news items archive - Carlos Bonell

1949

21 January, 2022

image: by Jonathan Borba Acoustic Guitars Rule – For Now… Jo Fender was putting his new model guitar through the...

On The Way To Your Show

14 January, 2022

…Has This Happened To You? Image: Me showing off my brand new ivory suit 1 The taxi driver asks whether...

An Ivory Suit To Dye For

7 January, 2022

And how I said hello good-bye to my stage clothes Having spent much of the past two years hung up...

Guitar Poems for Christmas

24 December, 2021

Image : illustration for The Owl and the Pussycat by Julia Hartling The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear...

Bach tops the charts on Zoomed Guitars Live. Again.

17 December, 2021

Image: Bach manuscript of a page from his Christmas Oratorio For the second year running old JS proves the most...

All About The Music

9 December, 2021

10 Great Quotes 1 “My way towards God has been to write music. I think there will always be a...

Ukelele Wars

2 December, 2021

Guitarists, Don’t Panic! This week the British press has been full of the rise of the ukelele among children learning ...

I Just Met Someone Whose Grandfather Knew Tarrega

26 November, 2021

History Comes To Life When We Hear Their Stories I was having coffee with some friends in a bar in...

1808

18 November, 2021

Image: detail from Goya’s painting “3rd Of May 1808” in El Prado Museum, Madrid Chaos, War, and How Aguado’s Guitar-Playing...

Technique Or Musicality – Chatter In The Guitar Jungle

13 November, 2021

Which comes first, technique or musicality? Pose the question and a discussion can quickly become animated. Put more bluntly, but...

1606

5 November, 2021

Remembering Guy Fawkes, John Dowland the spy, and Girolamo Montesardo the guitarist. Who? Fishing disputes between neighbouring countries, extreme politics,...

Guitar Technique As Nature Intended, And What We Can Learn From Toddlers

30 October, 2021

The Friday Blog – short read The basic elements of guitar technique are based on natural movements. On this basis...

10 Ways To Make Your Interpretations More Personal

23 October, 2021

1 Consider the style and period of the music. 2 Discover the life, times and personality of the composer. 3...

Time For A Guitar Sandwich?

15 October, 2021

– short read – Photo selfie: arriving at the Royal College of Music after 19 months’ absence I have just...

19 Months Hidden Away Come To A Sudden End

10 October, 2021

I heard the sound of live guitar playing by someone else on Thursday. It was the first time in 19...

Today’s Guitarist-Composers Keep Up A Lost Tradition

1 October, 2021

– short read- Image: supposedly of Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) Within the small confines of classical music there is a sub-section:...

If A Thing Is Worth Doing, It Is Worth Doing Badly (and that includes guitar-playing)

24 September, 2021

Quote and photo: G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) September is a great month, children back at school, students at College, and with...

10 Steps To Learning While Still Having Fun

17 September, 2021

Caricature by Brazilian artist Mario Mendez (1907-1996) 1 Play through the piece slowly or fast. Mistakes don’t matter. 2 Play...

Essential Rep Unwrapped: Julia Florida by Agustín Barrios

10 September, 2021

– a man possessed, by a note obsessed For YouTube link click here to my own recording of the work....

Guitar Fingerprints Are All Over The Inspector Morse Music – and some are mine!

3 September, 2021

The Inspector Morse theme music has been voted the number one TV theme of all time in a UK poll...

All About The Guitar – 7 Great Quotes

27 August, 2021

short read Photo: Taylor Swift (photo courtesy of Vanity Fair magazine) My friends turned into the girls who stood in...

Online Guitar Weekend 27-29 August

20 August, 2021

Friday 27th – Sunday 29th August My online course for Benslow Music – an intensive programme of solo playing, spiced...

Online Guitar Weekend 27-29 August

20 August, 2021

Friday 27th – Sunday 29th August My online course for Benslow Music – an intensive programme of solo playing, spiced...

Amplification Has Spread Sounds, Fake And Real – 70 Years On We Can’t Tell The Difference

12 August, 2021

short read Keen readers of dates may have noticed the time lag. Villa-Lobos composed his concerto for guitar and orchestra...

Exile: It’s What Guitar Composers Do When The World Hits All The Wrong Notes

6 August, 2021

– short read – Photo: Living in Los Angeles – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (left) and Alexandre Tansman (centre) with fellow composer Ernst...

Create, Crash, Comeback – How Classical Music Won Against The Odds

29 July, 2021

short read Provided they could afford to travel between Europe’s musical capitals, the 1720s were a great time for music...

Einstein Played The Violin But Couldn’t Count And Keep Time

23 July, 2021

short read Albert Einstein once wrote that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion....

Villa-Lobos Knocks Bach Off Top Spot In Summer Showdown On Zoom

15 July, 2021

Zoomed Guitars Live Every Monday from Europe and the Americas *Free to view!* For 12 months from the beginning of...

What A Performance – Strutting The Stage Like A Peacock

9 July, 2021

– short read – Tuesday this week was my first live recital of 2021. After, I got to thinking what...

Live concert – in Spain

6 July, 2021

Live In Concert! Solo recital – Tuesday 6th July 20.00 hrs Festival de Guitarra de Gandía, Spain – Casa de...