Manuel Barrueco graciously shared his unique approach to music and the guitar at a well-attended master class after his concert last fall. The performers were Raymond Garofalo (Variations by Sor), Jesse Espinoza (Etude #7, Villa Lobos), J.P.Shields (Cordoba, Albeniz), Michael Partington (Prelude, 2d Cello Suite, J.S.Bach).

Barrueco's approach to the technical preparation of the piece is renowned. Many have marveled at his painstaking, meticulously detailed method--dissecting the left hand fingerings and then the right. Barrueco is in fact famous for being able to play only the right hand fingering of an entire piece (an odd sounding feat but remarkable)!

Nevertheless, while his technical prowess is amazing, what most impressed one at the master class was his attention to the intangible, psychic side of playing music. He focused on what it is about music that touches us personally and intimately -- connecting with why one plays music in the first place.

So when he spoke about preparation, Barrueco advised replacing bad thoughts with good ones--enjoy yourself! Know and feel that you can do it! The maestro then made everyone smile as he commented, "sometimes I think the guitar is just too hard!"

When working with students, Barrueco took a classic Socratic approach asking students, "Do you like that sound?" It is difficult not to find that a somewhat disconcerting question when playing in front of a whole group of other guitarists! As it turned out, it was not a trick question--simply a way to focus a student on becoming their own best teacher. Manuel offered his own suggestions (for example, feeling rubato like a roller coaster, swinging up then down) but worked the hardest on helping students to hear critically in the best sense of the term so that they were able to make changes for themselves.

Manuel is a great proponent of singing everything out loud. Repeatedly, he emphasized using the human voice to understand phrasing and musicality. He also recommended working with a metronome--an excellent tool.

In addition to separating the right and left hands ("it may surprise you, what you find out by doing that," he exclaimed), Manuel advocated playing scales every day. While one may want to play pieces that include a lot of scales instead of playing scales, Manuel felt that pieces don't have enough scales in them to be sufficiently beneficial. Always, the technical aspects of playing a piece should be subservient to the musical. In one specific example, a stretch worked but shifting better supported the musicality of that particular phrase.

With regard to the physical placement of the guitar, Barrueco told students. "ask the body to do things that are natural." Bring the guitar to the body, for example rather than tilting the body forward to reach the guitar. Play with all the joints of the fingers in mid-range of motion.