You see a guitar and what do you feel?
That they touch her below her capabilities, shame!
What possibilities?
The infinite sonorous and expressive possibilities of the guitar.
Did we touch it wrong?
With techniques from the late 19th century, with gut strings, and tuned below its current tuning.
With what result?
That the guitar barely sounds and ends up being a boring and distant instrument.
Microphones and speakers: solved!
Unnecessary if you play it with another technique.
What technique?
I have spent my entire life improving a technique that extracts the expressiveness of the guitar.
What does it consist of?
I'm going to play, listen to it yourself...
How good it sounds! How do I explain it?
I have achieved the technique to play loudly, sonorously and without muscle stiffness. I adjust my fingers in a certain posture when stepping on the fret, when strumming and plucking...
The fingering, the fingers...
A finger pose, yes. That is, hand in hand. That is, the arm. That is, from the trunk. That is, the legs. That is, from the feet... From the entire body!
A posture of the body.
The guitar is not played with the fingers, the guitar is played with the whole body.
He just gave me a headline.
All the guitarists play spread-eagled.
And what position would be correct?
That of Taüll's pantocrator: no effort of arms when holding the guitar.
Understood.
And it is not the same whether the guitarist is fat or skinny, whether he is tall or short...
Does it affect the sound of the guitar?
Yes. Narciso Yepes had small hands. Andrés Segovia, fingers like sausages. Me, poorly muscled hands... You have to use fingers and hands properly.
And rehearse a lot?
I practice seven to eight hours a day.
He will already be a virtuoso of his technique...
I get an unheard of dramatic expression. And I compose my own romantic repertoire for guitar, I have been there all my life...
How many works have you composed?
Three hundred works: for solo guitar, songs, chamber music, concertos for guitar and orchestra... Romantic aesthetics did not exist for guitar, since conventional technique prevented that musical style from sounding good.
It surprises me.
For the first time I have used the 24 major and minor keys for guitar: their dynamic contrasts increase and they already compete in sound and style with piano and orchestra!
What do other musicians say to you?
“This is your delusion,” at first.
And now?
There is resistance, there is a certain academic impermeability to everything that deviates from convention...
And you continue your path, despite everything?
Yes, and I compose, perform, research and debate: the most open and flexible guitarists pay attention to how I have systematized the extension of the fingers of the left hand, to my anticipated preparation of the fingers or the monophalangeal capo to obtain optimal legato.
Cejilla monophalangic...
Multiply possibilities of chords and harmonies.
I'd rather you play again, please, than hear you explain it.
Delighted, and I encourage you to listen to my Rialp Concert: guitar and orchestra dialogue... As a musician, my only commitment is to beauty. I seek to generate beauty.
And what is beauty?
I was ten years old and I knew it. My sister's boyfriend played Schubert's Unfinished... and I had a revelation!
What happened?
I felt that until that moment I had not lived. She moved me. The next day she was singing it on the street...
Did it change your life?
A teacher asked in class what we would be when we grew up. I raised my hand: “Musician!” I stated. He was the only one. Listening to Schubert's Winterreise still draws from within me emotions that I myself did not know about.
Are you satisfied with your life?
Very much: I have been faithful to my inner light, I have not been a slave.
Did you know Paco de Lucía?
Yes. Dazzling in its flamenco technical tradition, very sophisticated and transmitted generationally.
Comparable to yours?
That of flamenco is another mental structure. Neither a flamenco guitarist is capable of playing mine nor I his.
Advise a new guitarist.
When you play you express yourself, not the guitar.
