Ever noticed how Segovia and Julian Bream can create a variety of tones and sounds beyond just their technique and mechanics of playing giving their music a richness rarely found in today’s guitarist?
To be honest, I have found when I perform that very few people are impressed by how fast my fingers move or the level of difficultly of the piece. Very few people outside of the small guitar community are even able to tell if something is difficult. The ones that can tell are rarely impressed by acrobatics feats. I have nothing against difficult music, but simply playing a difficult piece is not the full story.
What really connects with people is the emotion you can bring to each piece. It is HOW you can bring a piece to life that moves people and gets them to buy CD and keep coming back for more. Think of a guitarist who really Moves You.
Fact: Everybody can feel and understand emotions. Most people describe music as happy, sad exciting, meditative etc. Emotion the way 90% of people understands and describe music. Very few can say the G7#5b9 resolved to a C maj7#11 or have any idea what that really means. How would you expect the average Joe to describe the music you play?
In a world where most classical guitarist are striving to play a piece perfectly these expressive elements of music seem to be left in the dust. Yet it was these very expressive elements that made Andres Segovia household names and brought a new revolution of classical guitarist in the 20th and 21st century.
How are you really going to stand out in the competitive world of music by being another one of the millions of guitarists who play perfectly while lacking in emotion and expression?
How many guitarists have you seen with amazing technique and facility, that you do not come back to because they do not know how to move you Emotionally?
If you think that classical is all about playing perfect do not feel bad. I used to be just like YOU. I thought that if I could get every note correct and I met the expectations of the other guitarist around me that I would be able to make something of myself. I did this for years, and found my career going nowhere….
I still think playing cleanly and avoiding mistakes is important, but I realize now that was only one of the many puzzle pieces needed to be a true artist. I began to realize that the people expecting me to be super clean were not the people coming to my shows, buying my CD’s and supporting me financially and emotionally. These people were more my competition trying to bring me down and downplay my talents. I reached a point where I could not cater to this minority any longer.
Are You Ready To Play Guitar With More Expression?
The more I realized this the more I found that most people were more interested in how EXPRESSIVEI was able to play a piece of music. I began to focus more on what I could do to make the guitar playing interesting through tone dynamics and articulation to bring out the emotional content hidden in the score.
Once I started experimenting with these elements, I started getting more reactions out of the audience. The more reactions I was getting lead to more gigs! Which gave me even more time to reflect on what audience really wanted out of a performance.
Now picture this, you are performed for an audience, and the entire audience is eating out of the palm of your hand. You own them, they will laugh when you want them to laugh, they will cry when you want them to cry. You see in their faces that are truly feeling the music you are playing. They are no longer focusing on your fingers and begin to focus on how they feel inside. You are in CONTROL of the energy in the room and your taking the audience through a journey of emotion!!
Do you want to learn how to play guitar with more expression?
