Art of Virtuosity

What’s the Art of Virtuosity?

It’s a manual to achieve effortless virtuosity in whatever you do.

The secret is in creating conditions for virtuosity to happen naturally. (Creating good conditions is an effortless way of achieving your goals. Once you have the right conditions in place, you don't have to do much more, nature will do the rest.)

What are the conditions necessary for virtuosity to happen?

That's the purpose of this book.

For years I have wanted a book that would explain clearly how simple it is to achieve an easy effortless technique.

I've done it myself, and I've seen it happen to my students.

There're no magic formulas involved. Most of it is just common sense.

You don't have to practice countless exercises or drills. I have never practiced any of those hundreds of guitar exercises, and I don't recommend them.

The truth is speed and dexterity is mostly dependent on creating good conditions in the body, not on how many times you repeat some exercises.

If you have those conditions, speed and virtuosity naturally occur.

Yes, you still have to practice, but without good conditions, all the practice you do will be of little use.

The AOV has received praise from professionals and players alike. Here’re some of their comments:

"I'm looking forward to the day that other professionals will demonstrate how they apply these universal principles to their playing. They should help greatly to create a common ground for technique in which individual differences become clearer and no longer infinite."

Sarn Dyer, London, UK

"Bravo! What an incredible gift you have given to the world! Your virtuosity as a musician, it seems to me, must be matched by your abilities as a communicator and teacher."

Miguel de Maria, Phoenix, AZ

"The Art of Virtuosity is very freeing. It's as if you want to liberate our instincts. It's ironic that so many rules started out as some artist following his/her instincts with such success that their personal approach became a rigid guide. We miss the point that it was their instincts, not rigid thinking, that got the result. Nice work."

Tony Grieco, Albany, NY

"The book's great...thank you! I am convinced that, had your book been available to me when I first picked up our instrument, I would now be a guitarist of some calibre. Many thanks for writing this book. You have bolstered my resolve to become the musician I believe I can be."

Stephen Hopper, London, England

The principles in the book were discovered on the classical guitar. But the principles are no less relevant to other activities. In fact, this spring semester, The Art of Virtuosity is a required text in the University of Arizona percussion pedagogy class.

Playing the classical guitar is complex.

It’s one of only a handful of instruments that require two hands to produce one note.

Think of the piano. To play a scale, all you have to do is run your fingers down the keys.

On the guitar, you’ll have to fret the notes with the left hand and pluck with the right. And when you consider that you have to synchronize the two hands at speeds of up to ten notes per second, you’ll appreciate the level of difficulty involved in playing the instrument.

The only way to achieve this incredible level of skill and coordination is to develop a super efficient technique, where no motion is wasted, where everything is streamlined and pared down to its most essential elements.

That’s what I’ve done with my guitar playing and that’s what the AOV is all about.

Read a few excerpts:

Table of contents:

I am confident you will find the book useful. If you feel you did not learn a single useful concept from it, I will offer a full refund within 30 days.

The Art of Virtuosity is not a guitar technique book. I have written a second book that is devoted specifically to the classical guitar. Please click on this link to read more.