Or would you curl up in a ball, cry yourself to sleep, and wake up the next day and sell your guitar on eBay?
Having the maturity and resolve to handle criticism is a skill that most guitarists and even people in general lack. Losing the ego and just taking in what others suggest can many times be beneficial to your growth as a musician. Granted, some people’s opinions can be pure crap, but one can always learn from criticism being given from a player with more experience.
If you become too absorbed in your own ego, how do you expect to learn and grow? By letting go of your ego and embracing the mind of a beginner (who is eager to learn anything and everything he/she can) you allow yourself to maximize your guitar potential and move further along the path of guitar enlightenment .
Check out this video of Segovia critiquing a student. Segovia knew this student had the technique to play the piece, but he challenged the student’s resolve to make music with the piece. Too often we get so enamoured with the mechanics of things and forget about the spirit of them. Listen to what the student has to say at the end:
13 responses so far ↓
1 Rylee // Apr 28, 2008 at 2:25 am
I can take it, my sister tells me that all the time. I probibly could take it a little too well…
2 Kenski // Apr 28, 2008 at 5:46 am
I have no problem with being told I’ve played something badly. What’s tricky is figuring out why it was bad and what you need to do to improve. Lately I’ve been realising that with many things on the guitar the trick is to see things as simply as possible and focus on that.
I recently saw a quote from Hendrix (I believe) that people copied him so well that they also copied his mistakes. So often in music (guitar particularly) it’s the imperfections that make something beautiful, for example, partial strums of open strings between chord changes, which act as passing tones. If you’d strummed the changes perfectly, you would lose something. Likewise using XXXXXX percussive strums between changes to buy time and add rhythm.
3 Ron Zabrocki // Apr 29, 2008 at 4:09 am
I guess I would take it from where it comes. If a guy who only listens to Death Metal and thinks all other music sucks said it, I would probably mention his Mom sucking at something more than a guitar!
However, if Steve Vai said it, I would realize I was only dreaming because I believe him to have more respect for everyone than to ever say that!
Basically, what I am saying is, anyone who has so little respect for another’s journey, talent, abilities, limited or not, music choice, or hair style, should be ignored!
If an obviously talented musician said that maybe I should try doing something different, than I’m all ears and ready to learn.
4 Ron Zabrocki // Apr 29, 2008 at 4:10 am
PS
One of my favorite phrases is…I suck!
5 jimmy mac // May 1, 2008 at 8:13 am
Wow! what a blast from the past. Segovia and the master-classes. I studied with some pretty exacting teachers, Mr Bolotine from Mannes College of Music to name one and he’d have his advanced students critique me when i was preping for a recital or just for the hell of it! This was back in the day when i studied everything , Flamenco with Mario Escudero, Jazz with Bill Conners and Violin with Albert Conti… i was a junkie for music. The criticism was crushing sometimes. Certain teachers asked me to leave and get my act together, no shit! Take my dough and to the door i go!
I wouldn’t change a thing. Well maybe some things. Being told you suck is not as bad as not knowing when you sucked. Thats a problem. I’m so glad i dumped Classical Guitar. It didn’t matter how well i played it just was an awful way to live. Practice 6 hours a day to play an hour long program and then read a luke-warm review from a local music critic and feel like crap for a week. Not a good trade-off . The kicker- you don’t make any money. You teach a lot of people to become something you don’t want to be yourself. What’s that about?
shalom
jimmy
6 bob hardison // May 2, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Sergovia did this student a great favor by formally critisizing him in a civil manner.The student is obviously very talented but his playing is “without spirit” as you mentioned.
When Sergovia wrote the piece, he didn’t just write notes on lines … Sergovia put feeling and emotion together, which is the true essence of the compulation. The notes are where they are and measured as they are, to bring out the feeling or “spirit” Sergovia wanted to convey when the piece was played and heard after his conception of it. The student knew the piece … but altered it for personal reasons … whereby, destroying Sregovia’s primary intention of the piece: To not only hear it but also to “feel” it. The student played it “numb.”
To many guitarists believe that quick rifs and fancy finger work, distorted and cranked up, is the ticket. Not true! Simply to mimic sound, is not enough. I’ve heard guitars fall on the floor that made better sounds than the guitarist who leaned it up against the amp.
Everybody wants to be FAST. Everbody wants to be COOL. Unfortunately, they put so many notes into such a small space, you can’t hear the forest for the trees. It’s a michanical thing … serving their ego. Without the right emotions implimented into the rif, it’s just a bunch of NOISE!
I’ve met musicians who play fast. I grew up with Damien, “Every Dog Has It’s Day” and Jeff Kollman. Pretty successful dudes from my old neighborhood in Toledo. As for me, I play melodic compositions I compose myself. There is an extreme of “style” between us, but the fundimental of our music is, emotion. It’s not all about how much money there is to be made, or about being famous … it’s about the music and what we are trying to convey.
Carlos Santana could really slam some notes together, if he wanted to. But he doesn’t SLAM anything. He puts emotions into his music to achieve something tangable that will be to the liking of the ears that hear him. His efforts also compliment the sounds made by the rest of the group’s input to any particular piece. Together, they give their song the emotions that, “GET THE POINT ACROSS!”
Songs played on the radio have no pictures to emphasize the song’s true nature, so one must make that emphasis with emotions transferred to the instruments. If you think the lyrics are enough, think again.
