Beethoven anyone?

[Deleted]

OK... I like Beethoven to the max. This young lady is really great! One of my favorite guitar players for this kind of music.

 I know she won't be for everyone, but I love this! Give her a listen.

EB

[dnic]

WOW! She can play! Both my older kids played piano, took lessons for over ten years. Heard a lot of classical music in the house. I was expecting something much more calm. I guess we never got to the third movement.

[antares]

Unparalleled technique. Other than that ..


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[Deleted]

Out of all the videos I have watched over the years, she has got to be one of my top favorite guitar players of all time.

  I wonder how long it took her to get this piece down like she has it in this video? I know she didn't learn it in a few minutes.

 I also know to do something like this, one must learn it, put it into segments. Learn each part, then put it all together.

 That is a lot of passion for the guitar, her sound/tone, and the music. You don't see that too much these days.

She also has some videos of when she was a little girl playing the guitar. She was good as a kid. Better than most adults.

 I wish back when I was young I could have had better teachers of the guitar. I did get two years of music in collage and was wanting to get my master's in music. But life happened, and I was forced to give that up.

 I did get to play as a professional from the age of 15 to the age of 18. But I was never on the level this young lady is!

 She is the kind of player that makes me think why I even tried or try. Heck, I was excited when I learned to play Stair way to heaven all the way though.

 But it is so good to see so many young ones out there picking up the guitar and learning how to lay it. I always wanted to play classical guitar music.

 I bet if Beethoven was alive today, he would have played guitar! LOL!

EB

[antares]

I started out on classical in 1971 which is why I never do that thumb over the bass string thing, and those lessons have stood me in very good stead over the decades. Much of what I learned in those two short years 50 years ago has been forgotten (Recuerdos DeL'Alhambre" was a stiff undertaking- I sort of "nailed" it back then although it's long forgotten now) but I can still roll off Heitor Villa Lobos' Prelude No. 1 from "Cinq Preludes". I often wish I'd continued if only to learn the other four preludes. I can still "do" Asturias, although I play a very simplified (and to a large extent abridged) version in the first position only. I can still do some "cod" flamenco too (my description!) and I have never encountered a classical guitar student yet who could not at least play the first (minor) part of "Romanza" (The major part is more of a stretch challenge!) but it's the Villa Lobos that has really given me (us!) so much pleasure over the decades. For years there was one tiny bit I couldn't remember, but "Best Beloved" bought me three refresher lessons with a professor of music some thirteen years ago, and he filled in the gap for me.

I'll link to a performance by Marcin Dylla because out of the hundreds on YouTube, he puts more feeling and panache into the performance than most do. I tend to put my own stamp on it too, and most of the disciples would turn their noses up at my artistic licence (for a start I play little arpeggios instead of the simultaneous three finger plucks that you can hear incessantly, and there's one bit where I really really slow it down for effect. Marcin doesn't do that! Still 'n' all, I reckon it's more healthy to put your own little stamp on things than slavishly following anything in life "because it is written"?

youtu.be/2x0cxSoTYBU

That's the whole Cinq Preludes of course, but obviously the one I can "do" (Prelude No. 1) is first up, so there's no need to knuckle down for the duration. That said, although it's subjective, the whole performance would not be a waste of anyone's life IMHO ...

Have a great Easter weekend Folks!

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[antares]

Oh- go on then!

youtu.be/Vc5QmpI6oWc

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[Deleted]

Pretty cool there, Steve! I like that!

 I had a hard time teaching him! LOL! I wish I could play like that. I was once on my way. But like I said, life got in the way, and I had to stop my music adventures.

 

 I didn't quit playing, I had to stop going to school for music. Like you said, many of the things I did when I was young are pretty much gone now. Saying that, many things are starting to leave my memory. I was trying to remember something on the guitar the other day. I struggled for an hour before it came back to me. I have not been like that ever!

 As things progress in my life, it is getting real frustrating to keep on forgetting things that were once so easy.

EB

 Happy Easter to you too!

