Los Romeros workshop (part 2): Etudes and repertoire

Posted on November 4, 2011 by William Bajzek

I’m not going to be able to offer a whole lot of detail directly from a workshop I took no notes on, but I will offer a few highlights that I can recall and my own thoughts on those topics.

One idea that has stuck with me from the Los Romeros workshop I attended years ago, was Pepe’s statement that students develop their technique using studies (specifically mentioning Carcassi, Sor, and Brouwer) and then reward their achievement with appropriate repertoire. This approach depends on having a patient student and some good guidance, but that’s nothing unusual, is it?

I think he has a fair point. Etudes may not be “appropriate for the concert stage,” but maybe it’s better to work through the effort, frustration, and doubt of the learning process while learning these studies rather than  the music you intend to perform. Then, maybe you can go on stage with a whole program of music without baggage of effort, frustration, and doubt. That sounds like a much better situation to me.

A well-composed study like Carcassi’s can offer a systematic technical workout in a bite-sized (or perhaps mouthful) chunk. The flip side of that, which I don’t think Pepe mentioned, is that a good musical understanding is what transforms a “boring study” into a satisfying piece of music is the performer’s grasp of the music itself. Perhaps even more so than the technique.

For example, playing a slur study well is more than merely executing the slurs. The dynamics and tone colors have to flow with the line, and pull-offs to open strings can’t sound plunky. So the technique of a descending slur isn’t just “pluck the string with the left hand.” The speed and direction of the motion, surface area of the finger used, and amount of pulling the string sideways versus sliding across it are all factors that contribute to the sound of the slur.

If you try to control all of this at the muscular level, you’ll just get bogged down in the details and never move on. It’s much easier if you let your ears control your technique rather than your fingers.

Pittsburgh Classical Guitar Society, and a Los Romeros workshop (part 1)

Posted on November 1, 2011 by William Bajzek

I’m planning to visit my family in Pittsburgh, PA over Thanksgiving this year. I was wondering if there might be any classical guitar concerts to attend while I’m there, and while searching for that, I discovered that Pittsburgh now has a classical guitar society. I’m surprised it didn’t already have one, but I’m pleased to see that it does now.

Several years ago, when I was living in California, I flew to Pittsburgh to attend a Los Romeros concert with my dad (who has been a fan of them for as long as I can remember) and to go to a workshop that they were giving the next day. I thought it was to be a masterclass, but it was really more of a lecture/demonstration. I was surprised by how many guitarists attended, but when Pepe asked if anyone would like to play something, nobody volunteered at first. So, nervous novice that I was, I volunteered and played the first movement of La Catedral. I’d planned to play the whole thing, figuring that nobody else wanted to play, but near the end of the prelude, Pepe’s cell phone rang. He was embarrassed that it happened, and I wasn’t really upset, but my playing kind of fell apart and I ended with the prelude.

I’m glad I played, though, because one by one after that, others decided to play something, until nearly everyone in the room had played. I distinctly remember a 10 or 11 year old boy playing Brouwer’s etude #1 with great gusto. It hadn’t occurred to him that he should be nervous like the rest of us, I suppose.

I had forgotten about this workshop until recently. I didn’t take notes, unfortunately, but I think I remember some of the highlights. I’ll write up what I can remember for my next blog post.

I want to thank my readers that have stuck with me even though I haven’t been posting as often recently. I appreciate it.

Playing on the beat

Posted on October 1, 2011 by William Bajzek

I’ve been working recently on learning to play ‘drums’ on a midi keyboard, for a recording project. I haven’t seriously played a keyboard instrument since I was 8, so I have no real keyboard technique, and seeing my notes appear on screen piano-roll-style made it obvious that I was playing ahead of the beat all the time. This could easily be fixed after the fact, but I knew I’d be happier if I could get it right from the beginning.

As a quick aside, getting it right doesn’t mean every note has to be squarely on the beat. That goes for classical guitar too, as my teacher frequently reminds me.

I spent a bunch of time trying to play on the beat, and was still always ahead of it, being both incompetent and anxious that I was going to get it wrong yet again. So then I started trying to deliberately play after the metronome click, hoping that my tendency to anticipate the beat would even things out. At first, it made me feel way more anxious (I’m going to be late!) but the recording and ‘piano roll’ don’t lie; almost right away, I was right on.

Now, I’m not going to say the problem is 100% solved, but after spending more time with it, the anxiety started going away with the comfort of knowing that I was actually playing in time. The tempo felt slower, and I felt less like I needed to hurry to get the next note. Instead of feeling like I’m playing late, it’s starting to feel like I was just playing.

