In January 2018, I started a new ukulele group and joined the Boston Guitar Orchestra. For the latter, I begged the conductor to translate the notated sheet music for guitar part four into tablature so that I could read it. I had not touched the classical guitar for more than twenty years.
When I joined the Boston Guitar Orchestra, a.k.a. BGO, I didn’t know if I could keep up. At first, it felt like I was paying to suffer. The music was demanding. I would lose my place when I shifted my eyes from the score to different areas of my guitar. I had to pretend I could do it.
I kept asking the conductor for an easier part. I had difficulty controlling the buzzes. Creating a nice tone was not something I knew how to do. I have never learned how to play above the third fret, i.e. in higher positions). I was a beginner on the guitar.
I relied on reading the tablature (instead of notes) from January to June. Miraculously, after a three month hiatus, in October 2018, I switched from reading tabs to notes. How did that happen? I guess I must have mentally decided I could do it and applied myself.
Next step was getting rid of the buzzes. Robert Bekkers, the conductor of BGO, told me to play near the edge of the fret, so-called “behind the fret line” rather than in the middle of the fret. Once I got rid of the buzzes, I had to learn about producing different kinds of tone-qualities on the guitar.
Everyone had long and re-enforced fingernails except for me. As a pianist, I keep my nails short. I was limited in what I could do with my fingers. Pizzicato means muting with the palm while plucking a string. Metallico means using a fingernail on a string near the bridge. Tasso means plucking on the fretboard. I love the Bartok pizzicato most of all – where you pull and snap a string real fast for a loud buzz.
Several initiatives improved my experience in the orchestra.
1) One of the members suggested investing additional time to get together and started organizing sectional rehearsals closer to where she lived. This allowed us to help each other as smaller ensembles, without the conductor.
2) Earlier this year, the conductor reassigned the better players to lead each guitar part as section leaders. I was relieved, for I could securely follow someone who knew what he or she was doing.
3) Instead of introducing three new pieces for each concert, the conductor revisited older material. This meant we only had to learn one new piece instead of three. He also chose more accessible music of composers Jurg Kindle and Mark Houghton.
4) More recently we divided the orchestra into quartets by geography, so we could work as independent guitar quartets more conveniently. This culminated in a free concert at Eustis Estate, the newest addition to Historic New England.
For the upcoming outdoor performance at JP Porchfest, I am excited about the music that’s easier for me and more accessible for the average listener. We will be performing most of the pieces we played at Make Music Boston at Eustis Estate on a big porch in the leafy neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, a part of Boston, Massachusetts. Hopefully these free concerts will attract more guitarists to join us this September when the new season begins. [See Meet-up.]
- Jurg Kindle: Rio de Janeiro Suite, Flow, Kalimba, Techno
- Mark Houghton: Tango
- Karl Jenkins: Palladio
Addendum
Twenty-one years ago, I treated myself to a residential course at West Dean College in southwest England, which was then named the International Classical Guitar Festival at West Dean. I borrowed a guitar from my friend, a guitarist from Yorkshire who had broken his arm a few days earlier. My own guitar from Okinawa was sadly given away when I left college.
Far away and switched off from my high-pressured job at an energy trading firm in London, I felt like a real musician mingling with guitarists, half of whom were amateurs like myself (i.e. doing something else full-time for a living) and the other half professionals or aspiring professional musicians. The one thing we had in common was our dedication to the classical guitar that week.
Amidst the sheep grazing lazily on the hilly green pastures, I practised alone and with others, worked on morning technique warm-up drills, rehearsed with my ensemble, and attended evening concerts by one of our teachers. We were divided into eight groups, according to our skill level. My level was ONE, the lowest possible, and we rehearsed a suite of Gaspar Sans for performance at the end of the course. At the time, I didn’t know how famous our teachers were: David Russell, Carlos Bonell, Fabio Zanon, and The Eden Stell Guitar Duo.
[More about residential courses for guitar.]
Level One Guitar Ensemble: Gaspar Sanz Suite, West Dean College 1998
Unbeknownst to me, the experience of playing in a guitar quartet at West Dean College had changed me. It was the classical version of being in a rock band. During my teenage years, I was keyboardist for a number of rock bands: The Lo Lo’s, my Okinawa band Funky Caravan, and Ku and the Guys, all short-lived. Playing together was something I loved and cherished more than accompanying a choir or playing the organ for church service. I felt an equal with other members of the group. We were making music together. We each played a part that was essential for the overall sound. We had to commit to the group by practicing, listening, and collaborating.