The world sends us garbage… We send back music – the children of Cateura and their “Garbage Instruments” – Los Reciclados

Mozart played on oil drums!

Just outside the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion sits Cateura, a massive landfill that receives 1,500 tons of new rubbish each day. The dumping site’s surrounding neighborhoods are home to several thousand families who make a living by sorting through its rotting waste, and separate out whatever can be sold to the local recycling industry. According to UNICEF, Cateura is a community marked by extreme poverty, illiteracy, and pollution.

It’s also home to an orchestra—one made up of local children whose instruments are made entirely from recycled garbage.

This is an article in TakePart amplifying my earlier post on Cateura’s collaboration with Berta Rojas.

It’s an intriguing story of a musician, Favio Chávez, who got together with a rubbish collector, Nicolás Gómez, to make instruments together using packing cases, oil drums and old bottles.

More Finntastic Finnish Fantasias

Yet another Finnish guitar release!

The indefatigable Otto Tolonen plays

1 – 3
Erik Bergman: Suite pour Guitare –
Fantasia Canzonetta Toccata
4. Jarkko Hartikainen: alone
5. Aki Yli-Salomäki: Odota
6. Adam Vilagi: The Threatened Assassin…
7. Sauli Zinovjev: Elegietta
8. Jouni Kaipainen: Tenebrae
The CD, available from SibaRecords is mysteriously dedicated “to the gloom of Haapamäki.” Continue reading

How to practise with a metronome – All that jazz – Wayne Krantz

Wayne says:
“The following content is related to the December 2012 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store

In this month’s column, I’d like to talk about practicing with a metronome. I’m sure most of you have read or been told at some point that practicing to a metronome is an important thing for guitar players to do on a regular basis. I think that practicing with a metronome can reap many benefits and have spent a lot of time doing it over the years.

Although I’ve always felt that my sense of “time”—my ability to play at a steady tempo and in a groove “pocket” without speeding up or slowing down—has been pretty good, I realized at one point that it was not quite as good as I wanted it to be. So I spent a considerable amount of effort really focusing on that aspect of my playing, and I think there are ways to practice with a metronome that are more beneficial than others.”

Brilliant advice

More on Metronome

Fabio Zanon plays on the Benjamin Britten Centenary Day

Wigmore Hall 22 November 2013 – 1:00pm

Zanon at Wigmore Hall

Fabio Zanon plays

Peter Philips
  • Chromatica Pavana
  • Galliard
Bach

Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E flat BWV998 (guitar version in D major)

Britten

Nocturnal after John Dowland Op. 70

Granados
  • Danza española No. 10
  • Danza española No. 4
  • La maja de Goya from Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo
Sérgio Assad
  • From Aquarelle:
    • Valseana, No. 2
    • Preludio e tocatina, No. 3

About this concert

Hailed by Classical Guitar as ‘one of the true stars of the 21st century’, the renowned Brazilian guitarist Fabio Zanon returns to Wigmore Hall to play Benjamin Britten’s seminal Nocturnal, written exactly fifty years ago.

His programme includes favourite works by Bach and Granados, and Sergio Assad’s virtuosic depiction of watercolour technique, Aquarelle.

The Next Time an Airline Makes You Check Your Guitar, Show Them THIS…(USA only)

I came across this on Digital Music News and thought I would share it – hope it will work for you!

“The following very awesome tip comes from Ari Herstand, a performing musician, actor, and part-time blogger who also advises bands and artists (check out his services here).”

The next time an airline forces you to check your $3,000 guitar, handmade violin, or priceless handcrafted instrument into cargo…

(1) Please show the counter agent, guard, or other said official the 145 page FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 section 41724.   It was signed into law by Obama last year.

Print it out. Continue reading

Quartet No.4 – Biberian

Great work, this…
Hopefully the other three will make it to the internet soon.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119212146″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Gilbert says-

I waited 35 years (nearly!) to hear this piece! Thanks to the marvels of modern computer, digital, technology now I can and I want to share this with you al, my dear friends. With the exception of a few significant changes the love-impact and the passage of time, the perspective that changes a little, perhaps…) the piece is as I wrote it. Let me know how you like it. It is subtitled Aronne, and this is reflected in the emotion and structure of the piece. It IS the emotion of the piece. Possibly, my age…

Musicwood – instrument making and sustainability

For hundreds of years guitars have been made the same way, but now this could all change. A new music documentary, “MUSICWOOD” follows the journey of a band of the most famous (acoustic) guitar-makers in the world as they attempt to save a primeval forest and the acoustic guitar.

Musicwood Documentary – 2 min trailer from Helpman Productions on Vimeo.

Link at Acoustic Nation

Of course, Paul Fischer already foresaw the problem of diminishing stocks of precious instrument hardwoods and in 1983 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to extend his research into the forest of Brazil.
He produced many instruments with alternative, non-threatened hardwood species and did a memorable “blind test” with John Mills playing traditional Brazilian rosewood and mixed other species (e.g. Kingwood, Jaguar wood) behind a curtain, with the audience invited to judge whether or not they could tell the difference.
Nowadays, it is quite common to find instruments made of alternative hardwoods (the most common and long standing being the so-called “Indian” rosewood). but Paul was a pioneer who did research with the help of native Brazilians such as Sergio Abreu.

Continue reading

Plus des Frères Méduses

This is an audio interview and music from Les Frères Méduses at the Radio Station KUTX

Benoît Albert andRandall Aver describe the quality of their collaborations as having the connotation of free flowing water, surrealism, and the slightly humorous title of their duo suited the music that they create together.

The French adjective médusé also translates to “mesmerized” or “dumbfounded”, the perfect words to describe the feelings elicited by this sensational guitar duo’s music. Albert and Avers both exhibit a formal education in classical guitar performance, composition and improvisation, and their combined skill will certainly leave you breathless. Aside from performing classical guitar music together, the duo has also written original film scores for silent films such as 1927’s The Unknown.

Link