Moving Down the Fingerboard

This last Saturday I had a music lesson—classical guitar. I couldn't remember the last time I practiced, but decided to go anyway.

The first thing we do is always a technical exercise. This time, it was playing the notes on the third string with the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st fingers as legato as possible. Shift one fret. Repeat until you run out of fingerboard. Mechanical, not particularly musical. And yet, I was delighted, as if I'd stumbled on some half-remembered paradise.

People make a big deal about how expressive music is, how emotional it is. But for me, on Saturday, it was physical. Holding the guitar, feeling the rosewood of the fingerboard, the tension in the string as I plucked it, and then that note, clear and pure, even if it wasn't as legato as it should have been.

I spent the weekend playing CDs of Leo Brouwer's guitar music. And practicing.

If you happen to be in the Rosewood Guitar this week, tell Jason I'm practicing my fingers off and I'll see him next Saturday.