Leonardo García has published the second part of my article about the Granada guitar-makers on his Six String Journal. When I started this blog I tried to exchange guest posts with a few bloggers and no one was interested. To me it seems like a great way to get more people reading about the guitar.
Tag Archives: johnray
Inlay
Guitars can be absolutely beautiful but usually the beauty is in the wood or in the functional form of the instrument. There are exceptions, however, and clients seem to love something a bit extra. My concert model and the Santos are decorated quite simply but the Torres SE 153 is pretty flashy. Another model that I used to make, a copy of Antonio de Lorca García used mother-of-pearl inlays in the bridge as well. Its something that takes some skill but really draws the eye. I like it but would never put it on all of my guitars. Furthermore I use MOP almost only when making my exact copies.
Videos of my guitars on lockdown
Another friend sent me a video playing his John Ray guitar. This is another Santos Hernández copy. Evaristo Valentí playing Mallorca by Albeniz.
Versatility
One of my favourite things about the guitar is its versatility. There are many types of guitars for playing different music but most of this music can be made to work on nylon strings. Jazz, Bossa Nova, reggae and many other styles are perfectly at home on the spanish guitar. Although I took a few years of classical lessons and the requisite flamenco classes when I came to Granada, I really only play the likes of John Prine and Tom Paxton so add country, folk and pop in to the list. I make mostly classical guitars of one description or another so it is not common that they are used to play other musics. However, here is someone who uses one of my guitars for accompanying his voice on his youtube channel.
Kithara Project
There is nothing good about this crisis, too many deaths and too much economic hardship for the little guy. However, I have heard a lot of comments about how we might learn a few lessons that we should have learned long ago. Things like: valuing farmers, protecting public healthcare, not sending all of our jobs overseas, shopping locally, we really are all vulnerable and so much more. As always I will bring this argument to my own little world, the guitar. I just got an email from the good folks at the Kithara Project, click to read more about them. The reason I mention them is that they too have something to teach us apart from the obvious lesson in humility and charity. They have organized an online youth guitar competition and in the rules it is very clearly stated what is important about the video performance:
- Sound (overall tone production, tone color changes)
- Musicality (dynamics, phrasing, ability for the music to tell a narrative)
- Technical Proficiency (accuracy and comfortability of notes)
- Overall impression (personality, stage presence, and presentation)
Notice that it says nothing about volume! Maybe we can finally judge playing on the musicality instead of the sheer volume of the instrument. Obviously volume would be impossible to judge online here but it sort of brings home the fact that guitars are not violins, pianos nor banjos.