I was reduced to using an ancient tape recorder my parents had owned. It was crummy, but it was all I had. Then I learned how hard it was to make a recording. The minute I turned on the tape recorder, my brain ceased to function and my fingers could not carry on without help. I spent 3 hours over two days before getting an almost good enough recording. Romance for Guitar has a classic AABBA form and I muffed the ending. But everything to the ending was as fine as I knew how to make it... more about that later! My reasoning was they would not play the crummy tape to the end because there was no new information in the final A section. And what dummy would muff it after nailing it perfectly the first two times?
It took two more days before the tape was in the capable hands of the US mail. In the remaining two weeks I had to try to fix my problems on my own. Loren was spending a week in Baltimore auditioning and interviewing for Peabody conservitory. In the next week I did decipher the exercises Loren left me. He wanted me to alter the rythum, stretching each of the notes in the arpeggio in turn. But I was not to do any more than I could do at full concentration. That was not very much in my lesson. But after wasting several days, I decoded the exercises and worked my way up to doing the A and B sections together with no loss of concentration. That was the good news.
The bad news was that I could not make one barre work on my Pimentel guitar... the GOOD one! This was not a surprise as the recording I sent was made with the ancient Guild Mark II. And the Guild has given me the most honorable service for over 35 years. It deserves 15 minutes of fame.
I worked on the piece diligently at first, but with each unanswered day, I practiced less until I gave up. Silly idea! On the morning before the workshop started, an email arrived stating that I would be in the 1pm Master Class the next day! Ouch! There was no time to recover. The one thing my teacher had said was don't play your piece over and over again. Work on little sections, work on the exercises and play it through just a few times each day. So I decided that nothing further could be accomplished by a blast of practice. There wasn't time anyway as Thursday is a long teaching day and I had to leave early the next morning.
There was really little free time for me. I arrived with just enough time to warm up before the Master Class started. There were only 4 students in John Holmquest's class. I thought it would last an hour, that is only 15 minutes... I can do this. I was second in line... good, good, good! The less waiting, the better. And my teacher was not there either. An auspicious sign. The first person was up there for 45 minutes... the standard for this class. And just as I was getting up, my teacher arrived! I was to learn later that this was as hard on him as it was on me. He had never had a student take a Master Class before!
The form of a Master Class is for the student to play the piece he has selected, and then the master works with the student on elements of musicallity, technique, posture which affects technique. Whatever is on the master's mind. I simply could not get this piece going, my hands were shaking so. But the third time was a charm and after the first section, the other 4 went well. Speed, intonation, jumps all worked as well as I could have hoped. The rest was a piece of cake... though it still lasted for another 40 minutes. I did remember a lot of it, but my teacher took copious notes. I learned later that Loren had a 2 hour private lesson with Mr Holmquest while still in high school and that one 2 hour session literally changed his life (music life, that is).
Everyone was very supportive of my endeavor, from the director of the festival to Mr. Holmquest to members of the audience. I wish I would have done something like this much sooner. But I would have not been ready to take that step. A number of things came together to make this possible. Much credit goes to Loren Zawodny, my teacher for the past year and a half. I have sporatically had guitar teachers over the past 35 years. All but the first, Ken Fassler and Loren were simply renting their time. I learned a few things that were quickly forgotten. When I started taking lessons from Loren, I had been playing classical guitar off and on for 34 years. Playing a piece was a struggle, the most prominent feature being my clenched jaws. I loved the guitar, but my capability was very limited.
Loren patiently worked on changing EVERYTHING, even though I was not all that interested! It was frustrating for me because we would spend forever on a selection, and often they were abandoned more than completed. I have small hands, so I didn't even try anything with a reach in it. But I finally learned that most of the problem was in my technique and the tension in my hands and arms was much more limiting than my hand size. What was happening was I rebuilt my techique from the ground up, without me realizing it. In January I saw Sharon Isbin play with the Columbus Symphony and suddenly I understood all the lessons I had been taught. Ms Isbin has a beautifully relaxed technique.
The sad news for me is that Loren will be graduating and moving on to graduate school elsewhere. But I have learned another valuable sesson. No more bad teachers. I will have the best teacher whom I can afford!
The guitar festival was an eye-opener for me. I had a one dimensional view of classical guitar, formed mostly by Andre Segovia and Julian Bream. I now know that it is a vibrant, diverse community. Paul Galbraith played an incredible concert. He play a specially made 8 string guitar like a cello which produces such beautiful music. His Master Class focused almost entirely on the musicality. His teacher is not a guitarist, but a pianist, conductor and philosopher. That is very apparent from his work. at the other end of the spectrum was Roland Dyans, who composes all his music and he sometimes just improvises. He plays very softly, but has the most incredible technique.
There were a number of luthiers there as well. One builds guitars with a blend of traditional and innovative techniques. I asked him "what new techniques he used in building his guitars". He blew me away with his answers. There are a group of luthiers that are working very hard to improve on Torres's 1800's technology. One of the concert artists played one of his guitars and it was wonderful. And, if I am quick enough, I can even afford to buy one of his guitars!
I will be back next year with a new piece and hopefully with more recital experience. I wrote a small article for the local newpaper about the master class. I can use this to find opportunities to play in fron of audiences. It has been a fantastic experience.