The Classical Guitar Blog

When Gerald Klickstein sent me his book on tuning the guitar by ear, he also sent his other book, The Musician’s Way (aff. link).

I’m always excited about books like this. Most times they fill gaping holes in the normal music curriculum, and give me at least a few gems of knowledge I hadn’t thought about before. Learn more about the book at www.musiciansway.com.

Practice, Performance, and Wellness

The subtitle of the book is an outline of what you’ll find inside. Part one deals with, “practicing deeply.” It begins with the necessary, but mundane, subjects of organizing practice time and creating a supportive practice environment. Klickstein divides practice into five zone: new, developing, and performance material along with technique and musicianship. Some of these are self-explanatory, others explore ares few people venture. How much of your practice includes sight reading and ear training?

The following chapters look at how to work with material in each practice zone, and cover things such as mental practice, selecting repertoire, memorization, interpretative issues, and taking breaks in practice. The material is necessarily general. A book could not contain specific practice suggestions for every major piece in every instrument’s repertoire. I consider the generality of this advice a strength. The practice concepts in The Musician’s Way could be easily integrated with whatever your private instructor is giving you.

I have always thought that there needed to be a good, lengthy book on practicing, but I’d never found one I liked. It had gotten to the point where I thought of writing something myself. Now I don’t have to. The The Musician’s Way (aff. link) fills that gap.

Part two deals with performance issues. It begins by discussing anxiety’s effects on our bodies, and continues with, “five facets of preparation,” and issues of backstage and pre-performance routines.

What I like most about the section on performance is its practicality. In short, Mr. Klickstein is not afraid to discuss what most people consider trivial issues. Are your clothes prepared? Do you have the music? How do you start and end a piece? How do you walk out on stage? So much preparation goes into the music itself, but nothing goes into stage deportment or easy issues that, if dealt with, can help a performer be less worried and more focused.

Part three covers, “lifelong creativity.” This section is a discussion on injury prevention and how to succeed as a student. The injury prevention section deals with, among other things, an issue that musicians don’t like to talk about: hearing damage. Simply put, this section is terrifying. I’d never even thought about most of the things the book covers, but I’m certainly glad I know about them now.

The portion on succeeding as a student covers things such as the student-teacher relationship and dealing with criticism.

Quote Junkie

I’m kind of a quote junkie. That’s why I put a quote in every Monday Motivation post.

One of my favorite things about this book is the relevant quotes placed before each section.

Strength in Formatting

When I first started reading The Musician’s Way (aff. link), I was a bit put off by the numerous lists put in boxed out asides.

Over the course of the book, I realized that these were a strength. The formatting and lists allow quick reviewing, making this book a solid, easily-scanned reference.

A Formidable Duo

If you are…

• a music student
• a professional musician
• a serious (or not-so-serious) amateur musician
• anyone else, really

You owe it to yourself to read this book. The concepts found in it might seem like common knowledge, but there are is some powerful gems contained within the pages of The Musician’s Way (aff. link).

The Musician’s Way and The Savvy Musician make a formidable duo of books for any musician. Together they fill major holes in any music curriculum, and offer a wealth of knowledge collected in a few hundred pages. I can’t recommend either highly enough.

Win a Copy of The Musician’s Way!

I have a copy of The Musician’s Way to give away. To enter the competition for winning the book, please leave a comment on this post. Be sure to leave your name and an accurate email address.

After one week, I will use a random number generator to select a comment then email the comment author for shipping information.

At some point when I was first getting into classical guitar, I got in the habit of not looking at either of my hands. I stare off into space or zone out — the equivalent of having my eyes closed. Looking at your hands while playing can be beneficial, but it has to be done right.

Think ahead.

Look at where your hands are going next, not where they are. One of the biggest problems with shifting I see in my students is inaccuracy. Most times the problem is easily fixed: I tell them not to look at their left hand as it travels, but to look at it where its going.

The same principle can be applied any time you look at the left hand. Imagine what comes next, look at the frets and positions and strings you need to be at; imagine what the next thing to come sounds like and looks like. Don’t dwell on what your hands are doing at a given moment, always think ahead.

I find that thinking and looking ahead takes your accuracy to an entirely new, much better place.

Turn it into a practice method.

This can also be a practice technique. Play a piece or section only paying attention to one finger. What does it do? Is it accurate? If you have problem fingers (my left hand second finger tends to have the most issues), start by focusing on those.

“The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.”
-Duke Ellington

Today we feature Gary Stewart playing Albeniz with no nails. The guitar he is playing is a copy of a Torres. The video is only of the guitar, not Gary.

Andrew Schulman makes his living as a guitarist in New York City. He has been professional musician for thirty years, and is a wealth of information on just about everything in the music field. You can connect with Andrew on Facebook. The interview is in nine parts.

Part 1

• How Andrew got started on the guitar
• What led him to classical guitar

NOTE: part one has a lot edited out for time. The full, 16 minute version is available for download

Part 2

• When Andrew started playing 8-string guitars
• How his guitars are tuned
• Buying and selling 27 guitars

Part 3

• 27 guitars cont.
• Making a living in NYC as a musician
• The Abaca String Band

NOTE: part three has a lot edited out for time. The full version is available for download

Part 4

• Playing in hotels
• How much gig rep Andrew maintains

Part 5

• arranging

NOTE: part five has a lot edited out for time. The full version is available for download

Part 6

• Abaca String Band, cont.
• Composition
• Licensing music for films

Part 7

• Networking for musicians
• Performing as a musician in comedy clubs

Part 8

• Amplification

Part 9

• Amplification, cont.
• Andrew’s volunteer work in a New York Hospital

John Williams was featured on the BBC Radio 4 program Great Lives. Berta Rojas also contributes some thoughts to the conversation.

The program is about 30 minutes, and can be heard here.

Thanks to Mark over at Guitar World for letting me know about this.