The easiest song anyone can learn to to begin achieving emotion, is “SLEEPWALK” by Richie Valens. Think about sleep walking as you bend the strings and feel the essence Richie was expressing. Slow down! Take it easy! Relax! You’ve got all day to play this … and if you get it right, others will spend all day listening to you play it.
I guess, when most guitarists first song is, “SMOKE ON THE WATER” they think, “choppy and distorted” is the way to go. That’s fine, if all you’re going to play is Smoke on the Water. Deep Purple also wrote, “CHILD IN TIME.” A completely different format from Smoke On The Water. Two different compositions, two different emotions. ONE GROUP.
Slow down and learn to put emotions in. Then take this to the next level where speed and distortion are the issue, if that’s where you go.
Peace!
7 jimmy mac // May 2, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I can’t let this one go. Mr. Hardison, it’s Segovia! Not Sergovia. If you studied classical guitar with any contemporary classical guitar instructor or attended a music college with a primary major as classical guitar, you’ll also find out that Mr Segovia took liberties with tempo and harmony with his transcriptions of almost all the Bach works. He actually added harmonic components to the “original ” manuscript totally assuming he knew what Bach would have intended.
Yes, even the great Segovia decided the original needed a makeover. Mr Bach, take notice ya done wrote your song with missing notes!
I also ask Mr Hardison to name the composer of the second piece the master class student performed.
Finally, to drag rock n’ roll musicians into this dialogue as a point of comparison does a disservice to all of us who play classical guitar.
How did Smoke on the Water make its way into an article that started out with a video of
a Segovia Master Class?
One more thing.
Mr Hardison used a word i have not heard before ” compulation ” i need a definition please?
Check please, i mean spell check please!
-jimmy
8 bob hardison // May 3, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Ok Jimmy, you’re the expert.
My spelling of “Segovia” stands corrected. Thank you.
I’m sure Bach would be thrilled that Segovia “finished” his work. - Different notes for different folks, I guess. Which of course, was one of the faults pointed out by Segovia to this particular student. Moreover, what Segovia did with Bach’s work isn’t important, what is, is how the student performed in front of Segovia.
Bach has been dead for quite a while and unfortunately cannot defend the point or the issue of his POTENTIALLY “missing notes.” Yes, it’s tough to debate with a dead guy, so we’ll never know.
I do not believe this site is intended for Classical Guitarists ONLY. If it is, I’ll leave. I think it’s for ALL aspiring guitarists. Nor is Music in general limited to any particular genre … but we can learn many things by comparing the similarities of all or at least, other styles of play. When Segovia compared the student’s choppiness with the words, “Bum! Bum! Bum!” It reminded me of how Smoke On The Water is played. Thus, the comparison I made.
Compulation, was once used to discribe things that are piled together in an orderly fashon. Sorry if you are not olded enough to have heard that before.
I cannot name the composer of the second piece, per your request. Nor am I interested in knowing who that might be. Just isn’t important to me … I don’t need that info.. I hope that your knowledge of knowing who that particular composer is, serves YOU well.
In regard to my spelling, until Jeff gets Spell Check on here, you’re just going to have to deal with it.
Have a good day, Jimmy
Peace
9 bob hardison // May 3, 2008 at 2:56 pm
P.S. Jimmy;
You said I did a disservice to Classical Guitarists by dragging rock n’ roll into the dialogue … um, most of the really great Heavy Metal Guitarists have had some Classical training or interest and, impliment that style into their music. Music is open minded.
10 bob hardison // May 3, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Hey Jimmy !!!!
Yeah, it’s “C.O.M.P.I.L.A.T.I.O.N.” - Look it up!
Gee, you learn a new word and I learn how to spell it correctly. See, man … this site benefits both of us! Now I’m going to go play my Martin ………
Later
11 jimmy mac // May 4, 2008 at 6:46 am
Awesome response. I love it. Bob, i have given Classical Guitar recitals, attended Master Classes with Frederick Hand and was chosen as the guest Soloist for the memorial service of the Dean of a major North East Music College. I know exactly what the student went through. I know what it’s like to be rejected from a major school and then to be accepted from that same school a year later. In all aspects i have lived my life as a working musician. It is the experiece of a life time to be on a stage , by yourself with the exception of your Guitar , an audience you can’t see, newspaper critics and other guitarists waiting to see which part of the program will expose you and which part of the program will surprise them. Its an incredible rush! Your memory has to be impeccable your breathing and concentration harmonious and nerves - well what’s left of them, have to to be firing with precision on all neurological fronts. At this point my friend and i consider you my friend Bob, one reaches GuitarZen.
Thanks for reminding me we are all students and its only entertainment. Rock on Bob!
-shalom
-jimmy
12 bob hardison // May 4, 2008 at 9:16 am
Good Blessings ALWAYS, Jimmy!
Love what you do, share that Love and it’ll come back to you. - If someone refuses to take the time to help you correct what they critisize, let their misgivings roll off your back and YOU keep moving foreword.
Let those who appreciate and enjoy your talents lead you. Follow the smiles!
Peace
13 bob hardison // May 4, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Jimmy;
I left you an important message on your Jammin with Jimmy site. A connection in San Francisco.
Peace
Bob
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