Instrumental Influences: Reflections on the Classical Guitar from the Instrument's Most Influential Performers and Pedagogues

IT’S OFTEN BEEN SAID that the experience of music isn’t the playing of the
black notes printed on the page; it’s understanding the time relationships
between them. We learn how to read and create music from books, teachers,
DVDs, and the internet. We are taught how to properly position our fingers,
arms, hands, and body as well as the guitar itself so that we can comfortably
and efficiently perform music.

But if we perform all the mechanics correctly, practice diligently for
many years, study with passion, and push beyond our self-imposed
limitations, why aren’t we all on our own world tours or competing in worldclass
competitions? What are the inner qualities, characteristics, and beliefs
that differentiate the good performer from the artist? What are those
individual perceptions, impressions, and even presuppositions that make for
an accomplished classical guitarist’s transition to “artist”? If we are
fortunate enough, we may absorb a gem of wisdom from a master class, or
perhaps overhear an artist in backstage conversation with someone that
propels us to the next level of our own ability. Such circumstances so often
involve being in the right place at the right time.

But INSTRUMENTAL INFLUENCES has changed all that. For the first time, we now have many of classical guitar’s most influential artists and teachers together
providing their thoughts on the psychological, emotional, and even physical
approach to performing and teaching the classical guitar. Donn LeVie Jr.
has assembled nearly 60 original essays--20 from his own experiences with the
instrument as well as those 40 essays from Grammy Award winners, Grammy Award nominees, Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) First Prize winners, and
respected teachers. These fresh essays reveal the individual paradigms out of
which are forged the qualities that create a caliber of musician that can perform on any world stage, or a teacher with the gift of imparting practical
knowledge to some students, and removing the blinders from others.

Donn LeVie’s role in this unique contribution has been that of
“everyman guitarist,” where his essays present the perspective of anyone
and everyone who has taken up the classical guitar, or for that matter, any
other musical instrument. As “the ordinary individual” with whom the
reader can easily identify—and who at times faces extraordinary
circumstances—Donn reveals the same struggles, victories, and rewards
from the study and performance of the classical guitar that readers and
audiences can relate to with head-nodding agreement.

After reading the essays in INSTRUMENTAL INFLUENCES, don’t be surprised if you now listen to music with a more discerning ear, approach your study with a
renewed vigor, or just see positive changes in other areas of your life, as
many of the essay themes reveal.

In the words of the great contemporary classical guitar virtuoso, Pepe
Romero: “If you are touched by music, you are touched by love in a very
pure way.”