This would be a good way for anyone to work on a tendency to play off the beat. Record yourself playing with a metronome and listen carefully to the result. If you find that you’re playing early, try waiting for the click before playing next time. If you play late, try anticipating the click.

If you’re right on all the time, try playing ahead of or behind the beat intentionally for effect. This kind of control of the rhythm is the next step.

Making art vs. making pretty pictures

Posted on September 9, 2011 by William Bajzek

Just a brief post this week. I’ve been reading “The Rest Is Noise” by Alex Ross for the past few days and would strongly recommend it to any classical guitarist even though there’s not much, if any, info related to the guitar in it.

If you’re not a fan of 20th century/modern/contemporary/new music, this book is especially for you. For one thing, the author’s thoughtful descriptions of many of the key pieces can help unlock this dense music for a listener who doesn’t have the ear for it.

More importantly, The Rest Is Noise traces the development of many of the composers, movements, and ideas behind modern music through their historical context. Understanding how and why this music came about can help us learn to recognize the art in what may actually seem like a bunch of noise at times.

My art teacher in high school, Mr. deGroot, used to say that the point of art is not to make “pretty pictures.” Setting aside the fact that a lot of 20th century art is unapologetically the opposite of “pretty pictures,” let’s consider that the guitar repertoire in fact contains a lot of music for which the composer was essentially paid by the page for their work in order to satisfy demand. A lot of that music is more like “pretty picture” music than art music.

That’s not to say that its unworthy of being played, but it is up to us as performers to find the art in the music that we play. And sometimes it is worthwhile for us to take on music which we may find difficult to appreciate; to explore it and come to terms with it. The better we understand what makes something a work of art, the better prepared we will be to create art of our own, with whatever raw materials we have available.

My new old routine

Posted on September 2, 2011 by William Bajzek

Since I moved to Tulsa, I’d been busy with job hunting and then job doing, and I haven’t had much inspiration for blogging. For a while, I felt like I was losing a lot of ground with the guitar itself, so I went back to my old routine of getting up early to practice before work. It worked for me pretty well, the last time I work working a full-time job.

Long story short, my playing sprang back up to normal and I’m making progress again. My 9-month long memorization block went away and I’m learning new repertoire quickly again.

Being sleepy from waking up early is a very different thing than being exhausted from using my brain all day. I think that it’s much to be open to learning in this state, even if I feel a bit cranky. Patience and diligence are more readily available. A nice cup of coffee as a reward afterward helps. I hate waking up to an alarm, but it is really nice knowing that I’ve made music a priority again.

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PS: I’m gradually moving my blog over to my website. For a while I will be posting to both, but I won’t switch over completely until I’ve fixed up the postings that I’ve transferred over. Some of the videos and things don’t survive the import process and I haven’t had time to fix them.

Pardon my dust…

Posted on August 24, 2011 by William Bajzek

I’m in the process of moving my blog from Blogger to this website. The videos and things were lost in the import. I will go back and add them again when I have time. Thanks for your patience!

More thoughts on Effortless Mastery

Posted on August 5, 2011 by William Bajzek

Life has been busy recently, unfortunately full of real-world work, and not a whole lot of time for music. As I often do in these times, I’m still practicing guitar regularly but focusing on one just thing. This time, it is effortlessness.

It took me a really long time to figure out that the way to play effortlessly is not to struggle with material until it becomes easy and effortless. To date, that method has never worked for me.

The message of Kenny Werner’s excellent “Effortless Mastery” book basically boils down to this:

  • To play effortlessly, you have to play effortlessly now.
  • You play effortlessly now by playing only what you can play effortlessly now.
  • To play new things effortlessly, you have to work on them as slowly and/or gradually as necessary to keep the effortless feeling. Develop the comfort zone gradually. 
  • Play the material fast sometimes, too, but keep the effortless feeling and completely ignore mistakes. You can work them out in the slow practice; the fast practice is to get used to the feeling of playing fast. 
So what is effortlessness? 
I used to think it was a physical feeling, but that’s just part of it. Keeping a quiet mind is just as important. With the mind quiet and even detached from the physical side of playing, it becomes much easier to listen to what you’re doing and develop a listening-based method of playing rather than a physical activity-based method of playing.
It’s important to learn the feeling of effortlessness as early on as you can, whether you’re working on difficult music, scales, basic finger mechanics, or even just sitting silently with the guitar.

