Have some time to work on your technique over the holidays? Through December, my course Complete Technique for Classical Guitar will be on sale through Six String Journal’s Podia page. Use this COUPONCODE for a 20% discount.
Six String Journal’s Complete Technique for Classical Guitar Course was developed for the advancing beginner with some experience, the advancing intermediate guitarist, and will even benefit those with lots of playing experience. Though music theory isn’t necessary, a rudimentary understanding of rhythm is helpful.
The course consists of primary movement videos where I will teach the foundational movements that you’ll need in order to master classical guitar. These videos cover topics such as free-stroke, rest-stroke, arpeggios, alternation, scales, hand coordination, slurs, and shifts. These are followed by several series of secondaryvideos where I’ll apply the techniques and movements in various ways to help you engrain them into your own practice. Stringing the secondary videos into a sequence will teach you how to form an effective practice routine that will maximize your results and get you closer to your musical goals.
Course Includes
Hours of focused technique lessons with an award-winning classical guitarist, the founder of Six String Journal, and sought-after educator.
Over 50 extensively detailed but digestible videos demonstrating essential foundational movements, technique tips, exercises, routines, and how to implement them into your practice, carefully edited in small bite size videos for easy assimilation and viewing.
Printable PDF summarizing the entire course with a condensed visual of the material presented.
Loads of bonus content from Six String Journal’s Mastering Diatonic Scales.
Brilliant rising star of the guitar world, Mateusz Kowalski, just released a magical rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze from Cantata, BWV208 and is about to release two wonderfully produced videos to bring in the New Year. Six String Journal is offering a preview here as a short recital to inspire those New Year resolutions.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
Young German crossover guitar star, Julia Lange appears equally at ease playing classical, steel string, and funk. Versatile is perhaps an understatement. As a D’Addario sponsored artist, Julia has been seen on stages across Europe and China playing her wonderful arrangements, with her funk band, with other great musicians, and performing standard classical repertoire. With an enviable command of the guitar and guitar styles, her virtuosic technique comes across in a wonderfully relaxed and musical manner. Fortunately, Julia had some time to share a bit about her guitar journey with Six String Journal. Enjoy!
When did you start playing and why? Or, what drew you to the guitar initially? I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old. My older brother used to take guitar lessons and he wanted to quit at that time so it was my chance to get his guitar. He gave me the very first lessons but in return I had to give him all my pocket money… soon we started fighting and I went to a proper guitar teacher.
What repertoire do you enjoy playing the most? I enjoy playing all kinds of music from classical guitar to Fingerstyle and electric guitar with my band mates.
What guitar or guitars do you perform on? Strings? I perform with my “Jakob Lebisch” classical guitar and my “Battiston” Steelstring guitar. I use D’Addario strings.
Which guitarists/musicians have had the most influence on you? There were many guitarists that influenced me but the ones who also changed my life in a certain aspect were for example Tatyana Ryzhkova, because her wonderful YouTube channel inspired me to start my own YouTube channel that opened so many doors for me. Tommy Emmanuel and Andy McKee were the first artists that inspired me to do my own thing, to make my own arrangements and start a new chapter. Later on I started composing and arranging for classical guitar as well. Last year was again a changing point when I discovered the Funk band Vulfpeck and I totally fell in love with Cory Wong’s awesome rhythm guitar playing and that made me pick up my electric guitar and start a Funk band with friends.
If you have recordings, which recording/s are you most proud of? If not, are you planning to record a cd? Right now I just have my YouTube videos but I hope to publish an album soon. But I’m right now working on my Funk band’s first EP that we’ll publish probably at the end of the year.
What are some up and coming projects (recordings, concerts) you are excited about? Since the beginning of Covid there are many cancelled concerts and hardly any new concert requests, I hope to be on stage soon again and perform the concerts I was supposed to have in China this year or my prize winners concert for the “Lichtenberger Musikpreis” at Schloss Lichtenberg. The online living-room concert I made for the German TV channel ZDF & ARTE was one of the highlights of the lockdown time.
Technique and Performance
How much do you practice? And, do you structure your practice in any particular way? I almost always start with some warming up exercises before I play but I can’t say exactly how much I “practice” per day because it makes a big difference for me whether I arrange something new, improvise or really practice and prepare for concerts but I spend pretty much all my free time with my guitar.
Are there aspects of guitar that you struggle with or that you find you are still working on? I think I still find myself working and will always find myself working on all kinds of things. No matter how good you are, no matter how much you work there is no end. It could simply always be better. Which might sound terrifying but it’s awesome, because it never gets boring. Where I’d like to put more focus on the next years is improvising and composing music. And of course on electric guitar I still feel like a beginner, it’s a long way to go.
