Students wishing to persue music examinations will find Scales and Arpeggios At a glance as well as several other Method Supplements, helpful.

Concerning "Methods of Diminishing"

In his “Method pour la guitar,” Fernando Sor noted: “I have always too much regretted that there was no way of giving more sound to the instrument, that I might occupy myself with the methods of diminishing it;” (Merrick translation, London 1850, p. 17) If Sor could play a present day guitar – even a relatively inexpensive one – I think he would concur that, indeed, more sound has been obtained.

Today’s louder guitar is not victory in kind, not a victory of the sort achieved when the steel string acoustic was first magically “plugged in.” Far from being “reborn overnight,” the classic guitar’s evolution is a slow dance of incremental improvements spread over some two centuries: the adoption of single strings and later fan bracing; the advent of nylon strings and finally, natural sounding amplification. Yes, the present day guitar is loud enough so that foremost artists, at least, apply “methods of diminishing” with aplomb. But a key piece of the five hundred years old puzzle; a systematic dynamic criterion for child methodology remains missing.

If I seem to over-labor, may I beg the reader’s indulgence? Yes, the youngster's’s guitar can be loud enough – but barely. And yes, a youngster has force, but just enough. Technique outlined above does enable a sufficiently robust “1,” so that “2” can both be diminished and remain a beautiful tone. This is a good start. But hold on, in fact, mainstream criterion requires at least three, rather than two, dynamic graduations. So we should now make the acquaintance of that most elusive of graduations, medium. Three graduations clear the way to diminish the bar according prescribed metric formula: S-m-w and S-w-m-w. (Hard to overemphasize: that tone can be diminished only in proportion to the robustness of “1”.)

Four main categories of rhetorical (studied) diminishing can now be set forth:

Metric accent: To achieve the simplest accent pattern: 1 – 2 – 1 – 2, our youngster learns always, to accent the count of “1.” (Always? Well, hardly. But let us not over-burden our youngster’s tender brain quite yet, however vital certain exceptions may be!) Inclusion of the medium stress now enables quite an effective Waltz (three-four) and later Tango (four-four), amongst other metric stereotypes.

Articulation: The most decisive way to diminish a tone is, of course, to terminate it. And so it is from the very beginning, though unconsciously, that tones are terminated by the simple expediency of preparing (+) the thumb stroke: “prepare – stroke, prepare – stroke.” Before long, such detached notes are sanctioned as “tock” staccato notes (THUMB, p. 15), to be followed by their polar opposite, “ta” legato notes. The third fundamental note-joining technique, based on the overlapping sound of strummed open strings is ringing leaps, requiring that left hand notes be held, often beyond written duration. Default articulations are thus established for steps, “tock” and “Ta,” leading to scales and melody; and ringing leaps, characteristic of broken chords.

Dynamics: Hand in hand with methods of diminishing, methods of augmentation must be equally considered. Enshrined in our robust ”1”, arm force now enables a virtual infinity of conjoining graduations between f – mf – p (diminuendo), and p – mf – f (crescendo). Viva big muscle power!

Phrasing: short and long phrases. Two kinds of left hand slurs: Traditional left hand slurs (notes played evenly) are learned first, followed by slurs with “short phrase” interpretation, that is, slurs expressed the same as for mainstream instruments. Short phrase epitomizes concise control over both accent and duration. Long phrases express cresc. – dim. but in lyrical, rather than dramatic terms.

A ready “kit bag” of rhetorical tools ensures bedrock expressive technique minimizing reliance upon “inspiration.” Guided by score marks, students on mainstream instruments take such studied rhetoric completely for granted, the lingua franca, by which composers communicate their musical intentions. Let’s be perfectly clear: inspired rhetoric is all the better. But we must still play well, even on our “bad days!

Further Observations

It is true that for children under the age of five, small muscle co-ordination is better initiated on keyboard. Parent attended classes for children aged four to six are useful and available. Both simple and “bad habit proof,” the keyboard is still the essential visual exemplar of tonal organization. But the old supposition - that guitar lessons need commence at a later age than for piano or violin – is finally breaking down. As has long been the case for violin, scaled down guitars of reasonable price and quality are now readily available. Everyone knows that learning the violin is a long, tough slog; but slogging undertaken with the confidence that traditional violin method supplies the answers.

