Brad Richter Master Class
by Joe Thompson and Grant Ruiz

On Wednesday evening, January 14th, 2004, Brad Richter taught a Master Class in classical guitar in the Southern Oregon University's Music Building Recital Hall. Brad had performed a excellent solo concert the night before consisting mostly of his original works. (See the concert review in the Members' Articles area of this website.) The five performers and eleven auditors in attendance at the class found Brad to be an excellent teacher. He was warm, friendly, supportive, non-threatening, and very generous with his time and attention. With each student, he divided his time between the technical aspects and the musical aspects.

1. Nathan Hoyt played "Free With the Wind"by Sonya Michelson.

The first student to play for Brad was 7-year-old Nathan Hoyt. Nathan has been playing since the age of 5, starting with the Suzuki method. Nathan told Brad that he had a checklist that he goes through before he plays. Items on the list that Nathan pays attention to include footstool position, sitting up tall, right hand position, guitar neck pushed out, and left thumb in the middle of the neck.

Technique:
Brad said that since Nathan has been playing for less than two years, his technique is not yet finished and that he and his teacher should be paying close attention to its development over the coming years. Brad said he would like to see Nathan move his right arm up onto the top of the larger bout rather than allowing it to slide down into the valley between the upper and lower bouts. At this point, Brad introduced two principles of right hand technique that he came back to repeatedly throughout the evening. The first principle is that the top of the right hand should be at least parallel to the top of the guitar. He clarified that the wrist side of the top of the hand should be on the same level as the knuckle side or slightly higher, relative to the guitar's top. It should never be lower! The second principle was to always play from the big knuckle of the right hand and to minimize any movement in the small knuckles. These two ideas are closely related as a low wrist makes it impossible to follow through with the fingers from the big knuckles. Also, playing from the big knuckles means we are using the big muscles, which are more powerful. Playing in this manner feels un-natural in the beginning because we rarely use our hands in this manner in our daily lives. Through practice and repetition, its power is revealed.

He also emphasized the importance of relaxation in the playing mechanism. If the right hand is relaxed, in the proper position, and moving from the big knuckles, then it will require only one motion for each note. When a finger produces a note from a relaxed, ready position, it will return to its starting position effortlessly. Brad emphasized that relaxation contributes to beauty of tone. A tense finger produces a harsher tone with too great an emphasis on of the higher overtones.

Music:
Brad told Nathan that he thought he had played the piece beautifully. He pointed out that he was slowing down the tempo when he went from the eighth notes to quarter notes, and that he should work on keeping his tempo steady when the rhythm changes. He also pointed out that Nathan was playing very quietly and that he should play out more forcefully so that everyone can hear. This is especially important in a large hall like the SOU recital hall. He noted that when there is an indication of piano in the music, we should be careful not to play too softly. Additionally, it is difficult to play too loudly on the guitar. Brad said that he would like to see more contrast in volume in Nathan's playing and at the forte to play very loudly and aggressively.

As a final note, Brad said that mistakes in a performance are not as big a deal as we tend to make them out to be. The important thing is to maintain the flow of the music.

2. Joe Thompson played his own composition, "Lullaby".

Brad started by saying that he really liked the piece, including the writing and the way that Joe played it, especially with such good tone.

Being the only original piece played in the class, this was Brad's opportunity to discuss composition, since he is a composer for the guitar. He asked Joe how he began writing the piece, to which Joe replied that he started with a melodic idea on the guitar. This idea became a theme that is stated after an introduction. The introduction was written later using harmonies that support and foreshadow the theme. Brad pointed out that pieces do not have to be written chronologically. He asked others in the audience whether they compose, and if so, how they begin. Liz Visecky mentioned that she comes up with the kernel of an idea on the guitar, and Maurya Murphey said that she uses a synthesizer.

Brad stated that these musical seeds of ideas are the inspiration, and sometimes the "easy part", akin to Einstein's quote that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." The perspiration in composition is figuring out how to expand or develop these ideas, where to go with them. There are a number of techniques to do this, e.g., diminution and augmentation. For example, he pointed out that Joe's introduction is twice as long as the theme, and he carries off this more spacious feeling with an arpeggio. Bach and Beethoven were masters of these techniques. Other stock ways to expand or vary a piece are melodic inversion (mirroring the melody vertically by exchanging upward and downward moving intervals), retrograde motion (writing the melody backwards, which obscures the melody but has been used in the past), and retrograde inversion, the combination of the two. Of course, you can also change keys within the piece. As an example of rhythmic variation, he suggested that Joe play a portion of his bass line with a dotted rhythm. When Joe tried Brad's idea, the change created a new harmony, which he seemed to like.

Brad made the observation that Joe, at least in this piece, emphasizes melody and harmony, whereas Brad tends to focus on rhythm and rhythmic textures in his writing. He imagined the results would be interesting if they were able to blend their two approaches.