Do you deliberately memorize music or have a technique that helps assimilate music into memory? I enjoy using the technique of “mental practice” to memorize things better and I think that analysing the piece is a big help for a solid memory.
Do you have a favorite drill you use to warm up? I have some warming-up exercises that I really love and I’m sharing little tutorials about them on my Patreon page, feel free to check it out: https://www.patreon.com/julialange
Do you have any pre-concert rituals? Not really.
Do you do anything to your nails or shape them in a particular way? As my nails have to survive not only classical guitar nylon strings but also steel strings, I use a gel layer that I harden with a UV-light lamp. Just the way the ladies are doing it in those fancy nail studios but I make the layer rather thin.
Advice to Younger Players
What single most important piece of advice about practicing would you offer to younger players?Set yourself specific goals. For example take part in competitions, get concerts, make videos and work towards a specific aim that motivates you! I found for myself that this is the only way to really get yourself out of your comfort-zone and improve.
What repertoire do you consider essential for young/conservatory students to assimilate? Why? I think the most important repertoire is the repertoire and the pieces that you really want to play from the bottom of your heart and not the repertoire that someone else tells you to play. What I’d love to see more in conservatories are teachers encouraging their students to write their own tunes based on what they’ve learned for example from the classical pieces they play. Exploring the endless possibilities of making music and the freedom we have in expressing ourselves.
Tangent
What is the last book that you read? Favorite author/s? “Getting things done” by David Allen is a book that I really highly recommend to all kinds of independently working artists and people.
Do you try to stay healthy? Exercise? Follow a particular diet? Have a favorite pre-concert food? I do some sports, sometimes, could be more if I’m honest but I think I eat quite healthy although my cake consumption is pretty high. I don’t follow any diet and my favorite pre-concert food is bananas.
What is your favorite way to spend time when not practicing? I love being outside in nature and spending time with family and friends.
It is always wonderful to stumble upon a great young artist who seems to be doing everything right. An Tran has been praised for his incredible technique and magical playing enough to have won prizes in many international guitar and music competitions throughout the world. An has recently given recitals for the Bangkok Guitar Society, Austin Classical Guitar, Toronto International Guitar Series. This season 2019-20 will include An’s solo concert at the prestigious Segovia Classical Guitar Series in Chicago, USA in May 2020.
An is also a champion of Vietnamese music and has performed pieces written for him by Vietnamese composers on the international stage. He recently premiered the work, Ru Con (Lullaby), written for An by composer/guitarist Nguyễn Thế An in Toronto in March 2019. And his debut CD of an all-Vietnamese repertoire is to be released in early 2020. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, An took some time from his busy schedule to share some of his experience and journey with Six String Journal. Enjoy!
Personal
SSJ: When did you start playing and why? Or, what drew you to the guitar initially?
AT: I was really lucky to have my parents that helped me find my passion. When I was a kid, I was not good at school…so I think my parents saw that and let me try a lot of different things (from drawing to piano to playing tennis!). Our house was always filled with music, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I went to sleep listening to music. Until one day, my cousin started to play the guitar. I thought to myself, at 8 years old, “I need to try that out!”. It was one of the greatest decisions in my life.
What repertoire do you enjoy playing the most?
It’s hard to say because I enjoy playing all kinds of music, but I definitely love to play Vietnamese music. The more I grow as an artist, the more I feel the connection to my home country, Vietnam. Now I always include Vietnamese music in my concert program. They can be either arrangements of Vietnamese traditional folk songs, or original compositions from Vietnamese composers. I get to share a little bit of who I am with the audience, everywhere I go.
What guitar or guitars do you perform on? Strings?
I perform on Stephen Connor guitars. I currently have 2 of his guitars and they are extremely amazing instruments. Steve made my guitars with so much care and love that it is a joy to play every single time. His uplifting spirit is also contagious and inspiring as well.
For strings, I use D’Addario Carbon, Normal Tension. They sound beautiful on my Connors, and they hold intonation really well. Since I tour with only one guitar most of the time, due to my program with Vietnamese music, I have to change to alternate tuning between pieces. They have never failed.
Which guitarists/musicians have had the most influence on you?
I would say all of my teachers made a huge impact on me as a musician and as a human being. I have too many teachers to list them, but if they are reading this, they know who they are 🙂 I can also say that I learned so much from my guitarist friends as well. When I did a few competitions, I learned so much just by listening to my fellow competitors.
My classical guitar heroes are John Williams and David Russell. When I was a kid, I listened to their recordings on repeat almost every day. I also love Nguyen Le, a Vietnamese/French jazz guitarist. He has an amazing ability of blending traditional Vietnamese music with contemporary Jazz. I highly recommend checking him out, if you haven’t heard him yet.
