Jared Ball

Here is my friend and student Jared Ball. He has been studying with me for about a year. Before switching to the guitar, he played violin. He is working on a nice study by one of my favorite composers, Fernando Sor for the upcoming recital. I can't wait to hear it once he gets it under his fingers.

Joe Bradley

Here is my friend and student Joe Bradley playing two pieces from the Noad method. Henry Purcell's Minuet and Greensleeves (anonymous) Joe has been studying with me for about 3 1/2 years. He is a great musician and also plays the flute and he has just taken up the bass guitar. He will soon be graduating to Sagreras Book No 2.

Paul Mamangakis

Here is my friend and student, Paul Mamangakis Playing Leccion 8 from Julio Sagreras' method Book 2. He has been studing with me for 3 years. If you are really up on your Sagreras, you might notice that he has written in a repeat with a clever passage the brings him back to the more animated section of the piece as well as revising the second and final ending. This is typical of how he approaches music. He likes to put his own touch on it....I applaud this trait in him.

Llobet's El Noi de la Mare

Here is a recording I made on 11/1/09 of the genius guitar composer, Miguel Llobet's El Noi de la Mare. It is amoung a set of Catalan folk tunes that Llobet arranged in a very creative and harmonically adventurous way in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Llobet was the most celebrated of the pupils of the great Francisco Tarrega. His fingerings are remarkable in that he payed almost no mind to the difficulty of the fingering in order to produce the most pleasing sound. His transcriptions are unmatched in there attention to detail and clever manipulation of the guitar using every idiomatic tool that was known to exist on guitar in his time.

A Video

I made a video tonight on my Iphone of Barrios' Vals Op 8 No. 4. It is a great piece. I will make more videos of the piece but I wanted to put this one up for the sake of at least having one video on line....for what ever that is worth.

The virtues of studying planting.

The study of planting is the most productive way to improve right hand accuracy and speed in my opinion. It is the equivalent of getting into the habit of leaving 10 minutes earlier to go to places. You arrive there much earlier without having to drive over the speed limit and take unnecessary risks along the way. It gives you more time to prepare yourself for what is to be done once you arrive. Though the act of planting is not always usable in performance, diligent study of it will definitely produce results in the both speed and tone production. So that the definition of planting is known to anyone reading this, I will describe a simple sequence that would be a good starting point to employing this invaluable tool.

p - will play 4th string
i - plays 3rd
m - plays 2nd
a - plays 1st

Step 1 - As p plays a free stroke on the 4th string, i is PLANTED on 3rd string
Step 2 - As i plays a free stroke on the 3rd string, m is planted on 2nd string
Step 3 - As m plays a free stroke on the 2nd string, a is planted on the 1st string
Step 4 - As a plays a free stroke on the 1st string, m is planted on the 2nd string
Step 5 - As m plays a free stroke on the 2nd string, i is planted on the 3rd string
Step 6 - As i plays a free stroke on the 3rd string, p is planted on the 4th string
Step 7 - Start again on step 1 and repeat this for countless hours or you fall asleep.

I would suggest using a chord voicing in the left hand to make this sound more musical. The second inversion of G6 which is produced by playing the bottom 4 stings is not the most pleasing thing to hear for hours at a time. Maybe an Am....doesn't really matter. Once the student is fully aware of the meaning of planting and has grasped it's application using the above sequence, it should be translated to right hand studies of Giuliani's Op 1 or other RH based studies. If this is practiced, a dramatic improvement in speed and control will soon follow.

Rowdy Carlton

What I'm Up too

I have recorded several of the 12 Telemann pieces transcribed by Jose de Azpiazu. I Will post them in the next few days. Monday, I didn't get the oppurtunity to study because of teaching and meeting other things at the school. Yesturday, I recorded the numbers 8 - 11 from the Teleman and this morning I did 12 and 1-3.

What I studied 10/11/2009

I studied a ton today. 40 Giuliani RH studies, the Tarrega RH string crossing studies and 28 minutes of Segovia Scales i,m - m,i - m,a - a,m - i,a - a,i & i,m,a,m. I studied the Giuliani Variations on a Theme by Handel and recorded it but it is not up to a level that I am ready to post it. I also studied several other pieces by Giuliani and I played the 12 Telemann peices that I plan to record this week. I recorded a rondo by Giuliani and will post it later.

10/10/2009

Today I studied 65 Giuliani RH studies, Played through all the Tarrega RH studies for string crossings then I studied the Segovia Scales playing three notes per beat at 84 bpm 7 times (i,m/m,i/m,a/a,m/i,a/a,i & i,m,a,m) Then I recorded Robert Johnson's Almain and Hit and Take it, Luis de Milan Pavana 2 and Pavana 3 and a little Mozart Allegro.

My Blog is born

Welcome to my blog. I plan to use this to post recordings and do other things that are done on a blog....once I figure out what that is.