Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Posted a new video, “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” by J S Bach.
The Incredible Lightness of Virtuosity
One of the keys to virtuosity I described in the AOV is lightness, a lightness of touch in everything you do.
Imagine my surprise on reading this excerpt from The Ultimate Happiness Prescription by Deepak Chopra (page 43).
Lightness of being in my body will be my indicator of happiness. If I feel heavy or dull, I will pay special attention, because these feelings are signs that I am suffering from inertia …
I’ve always known that the principle of lightness extends beyond guitar playing and this excerpt reaffirms that conviction.
What does happiness and playing guitar well have to do with each other?
Because both describe a state of perfect equilibrium, of pure effortlessness, where you’re able to accomplish anything you want without stress or strain.
As the old Sage Lao Tzu said:
“The Virtuoso does not do and yet everything is done.”
One important qualification:
Lightness is not to be confused with weakness. On the contrary, lightness is the true source of power.
Only by being light will you be able to fully tap into your natural power, but that’s an article in itself, which you can read about in the chapter “The Art of Power” in the AOV.
Two More Videos
I recently received an email from Bob Wooldridge who pointed me to this video of George Sakellariou. In Bob’s words:
I was just watching this video that was recently uploaded by Dave Schramm. Take a look at Sakellariou’s right hand fingers. There are several points in the video where the camera is looking at his hand from the left side and you can clearly see how his fingers are attacking the strings. I think you will find this interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsL2t0FTbmA&playnext_from=TL&videos=U2F_1TzM298
My own continuing youtube research also uncovered this video of Douglas Niedt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8SdSgDvups
In both these videos, one can clearly see the same upward motion in their fingers, in that same circular trajectory I had talked about earlier in my Isbin post.
There’s quite a bit of hand bouncing too in Niedt’s hand, which is absolutely essential in chordal playing, but is also very much a part of this circular type of playing.
Most good players develop the circular approach to plucking naturally and intuitively. It’s something they probably don’t even think too much about.
So why is this a concern?
Because for some players, developing this natural approach may not come so easily.
This is especially true if they have been subjected to the strict playing-from-the-knuckle methodology, (plucking strictly from the knuckle) or if they have been taught to exaggerate the follow-through in their fingers after the stroke.
The inevitable result of playing only from the knuckle is a loss of fluidity in the fingers. That’s because you wind up with stop and start pendulum-type motion in the fingers.
Exaggerating the follow-through also results in the same stop and start pendulum-type motion as the knuckle stroke.
The great thing about circular plucking as I explained in the AOV is that it creates a continuous flow of motion.
There’re two parts to plucking a string, the plucking and the rebounding (to reposition the finger). As soon as you pluck the string, you have to bring it back to reposition it. So there’re two points where you have to effect a direction change in your stroke.
If you move back and forth in a pendulum-type motion, you’ll have to stop at each point to reverse direction. This is inefficient. It stops the flow of your motion and you lose momentum.
But if you loop around each direction point, you can keep the flow of your motion going even as you change direction. That’s why circular motion is so crucial to speed and fluidity.
Circular motion of course is nothing new. It’s central to Tai Chi and Aikido.
How to Perform Like a Pro
This article came from an earlier version of AOV.
To perform like a pro, you have to do it constantly, under the spotlights. Because that’s what pros do. They’re constantly performing. That’s why they’re good.
At the beginning, this could mean imposing yourself on others, playing free gigs, whatever it takes. The goal is to establish familiarity, to make the performing experience as ordinary as possible.
If you go out under the spotlights every day, pretty soon, those spotlights will stop bothering you.
But you have to do it under real conditions, or in simulated conditions if real conditions are not available.
If you’re a concert musician, play in concert halls as much as possible. If you’re an athlete, perform in tournaments. If you can’t do it in real concerts and tournaments, do it in rehearsals.
The truth is, you can’t learn your skills under one set of conditions and expect to deliver them under another. In other words, you can’t practice your guitar in your bedroom and expect to replicate that performance in a concert hall.
Many people do not understand this.
They would practice a great deal in their practice rooms and attain a high level of proficiency. But then they go out in front of the public, find themselves unable to deliver, and would blame it on nerves.
Yes, nerves is always a factor, but it’s more than nerves, it’s also inexperience; if you’re not used to performing in front of an audience, you wouldn’t be able to deliver your true potential.
