There is a "Great Need" for a "Real Solution" to the frustration and slow progress many
suffer when it comes to either learning or perfecting the physical skills required to properly play
the Classical Guitar.
And it's long overdue ! Long, long, overdue !
The "Traditional Solutions" that generally have been available to students of the guitar apparently aren't "really" working. I also discovered the same thing 30 years ago when I was trying to clean up the rough edges to my technique.
Things haven't changed much what with same old Method books that have you trying to play
music right out the box which create bad habits due to lack of "real" finger training, live lessons
with teachers that end up being nothing more than spinning the musical roulette wheel
of good or bad misfortune and/or studying with fabulous players who are
notoriously bad teachers that just play for their students during lessons. Maybe you're already
familiar with some of them.
I think most lovers of the Classical Guitar firmly believe they can teach themselves the Guitar
and today, with all of the information on the Internet, many are also convinced they now have all
the free downloads necessary to piece it all together and somehow become a player.
Sadly, none of these opportunities contain any real value or truth because the pieces are
disjointed, sporadic in their placement and only provide the mere perception of hope, what with
little Etudes and Studies that actually require advanced techniques to play properly.
Very few ever realize this fact, however.
When I realized the scope of the problem and the lack of solutions available 30 years ago,
it was mind numbing. Plus, I had just hit 'The Wall' when all real progress stopped
dead in its tracks and the future felt very bleak to me.
If you don't know about 'The Wall' yet, just keep going like you have been and you'll find out
.....all .....about it.
And then... it was a slow.... agonizing ......realization of what was clearly in front of me.
The CG world, in general, is the product of two hundred years of inbreeding coupled with a sort
of amateurism that is now also deeply entrenched in a self inflicted tradition of symbiotic
mediocrity.
A lot of concepts to wrap your brain around but it's true !
And if that statement offends you, then perhaps you're caught up in the middle of it all and don't
even realize it.
Seriously, I am very disappointed that only a small percentage of players ever reach the plateau
of excellence that I believe is available to everyone if only their technique would be pursued
correctly, with a real critical path and not just haphazardly.
You know, like on every other classical instrument, Clarinet, Violin, Piano, etc., etc., etc.. And in
case you're a Guitarist feeling sorry for yourself because the Classical guitar is 'difficult', there
isn't an instrument on the planet that is easy to master.
But musicians do it every day, except Guitarists who seriously lag behind in the accomplishment
department.
So here are what I call :
The Five Great Lies about Classical Guitar Technique
~~~
Lie #1:
'Sight read more music today than you did yesterday'
~~~
If sight reading pieces of music really, actually works for your technical progress then I suppose
you should read through more of them.
But for most Guitarists, sight reading is only a vicarious way to feel like you're really "A
Guitarist". I mean isn't the whole point of it all to play Music ? But if this what you've been
doing for months, years or decades, admit it.....it hasn't 'really' been working. Your technique has
improved only marginally over whatever time period and you're probably only a little happier
about how you play your pieces this year than you were last year. Sad, but true ?
When and if you ever attend a Master Class, here's what you'll witness. A student, who has
played through their piece several million times, sits down and plays it for a Sanctioned Teacher
in front of an audience of CG students who have played their pieces a million times and are
waiting for the truth or at least some truth that will solve their own, unique and individual riddles
of slow progress or no progress.
The Teacher proceeds to tear apart the student's interpretation, sometimes with kindness,
sometimes....not.... and then demonstrates a more effective interpretation along with eloquent
observations, interesting tips and humorous anecdotes.
Oohs and Aahs from the crowd......
Applause, Applause !
The student goes home and tries to muster up the emotional maturity of the teacher and then
plays the piece a million more times, maybe better, maybe not.
Why ? Because the student's technique is 'exactly' the same as it was before but the student is
now one step closer to a great Resume. To be fair, these are great experiences to well,
experience.
What do the Guitarists in the audience do ? They go home, buy the piece that was demonstrated
and sight read through it a million times to see how they stack up against the Teachings and then
suffer severe depression over their inabilities for ...... perhaps months like middle level
executives who just got fired from their boring jobs.
Why ? Because their technique is 'exactly' the same as it was before.
And this scenario repeats itself over and over and over...... like some Guitarists' car wash, feeling
shiny and new for a week and then......back to the status quo.
Actually, only a very small number of extraordinarily talented players ever independently move
through the hurdles, obstacles and brick walls that the Classical Guitar puts in front of us all and
reach the top.
They are the select top .01 percent who you hear in concert and
are the object of every Guitar Groupie Wanna-be in the world.
If you're in that top .01 percent, congratulations !
