Guitar Impressions

John Della-Torre ‘Passions’

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:41:59 +0000

A great new CD called ‘PASSIONS’ has been released by the truly great Australian artist (living and breathing here in Adelaide) John Della-Torre, which debuts his original compositions for guitar. This kind of offering, from an Australian Classical Guitarist, is quite unique in these parts, and I believe it should be supported and encouraged through the sales [...]

Buying Your First Guitar

admin — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:35:06 +0000

First Choice? Classical Nylon String Acoustic Guitar of course: The Classical Nylon String Guitar is styled on the origins of the guitar, and is still (all things considered eg. players technique etc.) the best sounding guitar available. The steel string can be good, but ultimately it cannot beat the Nylon String for sound quality and [...]

Latin Jazz Guitar Duo

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:21:42 +0000

Jeff Sack and Rick Peterson These guys do some really nice improvising: mostly in the Latin Jazz style. They’re both Fingerstyle guitarists who play nylon string guitars: very inspiring for us would be improvisors. The soloing is very lyrical and tasteful: they never seem to be short of ideas. None of the mind numbing, fast [...]

Guitar and Voice

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:20:47 +0000

By far the best accompanying instrument for voice is the Guitar. The Guitar has a versatile range of techniques (strumming, pizzicato, tambour, etc.), tone-colours (ponticello,dolce, tasto); and has a warmth and intimacy that the piano does not (vibrato, string bends, portamento, glissando, etc.). A guitarist can learn so much from accompanying a singer. For one [...]

Guitar Duo ‘Maccari and Pugliese’

admin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:59:03 +0000

Claudio Maccari and Paolo Pugliese are definitely a Classical Guitar duo who really amaze! They use 19th century style classical guitars (gut strings I believe), they play the entire repertoire from memory and, they stand to do it! They leave you wondering why we choose to sit to play. These animated players add something quite [...]

‘The Musicians Library’ Resource

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:07:12 +0000

Now here’s a website to check out that is quite unique indeed, and a great place to download a whole range of reference material: both current and out of print. I don’t know how they do it but they do; and I’m glad they do. The beauty of this site is that once you find [...]

Improvising with Impro-Visor

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:40:46 +0000

Impro-Visor The people at SOURCEFORGE keep amazing us all with their generous concept of supplying quality software solutions to us for free: stuff that can easily rival the really expensive alternatives. IMPRO-VISOR is one such program that can be a real help to the student of improvisation. My students and I use it to create [...]

What is ‘Fingerstyle’ Guitar?

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:25:58 +0000

‘Fingerstyle’ Guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to ‘Flatpicking’ (picking individual notes with a single plectrum called a ‘flatpick’) or strumming all the strings of the instrument in chords. The term is often used synonymously with ‘Fingerpicking’. [...]

Joe Pass: Solo ‘Fingerstyle’ Jazz Guitar Improvisation

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:38:05 +0000

Joe Pass was a true virtuoso when it came to solo ‘Fingerstyle’ jazz guitar. Of special interest was his ability to improvise in this style. A real genius was revealed as he simultaneously played all the elements of a jazz or blues improvisation: melody, rhythm, chord harmonies, bass lines and rapid-fire improvised passages; all presented [...]

Jazz on the Classical Guitar: Ken Hatfield

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:22:53 +0000

Jazz Played on Classical Guitar Sometimes it takes way too long to find the people who’re doing the things you only thought were possible in the field of your interests. When you find them it’s really exciting, but many times you wish you’d found them much earlier: during those ‘impressionable’ stages of your development. Ken [...]