Sometimes the problem is not lack of experience, it’s lack of preparation.
To play like a pro, you must know your material like a pro. This means practicing your moves over and over until they become second nature.
The trick is to acquire a repertoire of moves and routines that you are deeply familiar with and which you can play at the drop of a hat.
That’s what pros do. They have a core repertoire of favorite moves and routines. When they play, they would usually reach into this repertoire and perform something they’ve done many times before.
If they have to do a new move or play a new piece, they would practice it over and over and test it in front of many audiences before they add it to their core repertoire.
That’s a disadvantage many beginner and student players have. They don’t have a core repertoire.
When they play, it’s usually something new, perhaps even something they just learned last week.
That’s tough. If you’ve just learned a piece, there is no way you can play it as well as someone who’s played it for forty years. (Translation: If you just learned the Chaconne, don’t expect to play it like John Williams in your first performance or even in your tenth performance.)
That’s why it’s good to put things in perspective. Don’t expect too much from your first performances.
And don’t be afraid to perform the same routines over and over. That’s the only way to polish your act, to do it constantly.
If you were to check the programs of concert artists, you will see the same pieces featured over and over.
I used to think it was a lack of versatility. Now I realize it’s a sign of their complete professionalism.
At the beginning, you might have to be a one-trick pony, but with time, you’ll become a two-trick pony, and in no time at all, you’ll be a hundred-trick pony.
Pros understand one thing.
It’s not how many routines you have in your repertoire, it’s how well you play them.
I was surfing youtube when this video caught my attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSfg3NhPFpg
It’s the incomparable Sharon Isbin. What caught my attention is her right hand, especially in the way she plucks ‘upward’ in a soft brushing motion, rather than inward with a lot of ‘follow-through.’
It’s almost a textbook example of what I described in the AOV for Guitar as good efficient right hand movement (in the section on fluidity, page 89):
Right-hand fluidity is mostly about moving in circles and arcs.
This is a point I’ve made a few times before but here’s a more detailed explanation of how it works.
The right-hand plucking motion consists of two parts, the plucking and the rebound.
It’s crucial when you pluck that the two parts are part of a continuous movement. The only way to achieve this is to move your finger in circular motion at the fingertips.
To do this, push through the string when you pluck.
Make sure you don’t push too hard. Most of the action should be taking place at the fingertips.
As soon as you clear the string, move upward and back to your starting position. (Yes, this is probably the tenth time I described the process, but bear with me.)
The whole movement is one continuous action. If you were to watch your fingertip in action, it will describe an oval-shaped trajectory.
AOV news
I’ve been doing some final tweaking of the AOV. Many thanks to Wilson Pickering for his many suggestions and for catching some of the typos and grammatical errors in the previous version.
Please download the new version here: AOV Version April 13, 2010
Getting Invited To The Party
I’ve always been aware that my approach to teaching is different from many of my colleagues in one respect: I emphasize facility over polish.
My rationale is that facility is something we cannot take for granted while polish is mostly a matter of time and increased sophistication.
In the beginning stages, I give students a ton of free stroke pieces and studies, all designed to get them to start moving their fingers. The emphasis is on facility and speed, without any regard for tonal quality.
It’s just common sense, there’s not much point in demanding good tonal quality if a student can barely move his or her fingers.
It’s something I believe in deeply. To reach his or her full potential, you must not inhibit the student in any way. The more you would impose rigid concepts of what’s right or wrong, or what’s correct hand positions, or what’s correct tone, you’re hamstringing their development.
Mastering the guitar is like getting an invitation to a party. To me, if you haven’t developed good facility in your fingers, you haven’t gotten an invitation to the party yet. Too many people, to my mind, are worried about what they’re going to wear to a party when they don’t even have an invitation to the party.
My approach is always, get the invitation to the party first and then worry about what you’re going to wear. In other words, develop good facility, master the basic essential techniques first, and then worry about the polish later.
The Classical Guitar Blog
I recently did an interview with Christopher Davis of the The Classical Guitar Blog. Chris is an incredibly talented young man and I’m honored he asked me to do the interview. Here’s the link:
http://www.classicalguitarblog.net/2010/01/philip-hii-interview/
Recuerdos de la Alhambra
Posted my second video, “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” by Francisco Tarrega.
La Catedral
Posted my first youtube video. Agustin Barrios’ La Catedral: