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its curtains for Kevin
Nov 14, 2011

Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us.

Just kidding!

Life is meaningless
First movement of Giuliani's Sonatine:

https://soundcloud.com/jacob-staudt/sonatine-maestoso


I took a rather large pause at 1:40 so I could flip the page,

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Southern Heel
Jul 2, 2004

Man, I've never felt more like I'm going to spike myself in the eye with an errant string than when I tried restringing my classical for the first time - so far no punctures and my knots are holding.

I used this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx1IG93sEs4

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.
String tension for nylons is really low, so it's really hard to screw it up. I use way less "safety measures" than that guy in the video and I've never had a string jump out in hundreds of restringings, so no worries.

Trig Discipline
Jun 3, 2008

Please leave the room if you think this might offend you.
Grimey Drawer
Yeah I've never been particularly concerned about my classical taking my eye out. A nice fat-gauge G strong on my old Peavey T-60, though...I took my life in my hands on a regular basis with that one.

Jazz Marimba
Jan 4, 2012

I play acoustic guitar (I'm primarily a drummer though) and really like fingerstyle, so I grew my nails out and started shaping them. My problem is with my thumbnail...I can't figure out a shape that works, and it always breaks. What do I need to change to be satisfied with my thumbnail?

firebad57
Dec 29, 2008

Jazz Marimba posted:

I play acoustic guitar (I'm primarily a drummer though) and really like fingerstyle, so I grew my nails out and started shaping them. My problem is with my thumbnail...I can't figure out a shape that works, and it always breaks. What do I need to change to be satisfied with my thumbnail?

The breaking thing is a whole topic unto itself - how does it break, usually? A huge part of having guitar nails is being inconveniently careful about them, but it's also possible it's a thin/brittle/weak nail, in which case there are various products/strategies that people use. I myself use Onymyrrhe, which is apparently no longer made, so I guess I'll be switching to some sort of Hoof Strengthener when it runs out soon.

As for shape, this is a hard thing to describe in text. Basically, it's important to find the place on the nail where the string contacts it (usually after first hitting the flesh), and the angle at which it hits. Then, you can take a straight metal file and, holding it at the same angle to the Point of Contact, file until the whole surface of the nail is flush to the file. Again, near impossible to describe in text, but it's an awesome strategy for finding a good nail shape. I'm sure there are YouTube videos demonstrating it, so hopefully someone can find and post one.

I just picked up this bad boy: https://www.discogs.com/Julian-Bream-Britten-Henze-Martin-Brindle-Villa-Lobos-20th-Century-Guitar/master/425614 at the record store, and good lord do I just continue to love Julian Bream more than any other guitarist ever. He created almost all of this rep, my favorite for the instrument, and he plays it SO loving MUSICALLY AAAAAAHHHH.

I'm currently learning/playing the Roberto Gerhard Fantasia for this competition (my first in many years, and my first international one), so I'll have to make a scratch recording of that soon.

Jazz Marimba
Jan 4, 2012

firebad57 posted:

The breaking thing is a whole topic unto itself - how does it break, usually? A huge part of having guitar nails is being inconveniently careful about them, but it's also possible it's a thin/brittle/weak nail, in which case there are various products/strategies that people use. I myself use Onymyrrhe, which is apparently no longer made, so I guess I'll be switching to some sort of Hoof Strengthener when it runs out soon.

As for shape, this is a hard thing to describe in text. Basically, it's important to find the place on the nail where the string contacts it (usually after first hitting the flesh), and the angle at which it hits. Then, you can take a straight metal file and, holding it at the same angle to the Point of Contact, file until the whole surface of the nail is flush to the file. Again, near impossible to describe in text, but it's an awesome strategy for finding a good nail shape. I'm sure there are YouTube videos demonstrating it, so hopefully someone can find and post one.

...

I think I've got the "being inconveniently careful" part down (mostly, haha). My latest break is a small crack along the pink/white divide, I'm guessing from playing. Any ideas?

Oof, yeah, I'm not exactly getting that explanation through text. A friend gave me some pointers based off his preferences to get me started, and I tried looking for some tutorials on youtube but didn't come up with anything too helpful :\

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
re: classical nails

There are these four-sided nail buffers that are great for polishing the part of your nail that comes in contact with the string. I think the one I have has grits 6000,3000,2500,1000,600,400.

like this thing: http://www.target.com/p/trim-7-way-buffer/-/A-11058765

Jerry Bindle fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Feb 23, 2016

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003

Jazz Marimba posted:

I think I've got the "being inconveniently careful" part down (mostly, haha). My latest break is a small crack along the pink/white divide, I'm guessing from playing. Any ideas?

Oof, yeah, I'm not exactly getting that explanation through text. A friend gave me some pointers based off his preferences to get me started, and I tried looking for some tutorials on youtube but didn't come up with anything too helpful :\

Are you playing a steel string acoustic? I tried to play my electric like I play my nylon and it destroyed my nails nearly instantly. Someone in the GUITAR MEGATHREAD posted a great link to a way to tape your nails up, i'll try to find it. I don't know how to find that post without making a poo poo post to find all my posts in that thread.