Brad's next point was that a knowledge of music theory is important in composition for a number of reasons. (Some of them are stated above as far as developing a piece.) For example, Brad sometimes uses theory to get unstuck when he is unable to proceed with a piece otherwise. His knowledge of theory allows him to try a number of alternatives that may stimulate him, even to move in a different direction.

It also helps to know about forms. He claimed that both good and bad composition teachers should at least be able to teach you this. (His definition of a bad composition teacher is one that insists that you write like him or her.) The most common form includes an initial section (labeled "A") followed by a second section (labeled "B") followed by a repetition of "A". This ternary ABA form was very common in the Baroque era. Another useful form to know is the sonata-form, which includes an exposition (theme and counter-theme, taken together as "A"), a repetition of the "A" section, development of the themes (the "B" section, using some of the development techniques described above, as well as others), and a recapitulation of the exposition, often with modifications and/or a coda. Thus sonata-form is sometimes stated as AABA. It's a very common form, and Brad characterized it as "organic". The music of Haydn and Mozart provide canonical examples. You can even come up with your own forms.

Brad further analyzed Joe's music by stating that he avoids literal repetition, but makes prior elements of the piece recognizable. This gives the music a sense of evolving, even when you return to a theme. Another idea is to combine themes using things that they have in common. At one point he made another rhythmic suggestion to stretch a measure in order to give it a 9/8 feel. Since the audience did not have visual access to the music, it was hard to understand what this meant.

Ken Ward said that when he writes guitar pieces, he has a difficult time finding endings and has several unfinished pieces. Brad suggested that he force himself to write an ending before moving on to a new piece to avoid building frustration. It's great to have contrast, but using repetition can work quite well and help you wrap up.

Haila Williams asked an interesting, general question about aesthetics, namely, how does one judge what is beautiful and ugly, and would Brad use a sound that he considers ugly? Brad stated that our sense of this has changed over time. He made the interesting claim that there is no ugly sound you can make on the guitar, that there's only contrast, and these days, there isn't anything you should avoid.

A brief discussion about composition programs (on computers) came up. There are several to choose from, e.g., Encore, Finale, Sibelius, CakeWalk. (Brad uses Finale, as does Dusan Bagdonovic.) Someone asked if any of these are suitable for someone just learning to write music. Brad answered that most of them are likely too complex, although CakeWalk may be easier. His suggestion is that someone learning to write music should start by literally writing the music out on paper for a number of reasons. It helps you learn the rules of writing, and there are times when you won't always have access to a computer, such as when amending a score during a rehearsal.

3. Matt Dorris played "Emergence" by Andrew York.

Brad prefaced his comments by noting that Andrew York is one of his favorite modern guitar composers. He said the main theme was a "really neat idea" and felt it exhibited some "great textures". Brad noted that in longer passages with repeated figures, there is an opportunity for the performer to add more interest to the music in the way that they play it.

Technique:
Matt was wearing a shirt with sleeves pushed up passed his elbows. Brad felt that there should always be cloth between the player's right arm and their guitar to promote ease of right hand movement. If a player is wearing a short sleeve shirt, they should have a sock with the foot cut out of it which can be slid up onto the forearm at the point where the arm contacts the guitar.

Brad then pointed out that Matt's right wrist position needed to be higher, taking the opportunity to emphasize the importance of the top of the right hand being at least parallel to the top of the guitar. The low wrist position contributes to wasted energy and motion. A higher wrist allows for the fingers to move from the big knuckles. Because of the limited time in a class of this nature, Brad felt it wasn't possible to emphasize these ideas enough. He recommended that Matt read the first part of Scott Tennant's book "Pumping Nylon".

Brad mentioned that once the elbow is on the lower bout and covered with cloth, the hand should be moved from the elbow. Also, there should be a straight line through the wrist to the index finger.

Brad also noted that Matt's right shoulder was thrust forward too far and that, in time, that playing position will cause physical problems. He said that when a player feels tension in their shoulders, it is important to stop and let it go. He said that, when working with new techniques or positions, slow is the rule. A good way to incorporate new techniques or positions is to learn new etudes by Fernando Sor and Mauro Guilliani and to practice them very slowly. He also emphasized the importance of giving oneself spaces within the music for relaxation.

Music:
Brad felt that there could be more contrast in Matt's interpretation of the York piece. Brad then talked about the portion of the piece to which he had referred earlier, the longer part with the repeated figures. He worked with Matt on a crescendo followed by a subito piano which added a great deal of excitement to the music. He suggested that one way to determine a good attack for fortissimo playing is to exaggerate a stroke, even to the point of making a snapping sound with the string, and then back the force off until you achieve the maxiumum volume with the desired tone.

Brad noted that Matt was repeating right hand fingers at one point. He found a fingering that used one finger for each string that worked and suggested that he make the change. Brad said, "Never use the same finger twice in a row. No exceptions. It will always cause a mistake." He made the analogy that this is like running a race and suddenly using the same leg for 3 steps. Another guideline Brad suggested was to assign a right hand finger to a given string, although he acknowledged that there are many exceptions to this idea.

