Hey!

Welcome to issue 7/24 of our newsletter.

We are truly amazed to see the community grow steadily and receive so much positive feedback, and we are pleased that we can make a small contribution to the exchange about the classical guitar. In our opinion, the variety of expressive possibilities that the instrument offers across styles is and remains fantastic. 

With this in mind, we start today's issue with a bluegrass classic by Jerry Reed, played by American fretboard virtuoso Alec Holcomb. With her miniature "Töredek", Hungarian guitarist Margaréta Lakner gives us a cool piece that is really fun to play.

A complete recording of Tōru Takemitsu's entire oeuvre of compositions and transcriptions for guitar? Flávio Nati did it! What a feat!

After that, we will talk all things music/guitar videos. Being fanboys from the very beginning, this time we are particularly pleased about the Know-How interview with Hendrik and Nico from Open Strings Berlin. 

Finally, there's one of the 100 greatest dance hits – and that's not what it seems at first glance…

But read for yourself!
Enjoy,
Stefan & Willi 

YOUTUBE FIND OF THE WEEK
Alec Holcomb plays “The Claw” by Jerry Reed

Some say he is one of the most exciting younger classical guitarists on the North American continent – and rightly so. His extremely smooth and powerful interpretations of the “Grand Overture”, “Asturias”, the “Mozart Variations” and other highlights of the repertoire are highly recommended. We are talking about Alec Holcomb, a classical guitarist from the USA. Today, however, we have chosen a video that doesn't have much to do with classical music. Except perhaps that Alec himself writes under the video that playing the piece is very beneficial to the technique of the right hand. 

"The Claw" is first and foremost a bluegrass piece by Jerry Reed. Originally played with a full band. But with Alec's solo guitar version you don't miss anything. As a soloist, he also races across the strings with ease and adds an extra layer of volume and brilliance with his fine classical tone. Of course, many fingerstyle guitarists can play this, too. What we personally really like, however, is when classical musicians play outside the much-quoted box, delving into other genres. And even more so when it happens with the following kind of inspiration:

„My Grandpa played bluegrass guitar with his family in West Virginia, and he was especially inspired by the music of Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.“ 

Chapeau, Alec. We celebrate it!

SHEET MUSIC
Margaréta Lakner -Töredek

In the first issue of the newsletter, the composer of today's piece already enriched us with a few tips and practice exercises on the subject of "tremolo". Now Margaréta Lakner is also contributing a miniature, “Töredek”, to the newsletter. Many thanks for this!

This piece truly invites you to play and flow along. Like a captured moment of an improvisation. A fragment – which comes closest to a translation of "Töredek".

There is a lot to discover, we can promise you that. Be it finding the right timbre, the right mix between melody and accompaniment, or the infinite variations of these parameters. 

We also recommend detaching yourself a little from the exact note values. Just try a free take on the music text.

Margaréta has insinuated that she has a complete version of "Töredek" in the drawer. We will be happy to see the completed fragment find its way out!

Enjoy your exploration!

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Flávio Nati: Tōru Takemitsu: Complete Works & Transcriptions for Solo Guitar

Takemitsu's compositions are undoubtedly a gift for the classical guitar world. The high tonal sensitivity and precision of his compositions are an enormous challenge for interpreters. However, if they live up to it, any listener will have a hard time not getting lost in daydreams. The influence of French music on Takemitsu is well-documented. As are those of pop music, jazz, the music of the Second Viennese School and film music. In any case: the interweaving of tones, dissonances, resonances and rubbing. All this requires the highest playing skills.

Flávio Nati, however, has not only recorded a single interpretation, but, just like that, ALL (!) of Takemitsu's guitar compositions plus all the pop arrangements. Amazing project, beautiful result, and a great gift to us as listeners.

We find this album to be sensitively played, with a wonderful, shimmering sound. We were particularly taken with Flavio's recording of "Equinox" with all its tonal colors, but "All in Twilight" and "In the Woods" are also quite the treat. Takemitsu's Songs for Guitar, from Gershwin's "Summertime" to "Hey Jude" by the Beatles, are also on the LP. All played with magnificent permeability and tonal depth.

Our recommendation: summer evening, open a bottle of red wine, turn up the volume, and close your eyes. That's exactly what we just did. Thanks Flávio!

PS: Should the night get long and stay mild: Flávio has also released an LP with music by John Duarte. Just sayin'...

Listen here: https://lnkfi.re/flavionati

KNOW-HOW 
with Open Strings Berlin

Many of you might already know Hendrik Schacht and Nicolas Haumann from Open Strings Berlin, thanks to their high-quality guitar videos. The courage to do things differently, to include special locations and to integrate non-musical aspects is what their work is all about. And, what’s more, the way they develop ideas in collaboration with the artists and interview them about the recorded pieces makes their projects very special. They’ve been adding value to the scene for many years!

We are very happy that the two of them found the time to answer a few questions for us. This is a very special edition for us, as we not only appreciate Nicolas and Hendrik personally, but are also Open Strings Berlin fanboys from the very beginning!

1. Do you remember how the idea for Open Strings Berlin came up? Was there any initial spark or did it develop over time?

Well, the first moment when something stirred in us definitely was when, towards the end of our studies, we wanted to make videos of each other to promote ourselves a bit.