Jerry Bindle fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Feb 23, 2016

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003

Southern Heel posted:

Man, I've never felt more like I'm going to spike myself in the eye with an errant string than when I tried restringing my classical for the first time - so far no punctures and my knots are holding.

I used this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx1IG93sEs4

I like how he tucks the trebles into the basses at the bridge. I've never thought to do that, because I replace one-at-a-time starting at the 6th. That behavior has been on brain tape since young days, I grew up playing the cello where the bridge would fall off if you took all the strings off at once. The Internet seems to mostly agree that its OK to take all the strings off of a classical guitar, with a few people strongly disagreeing. Another hotly debated topic is about which end of the bass string ties at the bridge. I'm a floppy-endian myself

firebad57
Dec 29, 2008
https://www.facebook.com/mobiustrio/videos/1075783792487850/

Made a little single-take version of our Ravel arrangement for this competition application. It's rougher than I'd like, but that's what we get for suddenly trying to record a piece we haven't been rehearsing! Bringing this little ditty to the International Guitar Research Centre's festival next month, so if any of y'all are in the London/Surrey area, you should come the hell out.

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
Wow, thats beautiful. Congrats! Who made your guitars? I noticed all three have similar unique features.

firebad57
Dec 29, 2008

Barnyard Protein posted:

Wow, thats beautiful. Congrats! Who made your guitars? I noticed all three have similar unique features.

They were built by Benz Tschannen, a Swiss builder who lives in Nevada. Despite being a man of age and dignity, he's kind of a "young" (hasn't built many guitars yet) new-school luthier. These guitars are really interesting - 22 frets, BOLT ON NECK(with truss rod!), elevated fretboard, spruce/cedar double top, etc.. They're really great, and they match incredibly well, since we had him built them all at the same time of exactly the same woods (Rob's is darker varnish because he NEEDS to be different, and Mason's is an extended-range 7 string).

I love Benz. Sometimes he comes to my house when he's in SF, and we cook meat/veggies that he raised/grew on his NV farm.

Kilometers Davis
Jul 9, 2007

They begin again

firebad what do you genuinely think about the current state of classical guitar as a living. Performing or teaching. Is it viable nowadays in a realistic way? Dense question but I've been curious about this for a while, same with a ton of other cg questions I've had in my head for months.

I have a lot of catching up in here to do, lots of posts to comment on. I honestly forgot the thread existed :x

Southern Heel
Jul 2, 2004

Well after today, I am going to take a serious hiatus from classical guitar - I'm about 2/3 of the way through this Noad book and literally 90% of the poo poo I have to deal with is figuring out positioning and fingering, - A, G, A, E, G, F, E -> DF, CE, BD, BbD are the notes and they're as easy as poo poo to read, the tempo is fine - but it's this nonsense juxtaposition of the matrix-nature of fingerboards and the linear nature of music notation that is driving me insane. I have played the keyboard literally about 2 hours in my life and I can play this whole thing without a hiccup because of the layout of the keys, and yet after multiple years of playing the instrument, decent sight reading and musical theory knowledge - I am hamstrung with nothing but rote memorisation to fall back on.

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
Sorry to hear that you're feeling frustrated, it sucks when something thats supposed to be fun and relaxing turns stressful. I think I know what you're going through. I too spend a lot of my practice time just with burning the fingers and positions into muscle memory. I take weekly lessons where my teacher makes sure I've got them correct (I usually don't do it right the first time) and he suggests to make it easier. I probably would make very little progress without lessons. Seems like learning a piece is 90% technique and 10% musicality.

its curtains for Kevin
Nov 14, 2011

Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us.

Just kidding!

Life is meaningless
I practiced hard for an hour this morning, then noodles for 30 min after as a reward. Please have fun if you want your hobby to last

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
I just installed laminate flooring in a small room of my house, its still completely empty so I've been practicing in there. It sounds awesome compared to a carpeted room! I hope it still sounds like that when its furnitured.

its curtains for Kevin
Nov 14, 2011

Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us.

Just kidding!

Life is meaningless
I posted the first movement earlier, but I finished learning all 3 movements now so here you go :)
1.Maestoso https://soundcloud.com/jacob-staudt/sonatine-maestoso
2. Menuetto & Trio https://soundcloud.com/jacob-staudt/sets/menuetto-trio
3. Allegretto https://soundcloud.com/jacob-staudt/sonatine-allegretto

Please forgive Voice Memo quality recordings, my nice microphone is in hibernation for college

firebad57
Dec 29, 2008

Kilometers Davis posted:

firebad what do you genuinely think about the current state of classical guitar as a living. Performing or teaching. Is it viable nowadays in a realistic way? Dense question but I've been curious about this for a while, same with a ton of other cg questions I've had in my head for months.