He recommended practicing hands separately. This method of practicing will not only help point out flaws in right hand fingerings but will help engrain new fingerings when flaws are discovered. He pointed out that practicing hands separately is a common technique for keyboard players but with guitarists it runs counter to what is natural. He said there is value in working this way and encouraged participants to experiment with it. He also said that practicing a fingering change 50 or 60 times in a row is helpful in erasing old muscle memory patterns and establishing new ones. I was reminded of Mozart's mode of practicing a passage until he was able to play it perfectly 10 times in a row. If he made a mistake on the 10th time he had to start over at the first.

4. Jaxon Williams played "Prelude No. 1" by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Brad said that Jaxon had played the Villa Lobos Prelude very well. He said it was clear he had spent a lot of time thinking about the piece. He liked the way Jaxon was paying attention to the tempo change markings.

Technique:
Brad told Jaxon that he would like to see more movement in the big knuckles as he had emphasized before. He noted that Jaxon had a problem with the m finger nail of his right hand, which had a natural curve downward. The curved nail tended to hook the strings causing an occasional thinness in his tone. He showed Jaxon how he could file the nail straight across the top and prevent the problem.

Brad noticed that Jaxon was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and reiterated his point about playing with long sleeves or some other cloth on the arm. He looked for a cut-off sock for Jaxon, who actually brought his own and put it on. Brad noted that Benjamin Verderey carries around a bunch of such socks, many with cartoon characters on them, for master classes.

Music:
On the first beat of the first full measure of the Prelude, the melody note "e" sounds on the 5th string simultaneously with a bass note "e" an octave lower. As they are both to be played with the thumb, there is always going to be some delay between the two. Jaxon was emphasizing this delay and Brad suggested that he play them more closely together using one single, forceful stroke through the two strings in order to avoid changing the rhythm. He said that there are times when Villa-Lobos wants the delayed sound, and when he does, he uses a slashed grace note to indicate the delay. He said that it would be easier to move the thumbnail through the strings with a slightly different nail angle, which could be achieved with a little higher wrist.

At one point he asked Jaxon to slow down his vibrato to keep it more in character with the mood of the piece.

Brad said that he would like to hear Jaxon use more color change through out the piece. He said that this aspect is important because the guitar has a unique ability to show a wide variety of color. One way to use color is when the theme repeats. Think of what you can do to make it different. Brad asked Jaxon to play the opening theme and then do something different for the following repeat. He pointed out that there are "micro" and "macro" tonal contrasts available, e.g., changing the tone between beats or phrases or sections of music.

Then Brad talked to Jaxon about all of the various colors available to the guitarist, not only through changing the angle of the nail attack but through moving the right hand to different places along the string. He felt that Jaxon's neutral sound was a little to bright and ponticello (close to the bridge) and that he could warm it up by moving just a bit more towards the sound hole. He then explained how the tonal positions of the right hand could be thought of as being 6 different positions. Starting with the "neutral" position, which is when the right hand is just inside the right edge of the sound hole (right from the players perspective), we can move to the "ponticello" position, which means closer to the bridge or the "sul ponticello" position, which means very close to the bridge. ("Sul" is Italian for "on" or "at".) These moves, of course, will brighten the quality of the sound. Alternatively, we can move from the neutral position in the opposite direction. We can move to the "tasto" position, which means closer to the fingerboard, or the "sul tasto" position, which means very close to the fingerboard. The final position in Brad's system of tonal color is the 12th fret position. The 12th fret is the halfway point between the bridge and the nut. A string plucked at this point has a curiously hollow sound because it emphasizes the fundamental over the higher overtones. It is important to remember that the 12th fret is the halfway point only for open strings. If a player is going for this tone on a note being held by the left hand, the halfway point needs to be recalculated based on the distance between the bridge and the held note. This halfway point has less effect as the left hand moves closer to the soundhole.

5. Roma Sprung played "Preludio Rockero" by Maximo Diego Pujol from his "Five Preludes."

Brad said he had never heard this piece before and that he liked it very much. He also liked the way Roma played it. He said she had a very mature style for only having played for seven years. He said this was most likely attributable to her being a "recovering violinist". He especially liked the strong dynamic contrasts she brought to the piece.

The only comment Brad made specific to her technique, as I recall, was that she could use more nail angle in her attack on the high notes to prevent a harsh tone. He felt that a modern piece that used a lot of dissonance, such as this one, offered great opportunities to explore strong contrasts in sound. He mostly worked with Roma on the interpretation of the piece.

One point in the piece is marked "grandiose". Brad suggested that she try to make it sound more grandiose. Roma said she didn't find the passage to be very grandiose and was having a hard time with that particular indication. Brad responded that sometimes when a composer puts in an indication such as this, what they really want is some kind of noticeable shift in mood to occur. And he thought this was the case here. He thought perhaps the preceding mood, which was very lyrical and rubato, could be contrasted at the grandiose indication with a more martial feeling using a very steady tempo.

View concert poster

Return to Members' Articles Index