But if sight reading music is the major weapon in your arsenal of mastering your technique, then
realize this.....you're living in a bear skin and knives world of survival and it will only get worse
through time in that cold dark cave you call 'Classical Guitar Technique'.
You might as well sit down and become a diamond cutter without any knowledge about
diamonds or cutting !
Here's the TRUTH : If you practice the right things correctly, you CAN start to turn your
technique around, you won't get depressed and you won't need to attend dozens of Master
Classes and Concerts to reach deep inside and discover the player you never thought you were.
And you won't have to take endless lessons with someone who teaches you by having you play
music.
I used to call Lessons 'Mini Master Classes'.
Because that's what they are and if you take these 'Mini Master Classes' from the same person
more than 6 times in a row, I call them 'being in a rut'.
Exposing yourself to the musical teachings of one person can be myopic, damaging, too self
absorbing and only eventually serves the ego of the teacher and gives you only false hope.
If you want to take lessons, take one lesson from 3 different teachers. You don't go to the same
Doctor week after week to get an opinion on your condition, do you ?
No, you go to three Doctors, evaluate them all, and take the most reasonable path recommended
after reflecting on all the issues. End of Doctor visits.
Guess what ? The same thing applies to lessons. Keep it in mind the next time you go to your
lesson. Announce your new plan to your teacher and wait for "The Shock Heard Around the
World" !
BOTTOM LINE IN THREE STEPS :
1) You MUST approach, what I call, the Critical Path of
Technique from the beginning and not from the end.
( hint, music is the very end of the process )
2) You must practice the Critical Path until it's second nature.
3) You must practice the Critical Path until it's second nature.
But....the good news is, once you have it and it works, you don't have to revisit the mastering
technique process ever again.
You just keep it 'Warmed Up'. If that isn't the most desirable goal as a Classical Guitarist to run
and achieve as fast as you can then perhaps you should take up Origami or something.
That's why the time you spend on REAL technique practice is absolutely the best investment you
can ever make - IF... you're educated about what really works and what really doesn't.
And music isn't on the list or in the Critical Path. Anywhere !!
~~~
Lie #2:
'OK, if playing music isn't working, I'll practice some scales'
~~~
Waking up every morning with a lie swirling around in your head is very unhealthy and always
causes you to spend time in the day on the wrong things. But it's your lie and you think it's the
right solution so you go ahead and waste time. How much time have you wasted with your lies ?
I was convinced that this was the inspired path to great technique !
Time to seriously practice some serious scales !
Here we go........first mistake ? No metronome. But what the heck, three octave
scales, mature fingering edits, brilliant note for string choices, brilliant , brilliant !
Just playing them makes you feel a step closer to the Maestro.
So you have at it, following the fingerings exactly as written starting out rather slowly at first
and then more rapidly just as he demonstrates on his teaching recordings. He would play
sixteenths at quarter note MM 60 and then... suddenly ...triple the speed.
So this is how the Maestro practiced ! What a revelation !
And what a joy to listen to the Master make music with scales.
You try, of course, but you can not match his speed and power so you start repeating the scale,
up the fretboard and back down over and over and over.
Then you try to increase the speed gradually but the more you try, the more all sorts of little
mistakes and glitches start happening.
Then certain of your left hand fingers feel like they are lost or something with wanting to place
the third finger but the second finger going down instead.
Your right hand fingers are getting confused as to when to alter a fingering pattern as you shift
from string to string and they start creating a different pattern every other measure without you
even realizing.
Then you start second guessing the edition's fingerings and trying your own but they're about as
effective as blowing up balloons full of holes.
"What the heck is going on ?", You think "I'm not increasing my control ability, I'm actually
losing control !"
Weeks later...only marginal technical improvement, very little gain in finger control and what
feels like muscle fatigue in your whole body.
Then you start looking at the time you've spent and the limited time in the day you have to spend
on your beloved guitar.
And your music ?
It's sitting on the stand just waiting for you to bring it to life !
So you sit down and ask yourself, "If playing music doesn't work and playing scales doesn't
work, then what will work ?"
I mean how does one get to very rapid speed control with loud volume and full tone, you know,
like Segovia ?
You give up the serious scale work. It's too exhausting and you're getting worse as a player
rather than better.
But you love the Classical Guitar and you're determined not to give up, so you think, "There
must be a way to ease into the world of REAL playing ability and not make so many ....
"Mistakes all the time !"
~~~
Lie #3:
'OK, if playing my favorite pieces of music and reading through scales aren't working,
I'll play REALLY simple music !'
~~~
So the accepted and traditional approach didn't work because you had no framework to put it in.
No real critical path to build up to the skills required.
