jon edgell | cavatina.co.uk | classical guitar tuition in Lewes

cavatina.co.uk

jon edgell/guitar

I am a guitarist living in Brighton, East Sussex. I have been playing for 20 years and trained with classical guitarists Carlos Bonell and Paul Gregory.

PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOT CURRENTLY TAKING ON NEW STUDENTS - however please still look at my website and feel free to contact me with any comments or for advice.

Free first lesson
Beginners and/or children welcome
Friendly patient teaching
Spare guitars for lessons
Classical, acoustic, electric
Rock School
CRB checked
Certificate in Music Education, Trinity College London
£20/lesson (45mins), children £15 (30mins)

guitar teaching in Brighton

teaching guitar tuition in Brighton

PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOT CURRENTLY TAKING ON NEW STUDENTS - however please still look at my website and feel free to contact me with any comments or for advice.

The guitar is a challenging and difficult instrument to master and even at the very top level many professional recitals are not immune to errors and lapses.

However it is also extremely rewarding for beginners and intermediate students where very effective and impressive pieces of music (many that have been played in concert and recorded by professionals) can be learned within a matter of months of starting. guitar teacher guitar teacher

Indeed for a dedicated student it is possible to go from zero to Cavatina in one year!

guitars

Guitarists are lucky in that a nice sounding instrument can be obtained for only £100. Even if you drop it down the stairs it sounds good! (unlike some other instruments at the beginners stage eg. violins). It is therefore not a huge financial risk for a beginner.

After that a "solid wood top" rather than laminated guitar will begin at around £300. A really nice "student" model can be purchased for £500 - £1,000. Hand made guitars made by luthiers typically range from £2,500 - £5,000.

Second hand instruments can be purchased for a fraction of the above prices. But unlike some other instruments guitars do not generally improve with age and there are certain things to look out for when considering buying a second hand guitar (please contact me for further information on buying new or second hand).

Classical guitars have nylon stings (as opposed to the slightly larger and louder acoustic guitars that have steel strings). Although to many people a classical guitar and an acoustic guitar look the same they are actually very different and an acoustic guitar is generally not very conducive to a classical technique although there are now some players who have developed extremely effective finger picking techniques for acoustic guitar. Classical guitars are also often called Spanish guitars. This usually refers to the type of guitar rather than where it was actually made.

A classical guitar should not be confused with a flamenco guitar which again is a different type. Classical guitars come in two types - cedar or spruce. The difference is personal. John Williams uses a cedar and Julian Bream a spruce; you can hear the difference on their recordings if you listen closely enough.

The characteristics are:

Spruce - paler yellow or even white, bright, sharp, mellows slightly and improves with age up to a peak which might be 5 to 10 years, often made by English makers, preferred by Julian Bream.

Cedar - a deeper orange colour, often made by Spanish makers, mellow, warm, sound good immediately, preferred by John Williams.

Famous luthiers (guitar makers) include: Ramirez, Romanillos, Smallman, Fischer, Hauser

For further advice on makes, makers, stores, and buying tips, please email me.

guitarists

Andre Segovia
watch on you tube - Mozart Variations

Julian Bream
watch on you tube - Sor Study No. 5

Baden Powell
watch on you tube

John Williams
watch on you tube - with Julian Bream

Tommy Emmanuel
watch on you tube

John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, Al di Meola
watch on you tube

Clive Carroll
watch on you tube

Jerry Garcia
watch on you tube

Robert Fripp
watch on you tube

Neil Young (with CSN)
watch on you tube - Down by the River

John Martyn
watch on you tube - Small Hours

William Ackerman
watch on you tube

T-Bone Walker
watch on you tube

repertoire

The classical guitar repertoire is enormous spanning several centuries. It contains music originally written for other instruments (eg. lute, viheulha, piano, harpsichord, violin) and transcribed for guitar, and music writen specifically for the guitar. Many classical pieces of music have been arranged or transcribed for guitar with mixed success; where this has been most successful, in the cases of the composers listed below, the guitar version often exceeds the original. For example the Albeniz solo piano pieces are most famous in their guitar incarnations which particularly capture the Spanish flavour of the music. guitar teacher, guitar tuition, Brighton, brighton, BN

Classical guitar music has become famous by being used in film and TV eg. The Deerhunter, Nokia phone ad, Hammy Hamster theme tune

Composers who wrote specifically for the guitar (aswell as for other instruments in some cases) include: Sor Rodrigo Pujol Carcassi Carulli Paganini Walton Powell Britten Barrios Llobet Turina Villa-Lobos Mompou Poulenc Tarrega Brouwer

Composers whose music has been most widely transcribed for the guitar include: Granados Scarlatti DeVisee Dowland Albeniz Bach

Segovia personally arranged many classical pieces by composers like Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart. However these are fiendishly difficult and generally considered inferior to the originals and are little played today!

Personally I find it helpful to divide my music into 3 broad categories: Spanish, Latin American and Classical/European (the latter category including everything from Renaissance transcriptions to modern day). The term classical is slightly misleading in that in guitar playing it refers to a style of fingerpicking but in general music terms although it is used as a generic term strictly it refers to an era in music history ie. 1700s.

rock school

This is especially fun for the kids! We spend some time learning acoustic guitar and then plug in and rock out on the electric (with some drum accompaniment).

recommended listening

Here are some personal favourites. Of particular good value are the Naxos label classical guitar CDs (also see my CD reviews section).

Andre Segovia / Hmv recordings

Neil Young / Zuma

Carlos Barbosa-Lima / Chants for the Chief

Julian Bream / Volume 9 Baroque Guitar

Ricardo Cobo / Brouwer Music Vol.1 (naxos)

Adam Holzmann / Lauro Waltzes (naxos)

Baden Powell / Frankfurt Concert

Grateful Dead / From the Mars Hotel

CSNY / 4 Way Street

T Bone Walker / Good Feelin'

A Goni / Barrios Vol 1 (naxos)

William Ackerman / Passages

Tommy Emmanuel / Only

articles

Most of these documents are in pdf format (you can freely download the Adobe Reader software to read pdf files via the internet).

On memorisation - an article from Larry McDonald's website

Segment practice - another excellent article from Larry McDonald

The opus numbers of the Segovia 20 Sor Studies - this is a classic guitar music book of Segovia's favourite Sor studies

CD reviews I have a monthly column in the Brighton Insight City News. Here is a selection of my CD reviews.

resources

Sheet music - a personal selection of free music to download (pdf format)

Baden Powell music - a superb free resource for players wanting to learn some of Baden Powell's music which can otherwise be quite hard to come by. Midi files and tabs are available to download with the printed music. A new piece (transcribed from recordings) is added each month.

Dirk's guitar page - one of many sites where free music can be downloaded.

Click here for a page of classical guitar links from the Guitar Forum

Free sheet music - a great resource of music from the Icelandic Guitar School!