snobbery. I know some people find it really off-putting and I am sorry for that, but it's just pure honesty. 

But to me, they are quite different musically, and some things appeal to me and others don't. In fact, to say that I play Irish music is almost a bit misleading, because there are styles within Irish music which don't appeal to me and therefore I don't play them. In the end, I don't wish to do a disservice to music that I don't appreciate by pretending that I can do it justice.

So maybe the classical guitar community is kind of conservative and insular, and in some cases may be ignorant of the larger classical music community... But I am glad that there are some people out there who can hear something other than soothing background music, because we guitarists would be in REALLY sorry shape if nobody could hear the artistry that we aspire to.

So, upon much reflection, I am happy that there is a community of people who appreciate classical guitar for what it actually is, because it is really difficult being passionate about music for which most people have only apathy. People who only like guitar music deserve high quality music to enjoy, too. We can do our best to expand our audience, but let's start by being grateful for what we have.

Make your own path

I'm not sure what made me think of this, but a while back (it must have been a long time, since it has been several months since I removed myself from internet forums in order to enjoy my life more) maybe a year or two I remember someone saying he planned to spend the next year immersing himself in the music of one composer. The responses varied, but I believe the general feeling was that in the interest of being a well-rounded musician, this was not a good idea.

Well, if your goal is to be a well-rounded musician, maybe so. Being a well-rounded musician is a great thing. On the other hand, if the music of Fernando Sor is what gets you out of bed in the morning, I think you should go with it. Cultivate the obsession and learn as much about Sor and as much of his music as you can.

Several years ago, for a variety of reasons, I quit playing guitar altogether for about a year. I used to really regret it; I did lose some technical ground and some flexibility in my hands that took a long time to regain. On the other hand, during that time, I became a pretty good irish flute player because that was the obsession that drove me at the time. Flute led me to a world of social music-making that has helped me make some very close friends and enriched my life. Making music in that kind of capacity has brought me a wealth of insight into the nature of music and performing, following the flow of and getting carried away by music. All these things could have happened if I'd followed a straighter path, but they would have been different.

A few years before that, I'd been working hard to prepare myself to audition for music school. I was ready to quit my job and start my life over, despite being deeply in debt at the time. In the end, I stuck with my job and paid off my debt. A long the way, I fell in love and got married, and together the two of us saved up a substantial amount of money and went for a 7-month road trip. I'd probably be a much better guitarist by now if I'd stuck to the plan and gone to music school, but instead I had the experience of a lifetime, the likes of which most people may never get a chance to have. Was it a better choice? I don't know. The right choice? For me, yes.

I'm not saying you shouldn't go to music school or that you shouldn't try to become a well-rounded musician. I'm saying that if you should never regret following your dreams and making the best of whatever you end up doing. To paraphrase a famous quote, it's better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.

Unforgiving

After doing some maintenance on my guitar this week, I put on a new set of strings, of a type I hadn't used before. I'm not going to tell you what they are, but they are much lower tension than I normally use on my guitar.

I strung it up, tuned to pitch, and played a few notes and was really blown away by how beautiful they sounded. All the warmth, fullness, and volume I've ever wanted in a string, yet so easy to play. 

Today has been kind of a crazy day for me, though, and after playing for a while I was really unhappy with my sound. At first I wanted to just swap them for something familiar, but I thought maybe I'd damaged my nails, so I redid them. As I tested them out, I could get that great tone again, but it went away when I started playing normally. Frustrating.

These strings are just totally unforgiving, and with any carelessness on my part the tone is unusably lousy. But with nails well-cared-for, solid contact with the string, and well-directed plucking motion, they reward me beautifully. That's how I want to sound all the time, and that's how I want to play all the time, regardless of the strings. 

I think it'll be worthwhile to leave them on for a while and focus on whatever I need to do to get that classic tone.

Easy and simple aren't the same thing

This past weekend I went to the Sean Nós Northwest festival at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and played an awful lot of irish flute. This festival is a great celebration of Irish language, song, and dance, and so there were few instrumentalists there but we were treated with especially great respect and gratitude by the dancers.

It was especially fascinating to me to watch how a room full of 20-30 dancers could lock into rhythm with each other and with the music. I got the feeling that one could learn this kind of dance more easily by listening than by watching or thinking.

At the festival, we also watched a film called "Come West Along the Road," which consists of archival footage of musicians, singers, dancers, etc. I was really struck by a segment which, conveniently, is also on YouTube:



I was kind of amused at first by his one-finger-per-hand style of guitar playing. How much easier and more straightforward could it get?

But then I realized that I have no idea how much work this guy put into the guitar part, because he seems so unconcerned with it that you can't even call it an afterthought. But it's just there for him, perfectly steady, as natural as walking.

What he's playing is really simple, but I really admire the conviction with which he plays it and the complete effortlessness of it. There's really nowhere to hide in something like that.

One more thing; not to turn this into a giant group hug but there's more than meets the eye in any performance and even a failed one is probably the result of an honest effort. Let's be sure to give credit where credit is due.