Musicians should get what they deserve for their work.
Souvenir programme
Probably John’s final official concert in Asia.
Thanks to Wong Yik Hung for this
Yet more Bach
Glenn Gould this time.
Bach, says Gould, was not so much ahead of his time as outside it. “For Bach, you see, was music’s greatest non-conformist, and one of the supreme examples of that independence of the artistic conscience that stands quite outside the collective historical process.” and
“Bach was the greatest architect of sound of all time”
Julian Bream: ‘I’m a better musician now than when I was 70’
Two years ago Julian Bream was walking with his retriever, Django, in the fields around his Dorset home, when a neighbour’s dog knocked him to the ground, breaking both hips and injuring his left hand. For several years, Britain’s greatest virtuoso of guitar and lute had played through the pain of arthritis, but these new injuries compelled him to renounce making music seriously. He had retired in 2002 after 55 years of professional performing, but still liked to give the occasional recital at churches or halls near his home.
Thus ended his longest affair, one that started when nine-year-old Julian put on one of his dad’s Quintette du Hot Club de France LPs and was seduced by what he calls the “burning anguish” of Django Reinhardt’s playing.
Segovia and Flamenco
Segovia on Flamenco Guitar, Song and Dance – from Guitar Review, 1977
Segovia’s stated credo was that he, like the Blues Brothers, was on a mission from God — well, maybe not God, but a sort of holy mission — to rescue the guitar from the taverns and the associated lowlife folks in whose hands it was then found. Obviously, he could have problems with flamenco.
Well, not quite, as it turns out.
Manolo Cano, Andrés Segovia, Sabicas and Rafael Gómez Montero at the CONCURSO NACIONAL DE CANTE JONDO GRANADA 1922
Thanks to Brook Zern of the Flamenco Experience for this fascinating article.
More on speed – Grisha Goryachev
Wow – I think an obsession with speed causes more cases of RSI than anything else, but when done with grace and ease, as here, it is a beautiful thing to behold.
Take it easy like he does!
It is still a tool for making music….
Reflexive Speed – Jorge Caballero
At last, some hints from Jorge, whose ease of execution and acute analytical mind I have always admired. Quite difficult to understand this concept intellectually, but you will get it if you try it.
This has been around for a little while now and I am hoping for a new lesson soon!
Thank you Jorge.
In the meantime, there is an interesting excerpt here.
Over-Practicing Makes Perfect | TIME.com
We don’t just need to learn a task in order to perform it well; we need to overlearn it. Sounds like a recipe for disaster? Depends on your approach. I have to constantly remind myself that practice is supposed to make performing a task easier, not more difficult!
Do read the whole article before jumping to conclusions!
Whenever we learn to make a new movement, we form and then update an internal model—a “sensorimotor map”—which our nervous system uses to predict our muscles’ motions and the resistance they will encounter. As that internal model is refined over time, we’re able to cut down on unnecessary movements and eliminate wasted energy.
Nigel Tufnel guitar lesson
More Airline stories and some positive recommendations!
Seems that many people responded (positively) to the post on JAL’s treatment of guitars on internal flights, so as a way of jumping on the luggage carousel, I thought that I would add some positive recommendations.
For me, the most stressful part of taking a guitar on a flight is the uncertainty that it will be allowed as cabin baggage or not, or that it will be well taken care of in transit in the hold, so here is a list of positive experiences I have had with ground staff and flight crew.