All you did was read through some neat music at your own tempo of choice, probably painfully
slow but a little faster than your playing ability.
Then you read through some scales, the Great Pretenders of Progress, at the same tempos but this
time a little slower at first and then a quick increase to what I call 'finger wiggling speed'. You
know when you close your eyes and have at it, like a dog, madly scratching at the fleas. The old ,
'I'm going to do this even it it kills me'.
Well ....guess what ? It did.
The next Snake Oil to try ?
REALLY SIMPLE MUSIC. I know I can tackle that and SOUND like a Pro !!!!
So you turn to music collection anthologies, if you haven't already and flip to the simplest
looking one of the bunch and confidently place it on the stand, take a deep breath and sound the
first note or chord.
Whew ! Not Too Bad, let's continue. You keep going like you're disarming a bomb or something,
expecting the worst but hoping for the best.
The next few measures come out OK , but then......a finger slips, you miss a note, the tempo
slows to a crawl and you break out in a cold sweat but no REAL mistakes yet so you continue,
cutting through the wires between the timer and the dynamite in your brain at breakneck speed,
you're halfway through the piece and just before you blow it, you stop and go, I DID IT !
Wow, the Lie worked, or so you think and you flip to the next simplest looking piece in the book
and do the same routine exactly the same way as the last.
You do this a few more times and you feel vindicated. 'I found the right solution! '.
Then the cold water of reality hits you in the face. No it didn't, who am I kidding ? That sounded
really terrible !
( And if you have ever recorded youself playing and then listened to the recording, you know
what I mean. If you haven't yet done this, I recommend it highly, but be prepared for some real
"cold water in the face" reality shock ! )
But you persist with the simple pieces, exploring the "extreme musicality" path where with every
note, your face scrunches up with expression and your hands leave the instrument at the end of
every phrase and wave around a little, like a Beauty Queen in a parade and you "Try" to capture
the ear of anyone listening to your gems of poetic tones.
Then, you just peter out, there's not many options left open hope diminishes and you think...
"Gee, my favorite pieces of music, scales and REALLY simple music didn't work,
what's next ?"
~~~
Lie #4:
'OK, there must be a piece of music so my NATURAL ability
will just shine like a harvest moon and I'll be playing like a PRO in a week.'
~~~
This one, as you might imagine, is short and sweet !
There aren't many Piñatas left hanging at this birthday party to take a swing at and the options
are becoming very few so reality starts to creep into your conscious thoughts.
Things like...
"I just don't understand how I can love the Guitar so much and all it does is throw me off like a
bucking bronco !"
So...
The 'Great Search' begins for that one piece of music that your natural ability will take to, like a
duck to water and the music will just 'pour' out of you like some open fire hydrant on a hot day
in the city and all your childlike dreams will romp and dance in the water. Happy, happy,
problem solved !!
You listen to recordings, scour the catalogues, visit the music shops, go online and download
dozens of pieces, scores of etudes, and you go to bed and think, tomorrow, it will happen.
You get up and start sight reading like you never have before, hitting the same walls you've
always hit, throwing each piece on the floor every time saying to yourself, 'Nope, that's not the
one !'
Within an hour, you're surrounded by music on the floor, like some prolific composer writing
masterpiece after masterpiece.
You start downloading Midi renditions of everything you can click on hoping that your inner ear
will tell you , 'It's the One.'
And then..........you find it. It's perfect. Everything about it is perfect, the time signature, the key
signature, it fits your hands like an O.J. glove.
You go to work sightreading it incredibly slowly, then backwards,
like all the greats talk about. 'Wow, I can play this backwards and forwards !'
And it works ! You can actually get through it with just the smallest little glitch, really small.
You learn it over the next week or two and play it over and over but then family members start
saying, 'Play something new for a change, would you please ?'
The anger grows in you because you've found the perfect piece and you can play in with
satisfaction after God knows how long of trying. Deep down though, even YOU start to get
bored with it but you ignore those thoughts at first.
A month later, you're depressed again like the sort that middle level executives get when they're
fired from their boring jobs except this
time not only were they fired due to gross incompetence and extreme dereliction of duties,
they've been job hunting and after dozens of interviews and being hired...........they get fired
again.
'How much more of this can I take ?', you think.
You're logic is stuck in the muck because you can't even come up with "The Question" let alone
"The Solution".
~~~
Lie #5:
'Everything is falling apart. I know, I need Professional help so I'll PAY a teacher to give me
some Lessons. Yeah, that's it, I'll take some Lessons'
~~~
OK, you're about as close to feeling like a complete failure as it gets so you find a Classical
Guitar teacher somehow and muster up the courage ( and this one takes real courage ) to go to
your first lesson.
