Types of Players: a question

[thedrizzle]

I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a week or so, it was inspired by some comments in another thread about Caballero. What are the reasons some of you chose classical guitar? Does the music dictate the choice or the repertoire. On one end you have players like Galbraith and Caballero that seem to perform more repertoire adapted from other instruments and players who perform mostly pieces written for the instrument. So, do you play because you love the instrument and then find music that suits you or do you love the repertoire and play the "correct" instrument for that repertoire. I know there is a pretty big gray area and players who do both but what is the genesis. I'm not really making a judgement either way, I just thought it was a curious speculation and would like to hear what everyone thinks.

[Mister Lovaguitara]

Nice question! I play because I simply love the classical guitar. I fell it\I can convey emotions in a way no other instrument or words can do. the music can capture and transmit feelings that are true, sincere, beautiful and perfectly "described" - I'd like to see someone put those feelings into words!(-;
also, I love the music written for it. when I think about it, I actually started playing because of the music rather the instrument but I soon learned that there is much more to it. that's me, I will be interesting to see how others feel.

[oldplayer]

I started playing after hearing Charlie Byrd using classical guitar skills to play pop and jazz. Learned to like a great deal of the classical repertoire

[brian richardson]

as a kid, i got a segovia album as a christmas gift.
i just thought it was so cool how
it sounded like more than one person playing.
still do.

EDIT----Welcome to the forum oldplayer!!!

[Steve Lin]

I play because:

after playing a bunch of small concerts up and down New England, I feel very lucky to be a guitarist.

if I didn't, I wouldn't know who to turn to when I'm sad.

I do so much non-musical stuff that practicing is a relief from the world.

when the world sucks, the guitar makes it seem quite alright.

[rdubb]

its sound and aura grabbed me so deeply at an early age. i had a christopher parkening tape that i wore out when i was eight years old, and later bream recordings of bach from age 10-12. by that time I was hooked....I knew i had to devote at least some portion of my existence to learning to play as best I could.
the first time i heard CG played well is similar to the first time I heard Bach....I was speechless with joy, transfixed....i guess the two, Bach, and guitar, will always be linked...I just realized today that I have performed the PFA, Lute Suite 996, portions of 995 (prelude+tres viste,Gavottes), lute version of the g-Minor Fugue (bwv1000), I am currently working up all of 1006a, and I have tried to learn 997 but ran away in terror from that fugue (but that was years ago, maybe i should revisit). I guess you could say there's a link.

[thraex]

This thread is starting to liven-up.

Type of player, me?
the type who wants to play what he considers great music or great fun.
Then becomes complex....
I started playing guitar after attempts as a child with violin and harp, then popular paraguayan guitar and finally by recomendation I arrived to the classical guitar, with swings in addiction (the violoncello was a lover for a while).
I was an egocentric :cool: so even as a child I thought of myself as very special and historical in importance hehe and the fact that I had this classical guitar-Mangoré connection in my life helped to follow this path (Paraguay, El Salvador, Spain)
Mainly I want to devote my life to do what I really want, guitar seems to be my longest lasting love, but I have a few other things in life that make me passionate (for example, this weekend I didn't accept a concert because of the Formula 1 Brasil GP).
More and more I think of doing my own path in the music world, changing the way to perceive a carreer, I think recordings, normal concerts in our guitar world and so on, are just too little reward for me and the effort, so when I finish my studies next summer, I'll see what type of musician or entrepeneur I become, right now I'm the type who enjoys life with a guitar nearby.

[Guitar Slim]

I started playing very young -- but that doesn't mean I didn't make a choice about it.

When I was real little, I grew up listening to my father play chords and sing folk songs and kids songs. I think I started lobbying to get my own guitar around the time I learned to speak!

Later, my uncle came home from the service. He was already a good pop/electric guitar player, and he was teaching himself to play classical at the time. I remember visiting and hearing this beautiful guitar music floating from his room -- like nothing I had ever heard before. These are some of my earliest childhood memories.

When I finally got my first guitar and started lessons, my uncle was my teacher. It was a given that the guitar was a classical guitar, and that I would learn to play fingerstyle. I never even thought twice about playing anything else until many years later when I became a teeneager.

