ETUDE
August 1941
volume LIX
number 8
page 573-574

Getting Ready for the Fall Season

By George C. Krick

AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR, when a new musical season is not far distant, many young artists are hopefully looking into the future with the expectation of earning a large share of public acclaim. While we thoroughly believe that a musician should take time off during the summer months to indulge in outdoor exercise and thus keep physically fit, we also recommend that a few hours daily be devoted to improving technic and adding new compositions to one’s concert repertoire. We have known players of guitar, mandolin and banjo who year in and year out adhere virtually to the same program numbers, giving as an excuse that “these are the pieces the public like best.” To us it seems that, having played these numbers so often, the artist is enabled to “put them over” with ease – a fact which the audience is quick to realize.

To get out of this rut one should experiment with new compositions just off the press. An experienced player will study the reaction of his audiences to his concert numbers and, by adding new numbers and occasionally eliminating an old one, build up an interesting and comprehensive repertoire that will please his listeners and add to his reputation and success.

While the musical public is well aware of the high standard set for the violin by such artists as Kreisler, Heifetz, Elman and others, a great many people are still in the dark as to judging a performer on the guitar or mandolin, and a carelessly selected program coupled with a slipshod performance will only harm the cause of the fretted instruments.

So why not use a part of your vacation to polish up your technic; to review your old pieces, paying particular attention to tone quality, phrasing and expression until they are well nigh perfect; to memorize some new compositions, remembering that your memory needs daily practice as well as your fingers? We have often wondered whether the average radio listener realizes the hours of thoughtful work on the part of the artist which preceded his fifteen minute performance over the air. It reminds us of a definition given of the word, vacation: “Forty-nine weeks of anticipation, two weeks of preparation and one week of realization.”

The thought we wish to impress upon you is that the summer months are ideally suited to the study of music, which requires concentration of all our faculties, for then we are free from the interruptions and demands made upon us during the busy concert and teaching season. It is gratifying to know that one is thoroughly prepared to play a radio or concert program when called upon to do so; in fact, nothing gives one more self-confidence and assurance than such knowledge.

Teachers specializing in the fretted instruments will also find that the summer months can be put to good use. Some teachers offer special rates to beginners, thereby keeping their studios open at least a few days each week. This is an opportune time to send for music publishers’ catalogs of fretted instrument music, in order to keep up with modern teaching material. The alert teacher knows that teaching material and methods for his instruments are constantly being improved, and he will give his pupils the benefit of his foresight in such important matters. The mere fact that a person enrolls as a pupil shows that he is anxious to learn to play, and his teacher must guide him properly in his studies by using the correct methods and pieces for recreation in order to keep him interested.

Now let us briefly examine the studies and teaching music available to the teachers of the fretted instruments. For the mandolin there are methods, etudes and technical exercises properly graded; interesting pieces for beginner, intermediate and advanced students, comprising sufficient material to provide a course of study from five to six years. Most of this music has been produced by classic and modern writers who well knew the needs of serious students of the mandolin. The same may be said of the classic guitar. Methods, etudes, technical exercises covering every phase of guitar playing, by all the classic and modern writers for guitar, are available in abundance; and a great variety of original compositions and classic transcriptions are at the disposal of the advanced student and concert artist. There is, however, a need for more recreational music for the first and second year student, original compositions and arrangements of modern pieces of medium difficulty. We firmly believe that the classic guitar would attract a still greater number of students if the publishers of the higher type of popular music would employ capable arrangers, to make this music available to the younger generation of amateur guitarists who are just as much interested in modern music as they are in the classic.

Another aid to the teacher of the classic guitar would be the opportunity to obtain instruments at a moderate cost. From our own experience we have learned that beginners are usually unable or unwilling to invest more than twenty or twenty-five dollars in an instrument and American manufacturers would do well to try to fill this want. While the writer has always been a strong advocate of using high grade instruments, which naturally are high priced, there are great opportunities in the lower price field that should not be neglected by enterprising manufacturers of classic guitars.

The teacher of the tenor banjo should have no trouble finding the teaching material necessary to keep a student busy for four or five years; and the catalogs of publishers of banjo music include quite a number of banjo methods, books of technical exercises and a great variety of recreational and concert numbers.

The teaching material for plectrum guitar is still somewhat limited, although there are numerous so-called “methods” on the market, some fairly good, others not so good. The main trouble is that most of them are not scientifically graded and it requires a lot of ingenuity on the part of the teacher to select the proper ones to insure steady progress of his pupils. There is also room for more recreational and concert music in the intermediate grades.

A tremendous amount of music has been published for Hawaiian guitar, and teachers can easily fill their wants from the different catalogs. The “methods” for Hawaiian guitar, however, do not contain sufficient technical matter, and teachers would welcome additional books containing intermediate and advanced technical exercises for this instrument.

This department will be glad to be of help to any teacher or student in the matter of selecting the right study material for any of the fretted instruments.