news items archive | Carlos Bonell

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...

New Video: Is This The Greatest Chord Sequence Ever? – Bach Prelude BWV846 –

2 July, 2021

Watch video Recorded at the beautiful St. Andrew’s Church in the village of Lammas, Norfolk, England in 2018 on one...

Richard Stover’s Barrios Files To Be Freely Available from California Uni – His Research Forced Him To Flee Venezuela

25 June, 2021

short read Excellent news that Richard Stover’s Barrios files and papers will be digitalised and made freely available by the...

Music Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult To Be Good. Here Are Three Pieces For Starters.

18 June, 2021

One minute read Lots of guitar music is difficult or very difficult. Sometimes it’s bad or very bad. But there...

Go Away Parrot – You’re In The Way of The Music

11 June, 2021

How to silence the negative voice inside you while you are playing to your listeners? It undermines your confidence, it...

10 Suggestions For Controlling Your Nerves While Playing In Public

4 June, 2021

Zoomed Guitars Live is a chance to put them into effect 1 In the weeks previous to the performance event,...

New video: La Caravana by Armand Coeck

28 May, 2021

Watch video Armand Coeck: La Caravana composed 2020 played by Carlos Recorded in Xàtiva, Valencia, Spain, 5th May 2021 Composer...

More about Armand Coeck : mystic with a musical mission

28 May, 2021

Armand Coeck was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1941. He taught himself to compose and to play the piano, guitar,...

Carlos and the music of Armand Coeck

28 May, 2021

In 1997 Carlos met Armand Coeck for the first time when he gave the first performance of his Concerto for...

Britten’s Nocturnal – what really happened in November 1963

20 May, 2021

The Friday Blog (Short 1 minute read) Don’t miss the performance of Nocturnal op 70 by Will Glenn on Zoomed...

Online Guitar Weekend 27 -29 August 2021

14 May, 2021

*ONLINE* Guitar Weekend Reserve the dates in your diary now! Fri 27 – Sun 29 August 2021 Benslow Music What...

10 Ways To Improve Your Playing Without Even Touching The Guitar

7 May, 2021

– give the old box a rest. Many things can be learnt in your head while walking down the street...

New video – Brian Boru’s March

30 April, 2021

1014AD, Ireland, the Battle of Clontarf. A legend is born! King Brian Boru of Munster, the first High King of...

80th Birthday Tribute to John Williams

23 April, 2021

I can’t believe JW is celebrating his 80th birthday! I have always known him as youthful and full of vitality....