What recording/s are you most proud of?
I’m very proud of my upcoming album “Stay, My Beloved”, which features all Vietnamese guitar music. This recording is like my life journey. Some pieces I learned when I was a kid, and some I learned not too long ago. It was a lot of work, but the music on this album stay very close to my heart, that’s why the whole process was so satisfying. It will be released on April 18, 2020.
What are some up and coming projects (recordings, concerts) you are excited about?
I’m excited about the upcoming concerts in the US as well as my European tour in August. This will be my first time playing in Europe, so I am very excited. On top of that, I will premiere 2 works that were dedicated to me by Spanish composer Juan Erena in Cádiz, Spain. I’m also working with a few Vietnamese composers to write more works for the ever-evolving guitar repertoire. Even though my debut album is not even out yet, I’m already thinking about recording the next Vietnamese guitar album.
Technique and Performance
How much do you practice? And, do you structure your practice in any particular way?
I always aim to practice for about 4 to 6 hours a day. For me, it is important to practice every day well. I normally divide my practice to 2-3 different shorter sessions. I always try to prioritize practicing first, before doing anything else during the day.
Also, there are apps that could help with your practice schedule. I use this app called “ATracker” on my iPhone. I use its timer to keep track of every piece that I’m working on. This way, I can make sure that I don’t spend too much (or too little) time on 1 piece. By the end of the week, it would give me a graph of how much I practiced each piece. That gives me an idea of what to work on for the following week. I also normally take 1 day off of guitar. I find it helpful to get back to my practice freshly the day after.
Are there aspects of guitar that you struggle with or that you find you are still working on?
I’m constantly working to improve my listening and musicality skills. For me, playing something musically well is very important and I try to improve on that. I also don’t have the perfect technique, so I do struggle with really hard passages sometimes. However, it is easier to improve on the technical side nowadays because there are so many good resources online and good teachers out there. For me, the metronome is crucial for learning new music and master the hard passages. I also use Tonebase, an online resource for guitarists, whenever I find myself struggling with something (either musically or technically). Nothing will replace a good teacher, but there’s always some good info online to support what you’re learning.
By the way, I am NOT “sponsored” by any apps/websites mentioned above, those are just apps that I personally use.
Do you have a favorite drill you use to warm up?
Yes! Villa-Lobos’ Etude No. 1 is always a go-to for me as a warmup before a concert. I also use some of Scott Tennant’s exercises from his Pumping Nylon book. So helpful!
Do you have any pre-concert rituals?
I eat a banana before I play. I find it helpful to get some energy before a concert. I also do some meditation and make sure that I feel grateful for every single opportunity. For people to take their time out of their schedules to come see me perform, that is absolutely incredible! Definitely something to be grateful for!!
Advice to Younger Players
What single most important piece of advice about practicing would you offer to younger players?
One of the most important skills that I learned (and still trying to do) is to keep my focus at 100% while practicing. When I was younger, I practiced like a machine. Mindlessly ran my pieces as many times as possible. All I’m doing now is trying to fix all the problems that came from that!! It can create huge problems and bad habits to fix later. Thankfully, I’ve had amazing teachers who patiently sat with me to tell me what I’ve been doing wrong.
What repertoire do you consider essential for young/conservatory students to assimilate? Why?
I think the most essential skill for a young musician is to cover all periods of classical music. To be able to teach and find your own “voice” in your playing, it’s important to go through all the essential “classical” guitar repertoire. I also think etudes are super important as well. For me, personally, I loved (and still play) the Giuliani, Villa-Lobos and Brouwer Etudes.
Tangent
What is the last movie that you watched?
Parasite, that was crazy!
Do you try to stay healthy? Exercise? Follow a particular diet? Have a favorite pre-concert food?
Yes absolutely. I’ve been doing yoga lately and it really helps. I’ve had lower back pain in the past, so now I try to do yoga more regularly. Nothing fancy, just iPhone apps and Youtube videos. Also, my chiropractor told me that it is important to get up more often to stretch, and to not sit and practice for hours straight (which was my bad habit). I might have to give him commission for this piece of advice!!!
What is your favorite way to spend time when not practicing?
I love to cook. I think cooking is so similar to playing music. Other hobbies are watching movies with my wife, playing FIFA or board games with my family and friends, playing with my puppy Luna. My dad is a former photojournalist, so he taught me a lot about photography. I am now addicted to photography and I enjoy taking pictures of my travels.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
Studio content This article continues inside the Six String Journal Studio, where members have access to in-depth repertoire walkthroughs, practice guidance, and performance-focused writing.
