Ben’s Blog

I really dig the salty tone in Sor’s writing at times. I’m re-reading the Method for the Guitar, and really liked this quote:

“I make a great distinction between a musician and a note-player.”

I love that. He goes on to describe in detail what makes a musician and what makes a note-player. Really nice passage (page 18 of this Dover edition from 2007).

Here’s a nice piece Allegro in G, from The Classic Guitar Collection, Volume 1 page 53 (Amsco ISBN 0.8256.2268.9) that lays out pretty well on bass. The only tricky part is measure 12, where I opt to switch hands playing the top voice with the left hand and the bottom with the right, which I do right through to the end. That seemed to be the only way to keep the pulse going.

Anyway, I’ll have to call this the practice of a note-player, but I’m always aspiring to musician status. Back to work. See you later.

bentorrey :: May.24.2008 :: Repertoire :: No Comments »

A few weeks ago I was driving to a rehearsal, and I wasn’t particularly prepared on the rep for our spring concert. I was listening to WHRB’s Afternoon Concert. Ah, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, not sure of the performer. Man, I hadn’t heard that in awhile.

That night I found myself, although I should have been working on the rep for the concert, trying a few of my favorite snippets on the EAB. I had a lot of fun with that, I’ll have to try that with a Music Minus One type CD, what a great piece!

Here’s a few snippets from a practice session on that. Far from a polished thing (and I expect a lot of negative comments on YouTube about these videos), but I hope it inspires someone to take on the whole piece on EAB, I think that would sound great.

bentorrey :: May.18.2008 :: Musical Thoughts, Repertoire :: No Comments »

Awhile back I saw the Demania Trio at the Natick Arts Center. What an amazing show. After the show there was a meet and greet session, and I had a question in my head, but it wasn’t fully formed yet. Later it came to me as a pretty cool question to ask everyone in group, so I did that. Below is the question, with responses from Chris Garcia and Michael Manring which they graciously allowed me to share on my humble blog. I think you’ll enjoy.

Question: As an ensemble, I found you guys had an incredible sense of time. I felt like you guys could rest for 400 measures of any of tune, and come back in together on the downbeat. How do you do that? Any ensemble practice tips you could share? Is it just a matter of playing together a lot, or are there some specifics that you could mention “for the rest of us” so we may improve our sense of time and pulse in music and ensemble playing. Take care, Ben

Answer from Chris Garcia (with pieces of the question inline):
Q: As an ensemble, I found you guys had an incredible sense of time.

THANKS

Q: I felt like you guys could rest for 400 measures of any of tune, and come back in together on the downbeat. How do you do that?

the answer is simple and i hope i don’t sound like an idiot

we just listen

like any conversation, you listen,
then you respond,
not react, but respond to the conversation

sometimes you have conversations where things fall silent
the silence is not uncomfortable
it just is what it is
take it as that and everything else just works

Q: Any ensemble practice tips you could share?

knowing the music you are playing first off
and knowing that some pieces are more open than others in regards to structure

if you are working within a harmonic framework you know that it is going to come around again
of course you can break that up rhythmically so that the feel changes and the length of the harmony does not
i.e., a super imposed metric modulation
and/or a straight metric modulation, which would change the length of the harmony

if you are working within an open structure you can either
assign aural cues to get in and out
or just listen
sometimes we have aural cues
sometimes we have them and we don’t use them
just depends on the piece

Q: Is it just a matter of playing together a lot, or are there some specifics that you could mention “for the rest of us” so we may improve our sense of time and pulse in music and ensemble playing.

the “rest of us” DEFINITELY includes me too
i was told that the best way to improve my time was not by locking myself up in a practice room with a metronome
but by walking
believe it or not, everyone walks in their own time
so when you’re walking your right foot could be 1
it could either be a whole note, half note, quarter note or ??

you then sing 3’s, 4′,s 5′,s 6′,s 7′,s 8′,s 9′,s 10’s 11′,s against it
over it until you feel them
it is easier to start with even subdivisions
2’s, 4′,s 8′,s etc

go back and forth between those
then once you are comfortable go into the larger odd groupings
you will eventually feel these
and then you are at the next level
but it should not be some sterile intellectual exercise
sing melodies in those subdivisions
if you can’t sing it
you don’t hear it

which is why you should do it when you are walking and/or running
it becomes part of your LIFE
which eventually reflects thru your music

Answer from Michael Manring:

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the question and kind comments. I suppose it’s not a matter of
playing a lot together because we really don’t get to play together very
often! We’re all pretty obsessive about keeping the “radar” up when we’re
playing — not only listening as deeply as possible, but looking for any
visual cues as well. We do a lot of work in an Indian-based rhythmic system
that allows us to share a certain understanding of how things might proceed,
so that helps. Our version of it is far from authentic, but it does offer a
common framework. We tend to take a lot of chances and if it was a bigger
group it’d be harder to pull off, but with a trio, if everyone is really
tuned in you can be pretty musically agile.