[dnic]

Steve, the first video by Marcin Dylla is amazing. I am truly impressed by the fact that you played that up to some sort of speed. Impressed indeed. I once played the chords to Cannon in D while my kids played the real stuff. LOL

Now to the second video.

[dnic]

Apr 8, 2023 12:56:06 GMT -6 antares said:

Oh- go on then!

youtu.be/Vc5QmpI6oWc

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Wonderful playing. I really need to expand my musical tastes. This guy is very good. I'd like hear something from him on steal string. That's probably blasphemy.

[antares]

Dane although I have an all solid timbers Yamaha classical guitar, it has a very high action even for that type of guitar and I should have returned it for correction immediately. I bought it with a £250 long service award at work. I sanded down the saddle which improved it somewhat, but not really enough. Could it be that the guitar needed a neck reset ex-showroom? Accordingly, it is hard work to play. I always play the Villa Lobos on my Sobell. Sure it's steel strung but boy can it sing sweetly. I've played it on the resonator many times too when I first bought that! I've even played it on unamplified solid bodied guitars as well as the Yamaha SA2000! I played it on an absolute beater of a guitar loaned to me by a street musician in Viejo Havana! See- the gift that keeps on giving! As I said, apart from my truncated "take" on Asturias and a bit of rasguedo and tremelo inflexed "flamenco", the Villa Lobos is the only thing I can truly rattle off from that era these days. There is one Vivaldi I can sort of "do" but cannot remember what it's called, however it involves a lot of refamiliarisation "on the fly" (as in making the sounds in my head "work ", so it's actually played by ear and not "correct".)

That Villa Lobos piece has given me more pleasure over the years than I deserve and the Havana example stands out. I have my Dad to thank there for setting me on the righteous path with those two years of lessons. If I have any obligation to video or record anything at all it has to be that one.

My teacher reckoned Grade 1 wasn't worth the effort, so we went straight in for the Grade 2 exams. On the day, she wished her four entrants good luck and told me I'd need more luck than the others. I received a distinction and I think my youthful arrogance rattled her. Over the next six months I studied for Grade 3 and at that level I had to do Grade 1 theory as well in which I reached 98% in a mock exam. A week before the Grade 3 exam she announced that she had not entered me and I was furious- partly because my Dad really struggled to pay her fees each week, and partly because I'd learned all the required scales, arpeggios and pieces. She said that in her opinion I wasn't ready, and her reputation as a teacher balanced upon her success rates. I told her "Adios Dross" and never went back. It's such a shame, I can see that now, but you know fifteen years old boys think they're invincible. I do wish I could meet her again to show her what I can do now, but she had a very distinctive name which throws up nothing whatsoever on internet searches. Anyway, I reckon she'd be north of 77 by now. Grade four (and up) required Grade 1 (and up) piano too on that examining board, so I guess things were getting too involved?

I must get my butt into gear. I must.

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[antares]

Well I swerved the thread again, so to get back on the rails I must say that I've always preferred Beethoven to Mozart. Beethoven has a natural musicality to me whereas Mozart often sounds like clockwork. Such remarks can only ever be subjective. I bought a Deutsch Gramofone double CD of Beethoven's Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony and The Ninth from a bargain bucket for about £5. both conducted by Karl Böhm. I bought Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" for the same amount on the same day out of the same bargain bin so that was a red letter day! I really do like the Pastoral Symphony, but I'm ambivalent towards The Ninth. I suppose I could just easily do without all the choral parts? Hmmm.

Another that I really like is the Frenchman Erik Satie and his "Gymnopedie" but he wrote others which are just as good. A distinctive style of deceptively simple music, but wonderful for all that.

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[GuitarAttack Forum]

I love classical guitar. There are lots of great players out there on YouTube. When I was a young player you just had to compete with the guys at the music store; now you have to compete with the entire world.

I started my guitar journey as a 12 year old studying the Christoper Parkening classical guitar method. I had a great instructor and he was very patient with me. I continued it for two years until my Dad's bickering and bullying became too much. Dad would always challenge me to "play a song". When I did play one of the classical songs I was working on at lessons, he wouldn't recognize it, would make fun of it, and I would slink off to my room. Eventually I lost interest in the guitar....then I went to see KISS on the Destroyer tour with my friend Eric and it all turned around!

