It is my pleasure to welcome internationally acclaimed guitarist Neil Smith to my website. Neil has taught classical guitar and given masterclasses all over the world. His book “Have Guitar Will Travel” features musical stories from the last century, on the road with a professional guitarist as he tours the globe. Details from the musician’s website; www.guitaristuk.com
Neil was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to allow me to interview him recently..
Neil, where did you study guitar, and who was your early tutors?
“I took up electric guitar self-taught @ 13 then I copied Chet Atkins by ear and others. I took up classical guitar at 21 and had lessons with many tutors; Michael Strutt, Bryan Lester, Adele Kramer, Julian Byzantine, John Duarte and theory with the pianist Robert Marsh. I then got a scholarship to study with Diaz and Brouwer in Canada in 1975.”
Who do you regard as your main musical influences?
“Segovia was an initial influence but, because I had had such a wide ‘tutorial’ base, I couldn’t simply stay with one icon or style. So I took an interest in Brouwer long, long before most people in the UK and also Barrios and importantly, those Eastern composers like Rak, Koshkin, Panin and so on. I felt that British writers already had good representation with the already ‘famous’ players and anyway; WHO says I have to play exactly what someone else likes?”
What pieces have you commissioned, or have had written/dedicated to you?
“I have had works written for me and for my Duo with John Turner (Recorders) by Stepan Rak, Michael Berkeley, John Golland, John Duarte, Michael Ball, Nicholas Marshall, Alan Bullard, Yasuo Kuwahara, Eric Hudes and quite a few more. One piece that I missed out on slightly was the superb Sonata Mongoliana by Rak which he intended to give as a present to me, but before he arrived in the UK, he premiered it at The Kremlin and it was dedicated to someone there. I nonetheless took it across the globe later and I played it for Julian Bream and Leo Brouwer at a dinner we had together and they certainly seemed impressed with it.”
Who do you feel are the guitars most outstanding contributors, in terms of composition for the instrument?
“I’m not always impressed by works written by non-players; some people find these fascinating. I’m afraid that I don’t. The reason being that someone like Brouwer or Rak has a natural ‘feel’ for the range and effective contrapuntal voicing of a guitar whereas a composer may have no idea and think that it is like a keyboard. For example, one ‘writer’ simply drew out a guitar neck full of notes and then sent me a piece with FOUR-part counterpoint above the 12th fret! This is not composition; it could never be played and was useless. In classical terms I admire the greats like Sor (his easy Studies are wonderful) Giuliani, Aguado and even good Carcassi. Dowland, Holborne, Milano and Molinaro are my Lute favourites and of course Bach and Weiss and Scarlatti I feel are probably among the greatest.”
Teaching the classical guitar has come a long way since the early Segovia years. Do you feel there is an particular aspect of guitar technique that is particularly misunderstood by students, even players? By that, I mean in your experience, do you think many young guitarists don’t give enough attention to sight reading for example, or scales..
“I think sight reading has improved in colleges somewhat over the years and this is due to an increase in the amount of Ensemble in use. A good number of guitarists I meet are not always good at Chords both in terms of notation-shape and also of progressions. In a sense it can be hard to teach someone who cannot refer to a general progression or voicing and some players, even after long years are lax with scales. One class I gave abroad was on V-Lobos Prelude 1; the player was a Graduate and he got lost. When I asked him to think of
an E natural-minor scale, he simply stared at me and had no ammunition…how would a player like that cope out there in the guitar world?”
I guess what I’m really asking about is modern teaching standards.. Are students these days coming to you for first time better educated, better prepared technically than 15 years ago for example?
“Higher level students (like those I teach/examine at the Royal Northern College of Music) do seem to have an awareness of good repertoire and use it and I think this is certainly different to my students days. I think too that there is a more open view of what can be played on the guitar, an acceptance of the guitar in mainstream music. This view was validated when I went to Russia to teach, examine and play. In the former Revolutionary days, all instruments were considered on their own merit and allowed to attempt available works. This continued into the new Federation and, unlike in the West, they still have special music schools for young persons and therefore produce some remarkable early results.”
What advice can you offer for young players to overcome performance nerves?
“Nerves are not simply a young problem. Readers may like to check out an article in Classical Guitar… Face the Music (out 2008) to assist with this. One thing to remember is that quite possibly, you are the best prepared person in the building that night to play the music; other people may ‘think’ they can do it then and there…but I bet they cannot. Therefore you are entitled to go on stage and play and give your honest opinion, not in words, but in Music. I think it is wise to develop programmes with a differing focal point than any other. For example, I always used to begin each half with early music, not slamming all the early music in Part One. And it has always worked wherever I play, my own plan to settle me down.
I may say that I have played complete programmes of one composer (Albeniz, V-Lobos, Ponce, etc) for an anniversary and it is not easy. The same way, many young players think they should commence with Bach; with experience, this can work but, normally a player would need time to settle and need lots of experience over the fences before risking that. One quite famous player I know will not play anything ‘on stage’ until he has played it well for two years. Extreme maybe, but it does settle the nerves issue. Another player I know goes on with a policy of ‘editing’ as he goes along, especially in his own material. Was it not Hummel who said he was ok playing his own pieces, but playing works by other composers made him nervous. And John Duarte told me about a man he met who had actually seen Albeniz in concert; apparently Albeniz reduced the amount of notes in his own items. This goes for the Jazz/Rock/Pop world too; no-one sounds exactly like their discs and they change things. Is that nerves, incompetence or development?”
Which guitar projects are you currently working on? (Recordings ect)
“I have already a number of CD projects listed below and because I tend to go for a single style on a CD, you can find that the listed CDs approximate Spanish music, Latin-American music, Italian music, British music and so on. My next CD I hope to call Eastern Express and will look into music from Poland eastwards to Siberia…some of it not recorded ever. And I also plan a rather Celtic-style album too with the Neil Gow’s Shadow on it, one of my Celtic discoveries.”
Thank you very much, Neil, for taking time out to answer my questions, and for your outstanding contribution to the guitar.
Neil Smith CD listing;
LA DANZA Spanish dances from www.guitaristuk.com
VIRTUOSO Italian music from www.guitarcds.net
VISTA DEL SUR Latin-Am music from HLM, Holland
HAT BOX Recorder + Guitar British modern music from www.dimusic.co.uk
Scores;
Scores…..
Six Dances by Michael Praetorius Lathkill Music, UK
Niel Gow’s Shadow (Celtic-Anon) Lathkill Music, UK.
What’s that old saying about the best laid pland of mice and men…It’s easy to get distracted from things you enjoy doing if life throws issues in your path. I’ll upload more video’s soon, to at least provide music to listen to, in between my erratic ramblings. Kathleen Maher of the excellent website Diary of a Heretic tagged me for a meme, one word answers, which I completed below. Thanks Kathleen, for thinking about me 
After upgrading to the latest 
Firstly, here is some trivia, today in History, March 20th..
Guitarist 
I guess humor works best with many things, even music 
If your thinking of traveling in Asia, a perennially popular venue is Singapore, an Asian city where Chinese, Malay and Indian traditions create part of the everyday landscape - colourful contrasts that bring the city to life.
