Re: Who here has long nails for classical?
True about tarrega - but only towards the end of his life. He once said "you cannot create a living not with dead flesh" He spent his whole life experimenting tho.
There are no real rules - its just about being expressive - and having the facility to achieve the musical effect you are after with nothing more than your hands.
Still....guitars were a different shape back in Tarregas time, and the strings were different too. Since Torres, classicals have gained a lot more bottom end and volume. Strings have gone from gut to silk wrapped in steel and nylon was invented too! Barrios played with steel strings fwiw. Its gone to a whole other level with the modern lattice braced guitars and the use of carbon fiber etc.
Classical guitar technique is constantly evolving....for example look at the difference between john williams and julian Bream. If you want to see a perfect example of the differences between the more old fashioned segovia style and the 'jellyfish' that the modern classical players tend towards, look up a video of them both playing together.
Bream has a more expansive tone, but Williams is effortless. Both players have an amazing breadth of expression in their playing tho, but with different processes and outcomes.
Slava - yes great player, but to me his tone when compared to some of the aforementioned players - or even his australian contemporary Karin Schaupp - can be somewehat brittle.
while im blabbing on....i want to mention Australia's contribution to classical guitar. John williams learned in his younger days from a fellow called Sigmund Jorgensen - in a small place near Melbourne called 'Montsalvat'. I grew up just a block away. I heard John Williams play in the great hall at Motsalvat when he was making a series of films for the BBC.
John also was a pioneer in the use of lattice braced guitars in the concert hall. The lattice concept and the maker of the guitars Williams still uses is a fella called Greg Smallman - who has been building these things in the blue mountains - where coincidentally i live now. If you want to buy a smallman guitar, lets just say that they make custom shop gibsons and even deAngelicos look very cheap! Classical guitar is very dear to my heart, and so are these places in Australia. I just wanted to share that with you all cos i know the vast majority of players on this forum are from the US, and im sure would assume that most of the innovations in the classical sphere are coming from europe.
BTW - if anyone here is visiting australia, i have plenty of room if you want somewhere to stay for a few days.
ps: how cool is this? we are talking about nails and tone production on a pickup forum!
long live the SD forum.
That's right, those gut strings would've been awful for tuning and intonation, ugh. If you listen to Torres guitars played today (with modern strings), they still have amazing projection, smaller body notwithstanding. In fact, many modern guitars don't really have anything over them, they're just different, like lattice braced guitars and whatnot - Torres got a lot of things right from the outset. I'd love to play Torres one day, bust out 'Capricho Arabe' probably
.
I have an mp3 of Barrios playing the third movement of 'La Catedral', can't remember where I got it, twas ages ago. But he plays nylons on it, though he did use steel strings, as you say. It's quite interesting, he plays it with a fair bit of rubato, where as most modern players just blaze through it.
Agree about Bream's tone - he really used the whole guitar for all it's worth. My favourite players these days are Paul Galbraith and David Russell, both have super tone and everything else.
There was a great interview on ABC radio two years ago, featuring Smallman, Williams, and Craig Ogden, where they discussed guitars, Segovia, and other related things.
The fingernail of a classical guitarist is the 'pickup' - it can go all the way from Antiquity to Invader.
Yes, Yes and Yes to everything gibson175 has said.
I come from a Flamenco background and spent my late teens in Spain
at the Madrid Conservatorioum and the Amor de Dios dance Academy in the early 80's.
Practicing 3 to 4 hours a day and working as second or third guitarist
playing for the Flamenco dance classes another 4 hours to make
some beer money, and pick up dancers, of course:friday:
The wear and tear on my nails was phenomenal, to the point where
I first used acrylic nails and then super glue and tissues.
WTF you say? Yes indeed gents. The common practice at the time,
at least for alot of Flamenco dudes was to rebuild a broken nail,
lengthen a worn one or strengthen a weak nail using super glue
and a layer or layers of tissue paper. Then you would file and
polish to shape. I can fix a nail in less than a couple of minutes and this
proved invaluable throughout my professional career in the 80's and 90's
when I was doing 3 to 4 half hour sets a night in restaurants
and in a Gypsy King/Latin big band. (Crappy **** BTW, listen to
Paco de Lucia for REAL Flamenco guitar!!)
Flamenco technique is much harder on your right hand than other
finger picking styles in that there is a greater proportion of strumming
compared to picking, and this at volumes that can keep up with
singers and dancers. The hardend strength of the super glue and tissue
makes for a bright attack on both the down and up strokes and can be
compensated for on the picking side by the amount of finger tip is used.
Hell, I'm gonna get myself a glass of red and play me a Bulerias:friday:
I can picture you flailing away on your blanca, señor, or did you use a negra
?
Yeah, I used to do the super glue thing when I was starting out. I used to bite my nails so it took a while before they were strong enough, I'd break them all the time.
I'd sell my soul to play like Paco, screw this electric guitar nonsense.