A film about Leo Brouwer

Posted on July 22, 2011 by William Bajzek

Youtube user elduendecillo07 uploaded this fascinating documentary on Leo Brouwer. I’ve created a playlist that should play them all in order. There’s a lot discussion of style and ideas, plus many clips of him playing his own music and others’.


Not everyone loves Brouwer’s music, but to me he is one of the greatest composers of our era for any instrument. I got hooked on classical guitar when I first heard a classmate play Brouwer’s Etude #1. I come back to his Estudios Sencillos once or twice a year, always trying to play them better and discover more in them.




William Kanengiser masterclass notes, part 4

Posted on July 15, 2011 by William Bajzek

The final performer at the William Kanengiser masterclass I’ve been writing about played the fourth movement of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Homage to Boccherini. Kanengiser offered some thoughts particular to Tedesco’s writing. It’s often said that the guitar should be treated like a miniature orchestra, because of the wealth of tone colors it offers us, and that idea is especially applicable to a composer like Tedesco who was very much an orchestral composer. He was also very particular about how he used dynamics and articulations.

The rest of the feedback given to this performer was of a technical nature, so I’m going to conclude this series of posts by gathering together all the technical and miscellaneous suggestions that were offered during the masterclass.

  • Kanengiser reiterated throughout the class the importance of pulling the notes out of the guitar, moving the strings rather than hitting them. This is really the key to getting a good, consistent tone and needs to be at the core of our technique so that even in the fastest playing where you can’t be thinking about control, you can rely on your fingers to activate the strings effectively. Move the strings in towards you before releasing them.
  • The open high E string needs to always be played warmly and fully, to keep the tone balanced with the other strings. Do whatever you can to avoid harshness/excessive brightness.
  • When performing vibrato, move from the shoulder and use the forearm as a pivot point. Don’t just wiggle or shake the hand, but get the larger muscles involved.
  • Practice maintaining the clarity and continuity of a single voice when changing strings. This is difficult on guitar, but really important to musical playing. 
  • You can be flexible with the right and left hand positions in order to solve technical problems. The two examples I recall Kanengiser giving were related to damping. We often hear that the last phalanx of the left hand fingers should be positioned perpendicular to the plane of the fingerboard so as to only touch one string at a time, but when playing a descending scale in open position, dropping the hand a bit so the pads of the fingertips touch the adjacent string allows us to easily damp the open strings we’ve played so they don’t keep ringing inappropriately. Likewise, we can roll the right hand thumb one way or another to damp a bass string while it is resting on an adjacent one in preparation.
  • Sometimes it’s necessary to simplify the music in order to discover its true shape. For example, when the melody is part of a series of arpeggios, leave out the arpeggios for a while and work on the melody on its own.
  • When considering the shape of a line, figure out which notes are “juicy” and which are transitions. It’s important for us to understand where the notes fit in the harmony and relation to the beat. Guitarists are infamous for arbitrary and inappropriate accents. 
This concludes my series of posts from that masterclass. Thanks for reading! If you’ve found this information to be helpful or you’ve otherwise enjoyed reading it, be sure to check out William Kanengiser’s CDs, DVDs, and performances. 

William Kanengiser masterclass notes, part 3

Posted on July 8, 2011 by William Bajzek

Continuing on from my notes from a masterclass given by William Kanengiser in San Jose, back in 2007 or 2008.

The next student played the Prelude from Bach’s Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro BWV 998. Some of Kanengiser’s comments reiterate ones I have already mentioned, but I will include them again.

  • Dynamics are important, but be careful how you use them. Think like a storyteller. When you want to change dynamics, you can’t lose the thread of the story. 
  • Bach’s music is often ambiguous about whether it’s one voice or multiple voices. The 998 prelude is a good example, as are the cello suites (as written for cello). You should get familiar with the implied lines as well as the literal ones, for cues to the overall shape of the piece.
  • Take cues for dynamics from the harmony.
  • The bass accents should follow the pulse of the rhythm. It’s important to convey the rhythm in the bass as well as the upper voices. Don’t be lazy about any voice. 
  • The phrasing of pieces is influenced by harmonic modulations. This is especially true in Bach, as it modulates so much. Get to know the harmony!
The penultimate performer also played Bach, the Gavottes from Cello suite no. 5. Feedback focused on structure and phrasing:
  • Ritards in music are like punctuation in writing. Phrases are like sentences. Pieces in a suite are like chapters in a book. Make it all fit together. 
  • Breath – in suites, you need just the right amount of time to convey the separation but also the relations. The tempi need to feel related. 
  • You need to feel sense of cut-time in gavottes.
My notes for the final performer are a little more lengthy so they will wait for now.