I still have my 1960s Yamaha classical guitar, and I need to work on the action. It is a wonderful sounding guitar. I wish I had've stuck with classical a little longer. I realize now I probably had the aptitude for it, but I just felt my situation didn't support it.

It is easy to get demoralized when learning a new skill. Having some encouragement can make all of the difference.

John

[dnic]

From reading the above posts I've come away with two distinct theory's. Sometimes dad's are jerks but by what our jerky dads did we tried hard not to do to our own children. And classical guitars should have truss rods. And why they don't is a complete mystery to me.

[Deleted]

Seems to me, that we all had some kind of experience in how we learned how to play guitar.

 My mom was pretty supportive of me. My dad, not so much. He and I never got along well. But mom would make him pay for some guitar lessons for me at the age of 12. I did get my first guitar at the age of 9.

 At 10, I was given accordion lessons. I was able to take them lessons and figured how to transpose that to guitar. I wanted to play guitar more than the other.

 At 9, I would never put the guitar down. By the age of 12 I guess my parents could see I was not going to stop. So I got to go to my fist, guitar music teacher.

 When I was in the 6th grade, my parents were told I was a music prodigy. I was given 4 test to see if I was. Most of them test were to see how many notes of a scale I could recognize and how many instruments I could identify in classical music. (orchestra) All four test took hours, all on separate days. I came in as top 2 people in my school. I had gotten like 98% on my tests.

 That is how my music really started out. I told you all before that by the time I was 15 I was hired into a work rock band making good money.

 I was told by many I would be a star! After so many rejections along the way, I was all done with the entertainment industry. That was by the age of 19.

 I then turned my eyes on the church. Played in worship and outreach for the rest of my life.

  I had made a vow to never play secular music again. I was in my 30s when a guy heard me playing in a music store. He wanted to hire me to play in his band and said he would start me off at $1,000 a week to start. I don't want to say who he was. But he was in a top county band of that time. I was shocked to find out what band he was in. At that time they were just starting to get well known.

 Made me feel good to think maybe I still had something. LOL! But I turned him down. Even though I could have used the money.

 I know some may not understand why I had to turn down that gig. But that's between me and God.

 I love music! It is a big part of who I am. Guitars fall into that mix. I am not saying I am the best at what I do. My life has not been all that good. Being put down for so many things. I guess this is why I go out of my way to have people see the things I have done in my life.

 Now that I am 69 years old, I see things in a whole other light. Now I would like to pass on to others that life is so short. So live the best life you can before things change. I at times wish I could have a do-over. I think If I could have one, I would find a way to study music in the way I always wanted too.

 But it's not been all bad. I did get to be on TV, Radio, and did so many concerts that I can't even count. I just never got to be on the level of music I wanted to be.

 Seeing this young lady and watching the videos really brought tears to my eyes. I can feel their passion for the music. Not too many do that to me.

  For me, there will always be more to music than a bunch of notes on some paper. Ever since I picked up that first guitar at the age of 9 I have known this.

  EB

 

[antares]

What a great thread. I totally recognised what John said about "play a song"- my Dad just didn't "get it" either, but he was good at grumbling about the bass and that was next to nothing compared to today. In fact, that was my teacher's secret weapon- she taught us to play something- anything really, so when you got home you could play what you'd just learned and Dad could see the bang for his buck. Crafty eh? Of course she challenged me with harder "stuff" too. It was years before Linda began to get her head around my playing to be able to recognise what it was intended to be (I generally never strum- always arpeggios interspersed with melody (I guess that's Curtis Mayfield's legacy?) I have an octogenarian neighbour who affects to love jazz, but I play him my arrangement of "Misty" in a jazzy flavour and I'm forced to tell him what it is supposed to be because he only knows what is written on an album sleeve. A "missionary" jazz aficionado if you will. Thanks for a great thread Eddie.

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