These days, I see the classical guitar primarily as an instrument. I love the sound, and I love to hear it played fingerstyle. But I'm very open-minded about what music is being played on it. It's all good, as long as it's good music well played. I love the devoted classical players but -- Charlie Byrd works just as well for me!

In fact, I think I'd rather play like Charlie Byrd! For me, choosing to play classical repertoire is kind of a cop out. All the notes I need are there on the page, I don't need to worry too much about theory or chord voicings or improvising. But given the time, I would love to develop those aspects of my playing more -- while still playing fingerstyle classical as my main instrument.

[Syd]

Having been an onlooker for some time, I will now become an unlurker.

My answer to the question is much like brian richardson's. I am attracted to the timbre of the instrument and always fascinated that eight fingers and two thumbs can produce so much music and the illusion that more than one person is playing.

I had been only a listener for about 40 years. As a teenager, the first LP record I bought was "Segovia" on the Decca label. I listened and was hooked. Next came another Segovia then a couple Carlos Montoya and then a Julian Bream, who remains my favourite among the many I admire.

I started playing only five years ago when I was 55. Alas, I will need at least one more lifetime to become the player I would like to be. Someone else can be the Dalai Lama, I would prefer to be reincarnated as a classical and flamenco guitar player.

[gitarplyar]

Nice message Syd. I think I met you at the Acadia festival this past summer. In fact you let me copy some of your music. Nice to meet you again! By the way, your friend is an amazing player!

Sherman

[brian richardson]

........Someone else can be the Dalai Lama, I would prefer to be reincarnated as a classical and flamenco guitar player.

LMAO!!!! thanks Syd, i need that today:cool:

[Cheech]

Hey All,

Long time no post. For me, as it seems to be the concensus, its both the instrument and the music. I've played guitar since I was 9. Thru the years I've have been more and more drawn to classical. Its the best. Hope all is well with every one. Later.

[Richard]

Over time I've become as obsessed with the sound of the classical guitar as I am with the music, and have purchased wayyy too many guitars in the past two years. I've also drifted more into the Brazilian/jazz thing over time as well, which sounds so sensual on a classical guitar...

[sanderdude]

Nice Thread! So far I think Steve Lin has said it best.
For me, I am often just amazed at the quality of sound that can come out of the guitar. I am learning Bach 147 [kind of a beginner here] and have found one 3 note chord than makes my new guitar totally worth the time and money and effort to get it born. On the tab it is b string 3rd fret, d string 4th fret and open a string. I can just lose myself listening to those 3 notes. Guess I'm rather easily entertained thes days.

[Travis_Warner]

I hear you man....the sound of the CG is one of the most beautiful things in the world!

[oc chuck]

Where to start without repeating what others
have said. We seem to have a lot in common
in how we were drawn to this instrument.

I also loved the way the guitar is held and
played to produce its tones and voices.

And you can take it with you and play
in a park or almost any setting you choose.

And, The MOST important thing!, it the best
instrument for
meeting girls!!!!!!!

Edit: When I started this reply (Sunday)
I was going to say something about sitting by
the window and playing while the trees danced
to the music and the wind. (I'm in Southern Calif.)
Then I started hearing on the news about all the fires popping
up and how the winds were whipping them out of
control. Fortunately I am not in a danger area but for
some it is devastating. Thoughts, prayers and donations
will be needed.

[wiglebot]

I played as a front porch bass and acoustic guitar player in Virginia. --sloppy for sure.

I stopped playing and became a Mountain biker, kayaker, computer programmer -- 10 years go by!!!!

Then I got Extreme Epilepsy from no where. I had to quit everything.

The guitar was the only thing I could return to -- it became this deep meaningful foundation. Guitar music became everything that happened and being uncertain of waking up in the hospital at any time.

I got hooked on Flamenco (and the techniques) because its deep meaning. I practice for hours everday. It will never matter how good I am, the process of practice, listening and playing (perfecting) is the manifestation of life -- it is authenticity.

[brian richardson]

"--it is authenticity"
-wiglebot

BRAVO!!!!!

