Archive for March, 2012
Pepe Romero Jr. Guitar #100
Here’s Pepe Romero Jr.’s guitar #100 – a spruce and flamed maple guitar from 2006 that even has a flamed maple neck carved from a single piece of maple. This was made after Pepe Jr. had spent more time with and made another guitar with Edmund Blochinger. Pepe Sr. plays more of Sor’s ‘Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart’, Op. 9. Here’s the YouTube link in case you have trouble viewing the video in your browser.
David Collett was in Frankfurt last week for Musikmesse, the world’s largest musical instrument trade fair. (I’ve never been, but I’m told it makes NAMM seem pretty small by comparison). While there, David met with many of old friends, many luthiers we represent in the US, and a few new makers, some of whom we’ll be representing in the future. Continue on to see some photos David took while he was there.
Here is another in Matt Hinsley’s great series about inspiring educators who dedicate themselves to teaching the guitar to young people:
Dr. Michael Quantz and the Brownsville Guitar Ensemble Festival
When I was teaching high school here in Brownsville, I had a parent approach me after one of our spring concerts. Her son had been in the guitar group for three years and was about to graduate. She had hardly spoken to me until this moment. That night she was in tears and could hardly speak. As she composed herself she told me how wonderful it was that her son, who was in the special education program, was able to participate so fully in anything at school as he had done in his guitar classes. She had never before seen him be so committed, improve so much, or be such a welcomed member of a group that did cool stuff.
- Dr. Michael Quantz
Recording Part 6 – Dynamics
The control of dynamics in a recording can be tricky. As guitarists we all know about dynamics – some passages need to be played more softly, others more loudly, etc…, but in a recording you don’t necessarily want those quiet passages to get lost by being ‘too’ quiet, and you also may want your track to be as loud as possible without losing any clarity or nuance (or you’re OK with finding a happy medium), and these issues are what we refer to in recording as ‘dynamics’.
Here’s guitarist Eva Beneke in her new video playing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6, Prelude, in and around L.A. She’s playing her Kenny Hill ‘Signature’ model guitar, and we just got a very similar one in this week.
Here’s Pepe Romero Sr. playing another excerpt from Sor’s ‘Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart’, Op. 9. on guitar #90 at our celebration of Pepe Jr.’s 200th guitar. This is a guitar that Pepe Sr. is currently touring with and it’s nicknamed ‘Spooky’ because of the wood on the back and perhaps a little because of the sound.
I just came across a nice article in the CSU Dominguez Hills newsletter about the session we did a few weeks back with Scott Morris and his students. Turns out that coming in to record some pieces with us was a slightly bigger deal for the undergrads than I had thought -and I still think they did a really great job. Check out the article here. We might have to do this more often…
Here’s Marc Teciholz playing a gorgeous 1969 Miguel Rodriguez ‘Churchdoor’ at our ‘Valseana Live’ concert. The ‘Churchdoor’ guitars are famous as much for how they look as how they sound, and this is a perfect example of both. Marc plays the outer movements of Rodrigo’s ‘Sonata Giocosa’.
Here are two more guitars from our Pepe Romero Jr. 200th Guitar celebration. #70 was made from wood given to Pepe Jr. by Bob Taylor and Miguel Rodriguez, and #80 has a top made from wood cut by Edmund Blochinger. Pepe Sr. plays another excerpt from Albeniz’ ‘Rumores De La Caleta and the Introduction of Fernando Sor’s ‘Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart’, Op. 9.
Here’s another post from Matt Hinsley, director of the Austin Classical Guitar Society and major promoter of guitar education for children, in which he talks about another great proponent of youth guitar education, Matt Denman. I met Matt Denman at GFA in Austin a couple years ago and he is indeed one of the people to watch.
