Performance of Rodrigo

Frankieabbot

concierto de Aranjuez last night in York. Soloist Craig Ogden. Absolutely brilliant. Then played encore piece without orchestra called Asturias. The kind of virtuosity that either inspires you....Or makes you want to chuck your guitar away.

DulcetJones

Both amazing pieces, "Asturias"(also known as "Leyenda") has been know to drive many a guitarist to switch to piano..... 

daveww

Frankieabbot said:

concierto de Aranjuez last night in York. Soloist Craig Ogden. Absolutely brilliant. Then played encore piece without orchestra called Asturias. The kind of virtuosity that either inspires you....Or makes you want to chuck your guitar away.

Would love to have seen that.  If I'd known I would have gone.

Here's the guitar concerto for people that maybe don't know it

beed84

I was there.  It was awesome.  Concerto de Aranjeuz was my favourite piece by far.   Fortunately for me, the guitar masterclass (which was on yesterday) was only 20 seconds away from my uni digs.  3 hours of expert insight, which cost me nothing! As opposed to wanting to throw my guitar away, I left feeling utterly inspired.  One thing he said that stood out for me was:

"Playing guitar is good, getting better at guitar is awesome."

Not only is Craig is a brilliant player, he's really nice, down to earth guy too.  And to hear a Smallman being masterfully played in an intimate setting is something to behold.

Excellent weekend.

robinbowes

Asturias is one of my favourite classical pieces. Here's John Williams showing how it's done:

Frankieabbot

beed84 said:

I was there.  It was awesome.  Concerto de Aranjeuz was my favourite piece by far.   Fortunately for me, the guitar masterclass (which was on yesterday) was only 20 seconds away from my uni digs.  3 hours of expert insight, which cost me nothing! As opposed to wanting to throw my guitar away, I left feeling utterly inspired.  One thing he said that stood out for me was:

"Playing guitar is good, getting better at guitar is awesome."

Not only is Craig is a brilliant player, he's really nice, down to earth guy too.  And to hear a Smallman being masterfully played in an intimate setting is something to behold.

Excellent weekend.

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

ICBM

I've seen John Williams play the Concerto de Aranjuez, and it's one if the most inspiring live performances I've ever been at. Totally magical and almost the definition of classical guitar.

digitalkettle

Frankieabbot said:

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

He plays a Greg Smallman guitar...'spensive!

digitalkettle

DulcetJones said:

Both amazing pieces, "Asturias"(also known as "Leyenda") has been know to drive many a guitarist to switch to piano..... 

Irony!

beed84

digitalkettle said:

Frankieabbot said:

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

He plays a Greg Smallman guitar...'spensive!

You're not kidding. £25,000 worth so we were told!  Sounded amazing though.

It really was a motivational class.  It's a shame you missed it.  I highly recommend you going to one (any masterclass for that matter) when he does one again. Players' like that with so much experience often have interesting insights and approaches to the guitar.  Totally revived my determination to get to a good standard on classical and has taken the 'chore' out of learning.

Frankieabbot

digitalkettle said:

Frankieabbot said:

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

He plays a Greg Smallman guitar...'spensive!

Indeed sir. Not much change from 20 grand.

digitalkettle

Did he tell the story of the stolen guitar? Outrageous!

beed84

He did. Absolutely scandalous. I imagine his insurers weren't too happy about it!

Frankieabbot

beed84 said:

digitalkettle said:

Frankieabbot said:

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

He plays a Greg Smallman guitar...'spensive!

You're not kidding. £25,000 worth so we were told!  Sounded amazing though.

It really was a motivational class.  It's a shame you missed it.  I highly recommend you going to one (any masterclass for that matter) when he does one again. Players' like that with so much experience often have interesting insights and approaches to the guitar.  Totally revived my determination to get to a good standard on classical and has taken the 'chore' out of learning.

Hopefully Mr Ogden didn't state the (rather glib and patronising) comment that some 'better' guitarists make of 'Its all under the fingers'.

Frankieabbot

Double post. Apologies.

beed84

Frankieabbot said:

beed84 said:

digitalkettle said:

Frankieabbot said:

I missed the master class. May have missed a motivational opportunity there as well as a learning one. I noticed that Mr Ogdens fingers were quite small....Is your reference to Smallman guitar in indication he has a custom made or 3/4 size guitar?

He plays a Greg Smallman guitar...'spensive!

You're not kidding. £25,000 worth so we were told!  Sounded amazing though.

It really was a motivational class.  It's a shame you missed it.  I highly recommend you going to one (any masterclass for that matter) when he does one again. Players' like that with so much experience often have interesting insights and approaches to the guitar.  Totally revived my determination to get to a good standard on classical and has taken the 'chore' out of learning.

Hopefully Mr Ogden didn't state the (rather glib and patronising) comment that some 'better' guitarists make of 'Its all under the fingers'.

No, that wasn't uttered once; however, although he wasn't explicit in saying this, he did allude to something along the lines of 'you'll sound better if you have fingernails'.