I have a lot of catching up in here to do, lots of posts to comment on. I honestly forgot the thread existed :x

This is such a big question that it's taking me forever to think about it. I think making a living as a classical guitarist is a totally possibe/viable thing to do these days, since I know plenty of people who do it. Of course, I also know plenty of people who went to school for it who are doing other things now, too.

It's certainly not a super easy/profitable path. So far, Mobius Trio has been doing great in terms of going places and playing shows, and I'm pretty happy with our success, but I don't know many other folks from our generation who are doing the same. Of course, I know a few people who are getting their name out there, but it's a pretty crazy hustle.

In one of my last lessons of my Masters degree, my teacher Sergio Assad told me that when he and his brother were coming up in the late 60s/early 70s, there were maybe a dozen really GREAT guitarists out there, so you could make a living by just being awesome at classical guitar. Now he says there are literally hundreds and thousands out there who are that good (and nobody buys records anymore), so what the gently caress are YOU going to do to stand out?? Of course, I was again lucky to have Mobius, which exists in a unique niche, so we kind of had that question answered.

That's part of my answer - it's viable, but it's a grind and you have to love it.

Also, I did this recording for a pre-screen today. It truly is unedited, as I'm sure you can tell: https://soundcloud.com/matt-linder/roberto-gerhard-fantasia

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
What is the consensus on "silent" classical guitars? I'm looking for something to fiddle with while taking breaks at work (cube farm), and for at home when I don't want to bother others.

Update: I decided to get a Yamaha SLG130NW. It came today, so far I really like it! It's total cost is comparable to my "main" guitar, a Cordoba C7. Its neck feels nice like the C7, the thinner body doesn't make too much of a difference. I can't rest my forearm on the Yamaha the same way; that's probably a bad habit I should break any ways. There is a lower set screw that digs into your leg, most amazon reviews note this, I'll probably try to find a way to pad it or replace it with a smaller set screw like some of the reviews suggest.

The biggest difference I've noticed so far is that for better or worse I can hear the effect of my nails much more clearly. My nails haven't been buffed in about a week, at first i thought the headphone jack was staticy or broken, but nope, its just my rough rear end nails.

The strings that it game with feel really loose, gonna throw some high tension crystal corums on it tonight and see what it sounds like when hooked up to an orange micro dark. welp thanks for reading, hail satan.

Jerry Bindle fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Mar 17, 2016

its curtains for Kevin
Nov 14, 2011

Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us.

Just kidding!

Life is meaningless
Why is recuerdos de la Alhambra so hard my god.

Jerry Bindle
May 16, 2003
(passing this along, just got it from my teacher)

FWD: FWD: FWD: IMPORTANT GUITAR WEB SITES

Classical Guitar Composers List (CGCL) Homepage
http://musicated.com/CGCL/index.html


19thCentury Guitarists:
http://www.earlyromanticguitar.com/erg/composers.htm

Early Romantic Guitar Information Home Page
http://www.earlyromanticguitar.com/


For access to legal, free PDF downloads


Digital guitar Archive:
http://www.digitalguitararchive.com/


The Boije Collection (Music Library of Sweden)
http://musikverket.se/musikochteaterbiblioteket/ladda-ner-noter/boijes-samling/


The Royal Library of Denmark
http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/tema/fokus/rbs.html


The Irish Royal Academy:
http://www.riam.ie/19th-century-guitar-music-collection-now-available-online-from-the-royal-irish-academy-of-music/


Delcamp Classical Guitar Forum:
http://www.delcamp.net/


Mauro Giuliani:
http://maurogiuliani.free.fr/en/


Fernando Sor:
http://fernandosor.free.fr/SorOpusAngl.html

firebad57
Dec 29, 2008
http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/05/20/exclusive-premiere-chopin-prelude-in-e-minor-performed-as-a-black-metal-song/

Look, Mom, we're on MetalSucks, doing a silly thing that a friend somehow convinced us to do. It's so fun to finally have YouTube commenters making GBS threads on something we put out - normally we don't get enough views for that.

Buck Turgidson
Feb 6, 2011

𓀬𓀠𓀟𓀡𓀢𓀣𓀤𓀥𓀞𓀬
A couple of weeks ago I bit the bullet and bought a classical and I've been working my way through that Noad book. I'd say I'm about a third of the way through and I'm enjoying it very much. Thank god I learnt piano in primary school though, because otherwise I think the process of playing along to the sheet music would be much more laborious. I used to play electric on and off and already I feel like I am much better about knowing what I'm doing and where I am on the fretboard than I ever was playing electric with tabs.

I did have one question though. Everyone seems to pooh-pooh playing with flesh rather than nails... Why is that? Is that something that will give me trouble later on? I haven't really had any issues with just my fingertips so far, although I imagine it makes the guitar sound a bit plunkier than normal.

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Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.
It's mostly about sound aesthetics. A well-shaped and thoroughly buffed nail sings much more brilliantly, but maintaining such a nail takes some dedication. For beginners it's no issue to play with flesh and you won't have a lot of problems changing that later on. If you already plan to get more serious, then of course you might as well start early with nails.

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