See a guitar and what do you feel?
That they touch it below its capabilities, pity!
What are the possibilities?
The endless sonic and expressive possibilities of the guitar.
Are we playing it wrong?
With techniques from the end of the 19th century, with gut strings, and tuned below their current tuning.
With what result?
That the guitar barely sounds and ends up being a boring and distant instrument.
Microphones and Speakers: Solved!
Unnecessary if you play it with a certain technique.
What technique?
All my life I have been improving a technique that extracts the expressiveness of the guitar.
That is?
I’ll play, hear it yourself…
How good it sounds! How do I explain it?
I have mastered the technique to play loud, sonorous and without muscle cramping. I adjust my fingers in a certain position when stepping on the fret, when playing and strumming…
The typing, the fingers…
A finger pose, yes. That is, by hand. That is, of the arm. That is, from the trunk. That is, of the legs. That is, from the feet… From the whole body!
A body posture.
The guitar is not played with the fingers, the guitar is played with the whole body.
He just donated a headline to me.
All the guitarists play with their backs.
And which position would be correct?
That of Taüll’s pantocrator: no arm effort when holding the guitar.
Understood.
And it’s not the same if the guitarist is fat or thin, tall or short…
Does it affect the sound of the guitar?
Yes. Narciso Yepes had small hands. Andrés Segovia, fingers like sausages. Me, weak hands… You need to use your fingers and hands properly.
And rehearse a lot?
I practice seven to eight hours a day.
He must already be a virtuoso of his technique…
I get an unheard of dramatic expression. And I compose my own romantic repertoire for the guitar, since all my life…
How many works have you composed?
Three hundred works: for solo guitar, songs, chamber music, concertos for guitar and orchestra… Romantic aesthetics did not exist for guitar, since conventional technique prevented that musical style from sounding good.
I am surprised
For the first time I have used the 24 major and minor keys for guitar: they increase their dynamic contrasts and already compete in sonority and style with piano and orchestra!
What do other musicians say to him?
“This is a delusion of yours”, at first.
I ara?
There is resistance, there is a certain academic impermeability to what departs from convention…
And you continue on your way, despite everything?
Yes, and I compose, interpret, research and debate: the most open and flexible guitarists observe how I have systematized the extension of the fingers of the left hand, the anticipated preparation of the fingers or the monophalangeal cellette to obtain the optimal legato.
Celleta monophalangica…
It multiplies the possibilities of chords and harmonies.
I’d rather have him play again, please, than hear him explain it.
Enchanted, and I encourage you to listen to my Rialp Concert: guitar and orchestra dialogue… As a musician, my only commitment is to beauty. I’m looking for beauty.
And what is beauty?
I was ten years old when I found out. A boyfriend of my sister put on Schubert’s Unfinished… and it was a revelation!
What happened?
I felt that until that moment I had not lived. It moved me. The next day he was humming her down the street…
Did it change your life?
A teacher asked the class what we would be when we grew up. I raised my hand: “Musician!” I affirmed. He was the only one in the class. Listening to Schubert’s Winterreise still draws out of me emotions that I myself did not know.
Are you satisfied with your life?
A lot: I have been true to my inner light, I have not been a slave.
Did you meet Paco de Lucía?
Yes. Dazzling in its flamenco technical tradition, very sophisticated and passed down from generation to generation.
Comparable to yours?
That of the flamenco is another mental structure. Not even a flamenco guitarist can play what I do or I can play like he does.
What advice would you give to a new guitarist?
When you play, you express yourself, not the guitar.
