![\"Benjamin](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Benjamin-Verdery_2022_4-photo-John-Olson.jpg?resize=750%2C563&ssl=1\")
<\/a>We Are Practicers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Stephen Robinson, recording artist, recitalist, and recently retired Stetson University faculty member, says: \u201cWe are performers and musicians, but we spend the majority of our time practicing. So we have to learn to be the best practicers we can possibly be.\u201d Robinson advocates for warming up slowly and gradually. \u201cThis is a really important part of practicing for longevity,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to wake up the hands slowly and take care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Performer, recording artist, and recently retired faculty member at LUCA School of Arts in Flanders, Belgium, Raphaella Smits lets tone quality guide her warmup. \u201cSince I was a kid, making a beautiful sound was always important and what people noticed in my playing,\u201d Smits says. \u201cFor my warmup, I try to make the best sonority from the beginning and spend the time to make it perfect.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Concert guitarist, composer, and Yale School of Music\u2019s guitar chair, Benjamin Verdery, adds: \u201cOne of the ways I warm up is by sight-reading. It\u2019s great for your mind.\u201d Verdery also cautions against sitting stationary for long practice sessions. \u201cWhen I am practicing, every 20 minutes I get up and do a little stretching,\u201d he says. \u201cI avoid locking into a position. It\u2019s the locking-in that can be a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrew York, a former member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, now pursues a solo career as a performer, composer, and educator offering tips through his website, Andrew\u2019s Den, and his YouTube channel. \u201cI am big on stretching and hand conditioning,\u201d York states. \u201cI made a video of exercises given to me by a hand surgeon. I do them regularly because I have carpal tunnel and the beginnings of arthritis. It doesn\u2019t affect my playing, but sometimes hurts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Robinson, stretching exercises without the guitar are important. \u201cWe sit in a weird position for our legs,\u201d he says. \u201cThis can do a number on your hips after 40 or 50 years of playing. So leg, arm, and shoulder exercises as well as strengthening exercises at the gym are valuable. Even though we are just sitting with a little guitar, we may sit for long periods of time and need to counterbalance that with a good, full-body workout. You can\u2019t expect your body to sit in that position all of your life and not experience injuries here and there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have to think about my posture now more than ever,\u201d Verdery adds. \u201cWhen I sit, I tend to lean to the left and that can be a problem. Paying attention to your posture<\/a> is always important and I think it\u2019s an under-discussed aspect of classical guitar technique.\u201d Verdery also suggests players be aware of whether the support system they use for the left leg is causing back pain as they age. He also advises scrutinizing the height of the music stand. \u201cPlacing it so that you are always looking down can bring on neck issues,\u201d he opines. \u201cProblems with the neck go right to the hand. Try placing the stand higher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Echoing Verdery\u2019s thoughts on posture, Smits concludes, \u201cIf you have a good basic technique, play a lot, and sit in a healthy way, the body will be in harmony with what you\u2019re doing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Playing from memory is the ideal for most classical guitarists, but many find it takes extra effort to do it as the years go by. \u201cIf I really don\u2019t feel comfortable playing a piece from memory, I\u2019ll use the score onstage,\u201d Verdery says. \u201cI like the freedom of not having to use the score, but I\u2019m getting better at reading in a performance. You just have to do what really works for you and not let your pride or old habits get in the way. You are changing and have to be honest with yourself and recognize things are not as easy as they were in your younger years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n York, who typically plays everything from memory, found he needed to do more work to prepare for his first post-pandemic concert. \u201cDuring the two and a half years of the pandemic, I was playing a lot of new music and had to make sure everything was completely memorized,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought keeping the music on the stand as I practiced would make it rock-solid in my memory. That didn\u2019t happen. I hadn\u2019t practiced this way before. I would always memorize things quickly and put the music away, only taking it out for reference, but never keeping it in front of me. That\u2019s like sitting in the passenger seat of the car when someone else is driving. I wouldn\u2019t be able to find my way back because I wasn\u2019t paying attention in the same way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these players spend time sans guitar visualizing their hand movements while playing their repertoire mentally. \u201cVisualization adds security to your playing,\u201d Robinson says. \u201cWhen you don\u2019t do it, that\u2019s where the nerves come from. [Visualization] takes care of nervousness for me. After preparing that way, I can walk onstage confidently knowing what my hands are going to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Smits likes reading through her scores when taking long flights, but also visualizes the guitar neck. \u201cI will close my eyes and see my left hand in my imagination and hear the music,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I really know the piece. The left hand moving on the fingerboard is in my memory, so if I read through the music without the guitar, I feel what my left hand is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n York visualizes the geometrical shapes the hands make and the arc his fingers form as they move. \u201cProprioception, or muscle memory and awareness of your hands in space, enables us to play,\u201d York says. \u201cMuscle memory glues the geometric progression together.