I recently had coffee with an old friend. Because he is a classical guitarist we talked about guitar music, favorite editions, recent articles, recordings, etc. The kind of stuff that would send normal people into a festival of yawns. But it's the world we live in and we like it.
He had asked me earlier in the day if he could borrow a certain edition of a piece of music. He's learning it and wants to compare it to the editions that he already has. You see, a lot of our repertoire was written for other instruments and then arranged for guitar later. For example, the music of J. S. Bach is a staple for every classical guitarist, but Bach never wrote anything for the guitar....not one note. So making the leap from one instrument to another can create some technical difficulties. The struggle is to find artistic solutions for the problems that arise.
Because I used to be his teacher, he still values my opinion. So we talk about all manner of music stuff whenever we get together. After we discussed the piece I loaned him he asked me about a piece that he had loaned to me and wondered if I had learned it. I said that I had but that I had to change the fingerings in a couple of places. This lead to a new conversation. Isn't that how these conversations always go? One thing drifts to another which, in turn, reminds someone of still something else.
But this was getting deep into places that I thought I'd left behind. When I first got into playing and singing as a child I just loved playing "cool" songs. In my late teens I heard instrumental solo guitar playing and was mesmerized. I definitely wanted to be able to do that too. Then I briefly met an idol - Jose Feliciano - and he advised me to study classical guitar. But when I did that something unexpected happened. I fell in love with the music and lost interest in all of the other music that I had been playing. My musical focus was always on classical music.
But gradually something dark happened too. Because I was very self-conscious about being self taught I would get very nervous about playing in public. I was always worried about "doing it" wrong. I was particularly concerned about teaching my students incorrectly so I was always researching and verifying. And then it happened......I stopped having fun.
Fun. The nucleus of the effort. There is no earthly reason for me to be doing this if I'm not having any fun. So I went in search of fun. The first thing I did was stop teaching college. That had never been much fun. Then I began to question the music I was playing. Many of the pieces were considered "standard" repertoire so I had to know them in order to teach them. But I found myself teaching music that I didn't like to people who didn't want to learn it so they could play it for people who didn't want to hear it. Geez! Who thinks this stuff up?
Okay. I know that is an exaggeration. But it summerizes my feelings at the time. So now I only play the "cool" music. And I get to define "cool". And I get to play it the way I want. Sure I'll check different editions because it's stupid not to. But I'll make decisions based on what I think sounds the best. I won't be trying to keep up with the "Jones's" any more. And after a thirty year lay off, I'll put myself at the center of my artist universe. Kinda selfish of me, but it's more fun this way.