It's like going to your first psychotherapy, or something, and the student ahead of you comes out
the teacher's studio looking kind of bewildered and confused !
'Oh, great, I should leave now', but the teacher sees you and motions for you to come on in.
You get up and Hope that your guitar case is locked and you forgot the key ...BUT it's not ...and
you didn't so you can't turn back now.
The sound of your footsteps, as you walk into the teacher's studio, is almost deafening and
everything suddenly goes into slow motion.
You sit down, get out your guitar, wipe the sweat that's pouring out of your palms like two open
faucets and wait for the teacher's first gem.
You're instantly dreading the 'Play Something For Me' request....
But instead, the teacher asks....
'So, where you from ?'
Where am I.........?
You think to yourself, ' Why, I'm from the deep, dark cave of failure and depression, that's where
I'm from....... !!!
What else do you want to know about me ??"
But.... you get a hold of yourself and allow the conversation to eventually turn to things like,
posture, straightening your back a little, the seat is too high, your foot stool is too low, dangle
your right arm off the guitar, down, up, that's it, lower your left arm, relax the top of your hands,
picture a field of flowers, go to your happy place......tone, juxtaposition, relax, relax.....bend your
right knee a bit more, turn your right wrist in a little, thaaaat's it, now lower your left shoulder a
touch, ....just a touch more.....Perfect ! Now, relax the muscles in your neck and play the etude
on your stand. Beautiful ! Play it again, but this time...With Feeling ! Wonderful, you have Real
Talent !
By the end of your first lesson, you feel pretty good, you think you learned something ...PLUS...
you even have an assignment, the teacher's X-ray vision of how you should develop your ... 'Real
Talent.'
"Thank God I'm not doing this alone any longer. What a Relief !"
So the teacher gives you your first homework assignment...
You can hardly stand the anticipation of finally receiving the Keys to the Castle. The Golden
Chalice of direction and success like some Miracle Map that will put you on the Road to Rome.
The sweet potion of Hope...you can almost hear the thunderous applause of the audience as you
WOW them with a Third Encore piece !!!
Here it comes...
"For next week......"
Yes ? Yes ?
"I want you to practice this Sarabande in you collection book on page 19 and then
practice the scale in E major in three octaves. Remember to relaaaaax
and go to your happy place. "
What ?...... Why that's the piece my family.... can't stand hearing any more !
And .....that's...... the Segovia scale that ....didn't do one thing for me except create whole body
fatigue !!
Silence for a few pregnant moments....then....
You politely and graciously excuse yourself, get in your car and burn your tires into a glorious
cloud of white smoke down the teacher's driveway, permanently leaving the symbol of your ever
loving gratitude for all to see.
"I guess I won't be coming back here ...Anytime Soon ".
Now What ?
This five part story plays out all over the world over many different durations of time, some
short, some long, although most usually long and maybe there are some additional wrinkles and
variations, more or less time and money wasted. The details are almost unimportant.
But most HAVE to go through this long self deprecating process before the truth of it all sinks in
and you're worn out and say, 'I'm ready to be shown how to get from point A to point B and I'll
accept the truth'.
But sadly, a 5 to 25 year absence from the Guitar is not uncommon in between the point of
quitting and the return to wanting to play again.
Why ? It's obvious. The pain last time was too overwhelming. At least, if you chose Origami
way back then, a cute paper bird was created and you felt creatively successful.
But now you're ready for the truth and you're ready to do anything to rekindle that spark you felt
5 to 25 years ago or just yesterday.
Make no mistake about this one.....
Classical Guitar Technique Has a Critical Path, a Very Specific, Critical Path !
From beginning to end. And that's where the problem is. Most Guitarists hop in mid stream of
some teacher's "Practice Routine du Jour" some in the middle, some at the end, most never at the
very beginning and if they do by some miracle, they don't follow it to the end.
Why ?
Because that teacher doesn't really know what a true Critical Path is and their practice routine
quickly falls apart when others follow it.
You don't start with music, etudes and scales, you start with the individual fingers on each hand
and then multiple fingers on both hands, identifying the weak and strong ones, correcting
deficiencies slowly and gradually more rapidly through a process where eventually, both hands
are working in concert, many times for the first time.
And you'll take years off your practice time and you'll get to your music years ahead of schedule.
It won't happen overnite but it will happen in less time than you think.
Longer or shorter doesn't matter, isn't the point. The point is that you'll have a technique you can
travel with anywhere in the world, sit down and play.
How long have you wanted to be able to do that just once in your life ?
To Your Music and To Your Success !
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