[Michelob]

Wiglebot … I just read your post about your medical condition and how you returned to the Guitar… and Flamenco. I am touched, truly. They say Flamenco is an expression of the musician’s grievances, perhaps even a prayer, or the lament of those who embrace the pain of life and turn it into beauty.

In explaining “passion” at a recent speaking engagement I used the metaphor of the Oyster to explain how one of the most beautiful matters in nature –the Pearl- is the consequence of a continuous irritation, of a grievance which the oyster cannot oust.. a grain of sand, a foreign body which disturbs its ordinary uneventful life. It is however because of such stressful state that the least meaningful being in all creation, in turn creates the most brilliant of things… by layers after layers of painfully tailored mother-of-pearl, it embraces its disturbance and turns it into beauty.

We all have or had our share of pain and grief. I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C few years ago and with a morbid few years left to live prognosis. I survived after years of torturing medical therapy. The unexpected appreciation of death, “memento mori” was no longer a philosophical tenet of Christianity to be dismissed as too premature, but an incumbent feeling of termination. I am not sure what I have learned. Initially I separated from my wife and became rather withdrawn. Waiting for the end. But then the mother-of-pearl started to come out. I built all of my legal practice during those tormenting years. The guitar too came back… and I too found in Flamenco the expression of my pain and my hope. I write Flamenco (style) serenades for my wife, now….

I read “Solea” means "Solar and happy" … then that it means “Solitude”… interesting how we may join the two sentiments in the same 12 beats….
Most dearly

[thedrizzle]

Hey, a lot of great responses to my inquiry! Thanks all!. I guess I'll share my story. Everyone in my family plays an instrument, it kind of a tradition. My grandfather played horn(sax, clarinet, etc) my mother(sax, piano), my aunts(piano and banjo), my uncle(guitar). So it was customary that I play something. After years of piano lessons as a youngster I decided that guitar was what I wanted to play-to, you guessed it, meet girls! I went crazy after seeing the karate kid playing Rondo Alla Turca in that movie "Crossroads." So now many years later I'm a DMA student. Thanks Ralph Machio.

[brolio]

I started playing after hearing Charlie Byrd using classical guitar skills to play pop and jazz. Learned to like a great deal of the classical repertoire

Is it me, or did Charlie Byrd play off beat and out of tune?

[brolio]

I originally played for the sake of technique with out any theoretical knowledge. Though I did take some classical lessons when I was first introduced to guitar. I developed an excellent right hand and wanted to elevate my playing. So, I relearned to read and got to work. so the focus changed and I am happy with it. Though I will try out just a finger style arrangement and enjoy it also. I quess it is a grey area, both appreciating the arrangements from four periods for classical gutiar and enjoying the instrument as well. I am currently going thru some composition and music theory texts to hopefully be able to do some nice fingerstyle arrangments given a melody line and chords, and perform them on the classical guitar.

[Richard]

Is it me, or did Charlie Byrd play off beat and out of tune?
How refreshing to hear someone say that. It seemed he couldn't keep up with the tempo of his own trio. He also produced a very muted sound.
However, Charlie Byrd was incredibly important for popularizing nylon-string jazz guitar in the U.S.

[wiglebot]

Not to derail this thread because I like hearing about players, but Charlie Byrd's style was what first pulled me over to the Nylon String.

The first real song I learned on my new Flamenco Negra was Baden Powell's arrangement of "Serenata Do Adeus." His music has very clear separation of rhythm, harmony and melody and was perfect for tonal experiments. Plus he arpeggiates the Bossa Nova chords and punches the melody. But, on to Soleas and Tarantas now.

Anyway, back on topic, I was determined to get a classical understanding of music (around 20 (during college)) , but I ended up having an affair with my piano teacher instead. Maybe that is too much information, but our life experiences is what our playing is. I see music very different now and seek depth. I was just not ready for the solitude and discipline that comes with the guitar.

[sanderdude]

I started playing at age 19 as a kid traveling around spain. I met an ex pat american who taught me romancia because I liked hearing him play it. I amazed myself by learning it pretty well in about a week. then I decided to stay and learn flamenco. I play because I love the guitar. Classical, flamenco, tango, Charlie Bird, Marc Knoephler, even some country and restroom.