Jazz interviews
The answers to this question are mostly individual for each of the players
interviewed. However, there are some interesting thoughts and threads that have emerged from these answers which are relevant to the research.
140 Alan Williams is a jazz guitarist, although he now dedicates himself mostly to the areas of composition, singing, lecturing, and academia. His answer to this question is one which actually coincides with one of the most important conclusions I reached through the interview and research process. Williams (2014) says “I think I might choose to go back and actually study classical guitar. Although I love playing jazz - and I’ve got reasonable technique and I am able to play most of the things that I want to play, knowing what I know now as a composer, I know that the classical guitar technique is a pretty much more flexible technique, and that more can be done. It certainly opens up possibilities in terms of colour” William continues “There is a kind of conceptual divide between the single line and the chord that happens in pop and folk guitar, and also to an extent in jazz” he pauses before adding “Because in
classical technique you don’t learn chords, I mean, they arise out of the music and of course they are chords, but you don’t learn chords as chord positions, I think that makes for a much more blended kind of technique” he concludes “One of the earliest recordings of classical guitar that I heard was Narciso Yepes playing Bach. He was able to project counterpoint through the guitar, which I think is really hard to do, and I don’t think I ever managed to do it in jazz although I hear it. I think classical guitar technique at its best, enables people to do that”. I found Williams’ answer to be of particular value since, as a composer, he has an advanced sense of the possibilities for colour and tone music. As he says “knowing what he knows as a composer” he can see a much more flexible technique in the classical style, which allows for more to be done.
Although I have personally not explored the world of solo counterpoint jazz
improvisation as much as somebody such as Martin Taylor, I can say that as a jazz player, I have personally experienced many of the benefits that Williams refers to thanks to my own study of the classical guitar. The solo jazz arrangements that I have made (of which there are examples in the demonstrations video that
accompanies this thesis in Appendix 1) would not be possible for me to play properly without the technique that I have acquired through my classical studies. This is true for the tone and colour aspects of the performances, as well as for the way in which
141 elements of melody, bass and chords are incorporated into one instrumental
performance.
Another interesting answer to the question was that of aforementioned internationally celebrated jazz guitarist Martin Taylor (who, coincidentally, was Alan Williams’
inspiration for learning jazz guitar). He is indeed a master of solo performance in jazz, and is able to incorporate improvised counterpoint as well as walking bass, chord-melody and all other stylistic devices. Taylor (2015) says “I am grateful for the fact that I learned how to play first of all by ear, and then learned to read music later. But I wish that I had studied orchestration. I would have loved to write music and arrange for an orchestra”.
This aural development is certainly one of the key elements of jazz playing and improvisation. Jazz first originated as a style which was developed and passed on through listening. Although orchestration, theory and notation came in later with arranging and with more advanced sub-genres, an acute listening ability is still needed for musicians to be able to recognise scales, intervals and chords by ear, enabling them to improvise with a much greater sense of control, freedom and spontaneity. For many classical players, the idea of playing by ear, away from
notation or memory, is a daunting prospect. As we will discover amongst the classical answers that follow, many classical guitarists actually wish they had been provided with the ear training that Martin mentioned previously, and pointed out he was grateful for having done first.
Classical interviews
There were different things mentioned by classical guitarists when answering this question. For example, Emma Smith wishes that she had started younger on the instrument. Steve Davismoon would have liked to have been more patient with
himself as far as perfecting and internalising the performance of pieces early on in his advanced training. Interestingly, David Oakes mentioned networking with established musicians as something very important, and he wishes that he would have done it more extensively earlier in his career.
142 However, four classical guitarists have something in common in their answers. They wish that they had been provided with something that the classical school as a whole did not offer. Of them, three coincide in what that something is specifically.
Sam Rodwell, Craig Ogden and Jamie Macrae all wish they had been taught to play by ear and develop listening skills much earlier in their development as musicians. Rodwell (2014) says “I’ve never played by ear. I fell into classical guitar at a very young age and stuck with it, stayed focused on that and didn’t really do other styles. If I was to go back I would have liked my teacher to have taught me a little bit by ear so my ear was more in tune with intervals, etc. I realised when I got to college that my dictation was unbelievably bad”.
Although Jamie Macrae didn’t start with the classical guitar but with rock and blues instead, he also initially learned by concentrating more on shapes and the movement of the fingers. “I would learn the aural aspect of the modes or scales that I was
playing more thoroughly before I went into just playing them. I think learning that is just as important as learning the technique of playing through the scale” (Macrae, 2014). Similarly, when asked the same question, internationally acclaimed classical player Craig Ogden (2014) said “Yes, there is one absolutely key thing (that I would change), and that is that I would have hugely valued being made to play by ear more from the very beginning. That is the one great thing that I feel very insecure about” Craig later goes on to mention that he feels his natural ear is actually quite good, however he would have liked to have been encouraged to use it more “I have done enough to know that I hear things effectively, but I am very slow to work things out by ear, to analyse chord harmonies by ear, or to notate things by ear. I find it quite hard but I get there in the end”. He later concludes that, if apart from having been made to develop all the skills that he did develop, he would have also been encouraged to work on the aural side, it would have been highly beneficial “It would have made such a big difference to the general development and my own feeling of being a broad, well trained, well educated musician. That’s the one thing I would completely change”.
143 Royal Northern College of Music classical guitar graduate David Bainbridge points to what could be one of the causes for the lack of attention given to aural skills in the training of many classical guitarists “I wish that the system of classical tuition was more exploratory and it had a more open-minded approach. It is basically old fashioned and based mostly on playing old pieces” (Bainbridge, 2014).
It is interesting to see that many interviewees have given quite different answers to this question, particularly within the jazz group. At the same time, a thread has been discovered in the way that a considerable percentage of the classical guitarists (particularly those who have not had any experience in other genres) feel about their lack of listening and aural skills.
Although there is not enough evidence at this point to suggest that this is also a clear thread, it is interesting to see how a jazz guitarist (Alan Williams), who has later gained advanced knowledge in areas such as colour, texture, orchestration and counterpoint as a classical composer, points to the classical guitar as a style with more versatile technique and tone possibilities.
Question 3 - Have you ever come in contact with the classical/jazz school of