Best wishes,
Michael

bentorrey :: May.11.2008 :: Musical Thoughts :: No Comments »

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 I sold a few instruments and sent the money to the Red Cross. It seems like it’s time to do that again.

As I look at the wall to my left, I see an incredible collection of instruments that I don’t have the time to play. Pretty much all I’ve been playing in the last year is my acoustic electric 5-string and my upright. Time to sell a few of the instruments I don’t play much and donate 100% of the sale price to Unicef for cyclone relief in Myanmar.

So, the two I will sell are my Rogue 4-string fretless and my Carvin LB76F 6-string fretless. To start I’d like to sell these in the Boston area so I don’t have to ship, so I’ll list first on Craigslist, but then we’ll try eBay or something.

A few notes about each instrument:

The Rogue 4-string is a pretty amazing instrument. You can buy them at Musician’s Friend for $120. When mine arrived it needed a fair amount of work though. I brought it to Jim and John Mouradian and they got it playing great by replacing the nut and doing a real thorough adjustment. The action is incredibly low. I call it my “Zon Rip Off” (ZRO) bass. It’s great for intonation practice with fretless tapping, and the neck is unfazed by any alternate tunings you try. I’ve got it tuned tenor currently with nickel strings. The fretboard isn’t epoxied, but it’s some sort of composite, not wood, so you’ll be fine keeping roundwounds on it. I’d like to get $200 to Unicef for this bass.

The 6-string Carvin LB76F is a really nice instrument. I bought it on Craiglist myself awhile ago for $475, but just haven’t had time to do much with it. It had some pickup wiring problems and neck bow issues, and I had those taken care of by Jim and John as well. It’s currently strung with flatwounds and tuned B-C. The neck is beautiful ebony, but untreated, so I’d be real careful with roundwounds. My plan was to have Harris Thor epoxy it so I could use roundwounds and tune E-F and I prefer now on 6-ers. I’d like to get $600 to Unicef for this bass.

You can see both basses in this video playlist at YouTube. Contact me at BENTORREY AT HOTMAIL DOT COM with any questions.

bentorrey :: May.08.2008 :: W.O.T. (Way Off Topic) or is it? :: No Comments »

I went to the New Music Festival sponsored by the Boston Classical Guitar Society last Saturday. A wonderful day put together by Frank Wallace and the entire BCGS team. Great job everyone!

The whole day was a highlight really and culminated in an amazing show by Atanas Ourkouzounov and Mie Ogura.

I’ll probably blog about a few topics from the day over the next few weeks, including catching up with my former NEC/Tufts classmate Brad Colten, as well as the great Bartók lecture and demonstration by Daniel Acsadi.

But, for right now I’ll mention one particular highlight, and that was the coaching masterclass by Atanas Ourkouzounov.

There was a really fantastic mandolin player being coached by Mr. Ourkouzounov. She was working on a piece called “A Gleam in Winter” by Yasuo Kuwahara. I wasn’t familiar with the piece, and neither was Atanas at first, but his coaching, within a span of 30 minutes, took the piece to the next level. Parts that had been sort of straight runs took on a conversational character as emphasis of the higher and lower threads was accented. The dynamics became more pronounced, articulation was adjusted to bring out aspects of the phrasing.

Ah, that’s hard stuff to put into words, but the piece went from a piece to a showpiece inside of 30 minutes. Good coaching is great to see and be around. It doesn’t always feel “comfortable” to the person being coached, in fact, that’s when you know you’re getting the good coaching (should feel like sandpaper). I need to get more of that good coaching over the next few years. I know so many great players and teachers in the area, but I have some very real limitations of budget and time to work carefully within.

Anyway, after the masterclass I had the honor to meet Atanas. We chatted a bit about favorite music and musicians. I told him I’m a huge Ivo Papasov fan. Funny enough, there wasn’t any Ivo Papasov tunes on the program, but during his concert he did play one. I wonder if I had a hand in that program addition?

bentorrey :: May.04.2008 :: Stocking the Pond, Filling the Well :: No Comments »