Such is not the case on guitar, where there are no well-honed child methods, traditional or otherwise. Consumer gullibility in the face of “candy packaged” (supposed) child methodology can be excused – how is the parent to know? But whether “Tune a Day”, or Frankenstein hybrid (mixtures of classic – flamenco – folk styles), the fundamental problem of applying mainstream expressive criteria to the guitar’s soft, quickly fading tone remains the fundamental challenge. Child methodology walks the razor’s edge!

As I will attempt to show, several problems interlock such that the failure of any one can easily doom the enterprise as a whole!

So our youngster has a proper guitar. Now what?

Parent takes at least two lessons: The pre-arranged practice situation (chair and foot stool scaled to fit) and a well-informed practice supervisor are the combustibles that fuel the “lighted match” of our youngster’s enthusiasm. (Enamored by the bonding experience plus guitar’s undeniable charms, parents often persevere as students in their own right.)

Children play without nails. The nail-less status quo, weak playing muscles and the softness of the guitar are formidable challenges, especially if expressive criteria are to be implemented within a healthy, flowing - never tense or labored – developmental context.

Start with the thumb! The Aaron Shearer (third) Method concurs: the thumb is simpler, stronger and musically more flexible for beginners than i-m. Unique Luse Basic Method formatting enables teachers to respond in a flexible manner to the challenge posed by more complex rest stroke and free stroke: that to achieve comparably flowing results, weeks or even months on fundamentals may be required. Meanwhile, the (by now well-established) THUMB provides stability and continuity.

Firmest stroke leverage (and our youngster needs it) is achieved by curving the right wrist. Our youngster will soon accept that curving the wrist supplies twist, the leverage required to play accent patterns. This position is neither intuitive nor easy to adopt. The biggest impediment to curving - the natural tendency to straighten the wrist for everyday work – is pervasive and must PATIENTLY be rationalized. Curved wrist technique applies in equal degree to rest stroke and free stroke.

One reason classic guitar is not started earlier, or played widely at an early age, is the evident lack of a social context, as opposed to pop guitar, for which the camaraderie of high school bands is a ready part of the appeal. Although the problem is shared by the piano, beginners on that instrument are musically self-sufficient far sooner than on guitar. And while as complex as the violin to play, the status accorded guitar study is hardly comparable to that for the 'queen of instruments.'

The widespread enrolment of youngsters in string and keyboard courses has also insured ever more effective training techniques on those instruments. Sadly, the great diversity of enrolment in guitar studios and the necessity to choose between diverse, even opposed guitar styles, tends towards the opposite effect. Spread the word: Classic guitar study is the trunk of a very diverse stylistic tree!

The Well-tempered Guitar

Unlike the violin, guitar is responsive to enlightened study by both young and adult beginners. Adults generally make encouraging progress early on in their studies. Their advantages include motivation and considerable musical exposure, if only through having listened a good deal. Learning is found to be interesting and ensemble playing in particular offers many rewards.

Special challenges for adults may include insufficient practice time, loss of elasticity in the fingers and unrealistically high expectations with regard to learning pace and accomplishment. While recognizing the potential pitfalls, adults should be encouraged to develop as far as possible and to achieve the very real pleasures of mastering materials within their reach. Above all, no-one should consider them self too old to begin.

During the thirty-five years I have been writing and teaching The Musician-Guitarist, I have observed that, although great talent is rare, talent in some measure is possessed by nearly everyone. Coping with the diverse requirements and aspirations of beginners of varied age, motivation, talent and background is a formidable challenge for teachers. To do this within a framework directed towards the pupils future needs makes the challenge even greater. If the present method helps to make this process more rewarding - and expressive playing more widespread - it will have achieved its purpose.

Robert Luse
Singapore
May, 2009 

 

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