\u201d He\u2019s found that visualizing a written page in the mind can add complexity. \u201cIt\u2019s a notational system that has to be converted to the geometric shapes on the fingerboard,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s one step removed from reality and uses more processing power in your brain. The visual centers in the brain are huge and predominate; we are visual creatures. I want to pull my attention away and put it in the audio center.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n All of the pros interviewed here have noted the different goals of older learners they instruct in master classes or as private students. \u201cI teach a lot of adult students now and they are all different,\u201d observes Robinson. \u201cSome have no desire to play for anyone; they love the music and are playing for themselves. I try to figure out what\u2019s important for each student in their study of the guitar and how we can make the guitar fit comfortably into their lives. Everybody has different responsibilities and hours to practice. We tailor the repertoire according to the amount of time they can practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Smits teaches older students in master classes, her priority is to share the standards and esthetics of professional performers. \u201cSome have gotten used to sounds and habits that are not so good,\u201d she says. \u201cThey can start to think buzzing notes or a poor sonority are normal. I try to open their ears to the problems and help them to improve by making a good sonority, balancing voices, and showing them fingerings that will make things easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs you get older, you should know what you can play well and what you don\u2019t play well,\u201d continues. \u201cGive what you can with the music you are good at, not what you are struggling to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Verdery always encourages his adult students to maintain a sense of joy and curiosity. \u201cThe joy is the most important thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rick Lord echoes the sentiments of Smits and Verdery. \u201cIf you choose repertoire that\u2019s within your reach, things go better,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you can play a simple piece well, people love it and you\u2019ll feel more confident.\u201d Lord earned a music degree with classical guitar as his principal instrument while in his 20s. He later entered the seminary to become an episcopal priest. He served various congregations for four decades, but always played a bit. He returned in earnest to guitar study in the later years of his career after venturing into a master class with Jason Vieaux. He then enrolled in Vieaux\u2019s ArtistWorks online guitar school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went through his materials and got a lot of good feedback,\u201d Lord says. \u201cMostly I got inspiration knowing there was a player like Jason who took an interest.\u201d He subsequently completed guitar grades seven and eight with Simon Powis\u2019 Classical Guitar Corner Academy. \u201cFor people coming back to the guitar or beginning at this stage of life, many online curriculums are outstanding. I\u2019ve used online platforms for years and my technique and playing are at a level I wouldn\u2019t have achieved before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord gives a few recitals yearly and often plays at worship services, but making YouTube videos of introspective music including classical repertoire, hymns, carols, and movie themes is his main focus. He regularly posts videos he produces in his basement studio and has received positive comments from such international players as Laura Snowden and Uros Baric. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPosting videos offers a chance to get your music out there, especially if you don\u2019t play live much,\u201d Lord says. \u201cI feel that while I have time and my motor skills, I want to do as much as I can. There will come a time when I can\u2019t. Making videos is one way of leaving a footprint for the future. People I know who are of my generation are turning to music. It\u2019s great for our brains and well-being.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Raphaella](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Raphaella-Smits-photo-Tony-Maeckelberghe.jpg?resize=750%2C593&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Stephen-Robinson-photo-Kelly-Robinson_3642.jpg?resize=750%2C536&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Memorization and Visualization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Rick](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Rick-Lord-photo-REV.jpg?resize=750%2C500&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Adult Students<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Acoustic](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/001_341_Cover-150px.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1\")
<\/a>\n