We scoured the social networks that were popular at the time in the classical guitar area and asked ourselves: Why does everything look so dreary? And then we made similarly dreary videos of each other. Haha! But the experience was important because we realized that we really enjoy filming.

This realization sparked a short and intense brainstorming in one of Berlin's oldest bars, the Bornholmer Hütte. Keywords: community / bringing cool people together on one channel / Google image search -> Open Strings

2. How did guitar videos change over the last 10 years (in terms of quality, aesthetics, etc.)?

We’re not here to judge the quality of the videos. All we can say is that most of the output that the guitar world or maybe even the whole world of classical music had didn't appeal to us.

So we just did our own thing.

It was a nice feeling to gradually notice how our ideas were being taken up by others, and we think people are now paying far more attention to an aesthetic coherence between sound and image. But there is still room for improvement.

3. What was your craziest video shoot?

We have so many funny, crazy stories that it's difficult to pick one, BUT:

We were guests at the CaminoArtes guitar course with René Izquierdo in Carrión de los Condes for several years and also shot a trailer about the festival in 2019. In fact, in our opinion, this is one of the most beautiful places for guitar in general and an incomparable experience. We wanted to capture that.

Federico Sheppard, the organizer and wild man of the venture, knows and loves the special features of the region on the Camino de Santiago like no other. So at one point during the course, in the middle of the siesta, he drove us to a remote field where a shepherd was herding the sheep with his donkey. A really special vista. A really specially hot time of day.

So Freddy showed us the place and when we had unloaded he said: "Let me just quickly drive to the workshop (he's also a guitar maker) and I'll pick you guys up in half an hour."

Two hours later we were still there. Inland Spain at midday in August and without trees. Without mobile reception. Without water.

That was certainly one of the most special experiences and looking back it was also incredibly funny because it fit so well into the overall picture of that time and that course.

The pictures turned out great and we both got the sunburns of our lives!

4. Can you describe your vision and how it differs from that of other video platforms?

We prefer not to define ourselves so much by differentiation. It has always been really important to us that we can work with the people we find interesting and that it’s affordable for everyone. We worked completely for free for the first two years, but since then we’ve had to charge a little to cover the effort and costs.

We have always found it difficult to convey one thing that is particularly important to us at Open Strings: the community of artists who have been/are with us. One way to promote this is the interviews that we do with all new artists whenever possible. We are currently thinking about other options and will be in touch with news soon!

Otherwise, we would just like to point out the aesthetic coherence again. We try to bring together location, artist, piece and feeling each time.

5. What is particularly important to you in terms of visual aesthetics and how has this idea changed over the years?

Watching a video is, in the best case, a bit like going to the cinema. You immerse yourself in a world. That works just as well with the music we make and is our aim as musicians, isn’t it? To take people with us.

How is that supposed to work with a video that reminds you of the sad reality at every second? So we want to create little worlds that help convey the music and the respective feeling. That has always been our aim, somehow, we just didn’t have the words for it.

The look and all other decisions concerning each video were found and formed from the beginning in discussions with the artists. In our last videos we have become much more conceptual and are really keen to go deeper in this direction.

6. How are you getting ready for the future, what are your plans, what are your visions?

First and foremost, we want to reach out to all of our artists and followers and bring them together again. Open Strings Berlin has a strong base of friends and supporters spread across the globe, whom we would like to thank.

In the medium term, we want to pursue a more regular release rhythm again and also introduce new formats in the long term. But we don't want to give too much away here yet. In any case, we are looking forward to getting in touch with our OSB family again!

7. Imagine you could have one sentence printed on a poster to be put up in huge numbers at all the (classical) music festivals in the world. What sentence would that be?

stay hydrated. 

More about Open Strings Berlin via www.openstringsberlin.de

GUITAR AND…
Motorboat

Instrumentation: Guitar & string quartet
Title: 100 Greatest Dance Hits
Movement: No. 4, „Dance Party on the Disco Motorboat“ 
Inspiration: A 70s music and dance TV Show called Soul Train! 
What… party, dancing, 70s? String quartet? Guitar?
MOTORBOAT???
Does it take more to arouse curiosity?
Yes? Okay!
Composer: Aaron J. Kernis (Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner)
Guitarist: Mak Grgić
Alright, now it’s time to watch!!! 

By the way, Baltimore Sun’s Tim Smith once summarized what’s behind 100 Greatest Dance Hits like this: 

“100 Greatest Dance Hits by Aaron Jay Kernis is a spicy, saucy work, a sort of affectionate deconstruction of pop music idioms, including vintage "easy listening," disco and salsa.”

OUTRO

We hope you enjoyed this issue. As always, please send us your feedback and suggestions by e-mail in response to this newsletter. For example, we would be very interested to know: Which composition from the first 6 issues have you already tried out for yourself?  

We look forward to hearing from you!

All the best,
Stefan & Willi

New Classical Guitar is a newsletter by Willi Leinen and Stefan Degel from TMBM. You can find our music and more information about our journey at http://t-m-b-m.com/.

On Spotify, we curate a playlist with our favorite pieces. Feel free to follow our New Classical Guitar Playlist at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZwxJRAsW9Zs2JiS2eLy6a?si=9b2a737f01c043a4 and recommend new additions.