Somogyi Guitar Voicing Class, 2010

[esomogyi]

Hello, all:

I wanted to tell you that I taught my annual voicing class last month and had my first ever Aussie student -- David Aumann. He teaches maths and physics in his other life. I thought I'd introduce him to you all by mentioning him. David was just great to have in class: smart, asked great questions, did very nice work, and interacted very intelligently with the work and the students. I expect that you'll be hearing from him by and by and I hope that he may become a source of interesting information to you all. I'm going to try to attach a jpeg of this class, but I may fail to find the right way to attach it. Should I fail to attach it properly, just imagine them all standing in a row and looking like hardened criminals.

Interestingly, this was the first class I've ever taught that had more foreign students than domestic ones. I limit my classes to six, and this class had two Americans, an Australian, a Brit, a Brazilian, and a Korean. Wow. The language problem wasn't as bad as I'd feared it might be.

Tony, the Brit, astonished me by being married to the daughter of Paulino Bernabe, the well known Spanish luthier who is one of my heroes. The quality in Bernabe's work that I deeply admire is that he tried out lots of ideas in bracing and construction -- at a time when almost everyone else is following the same formulas and designs over and over again. I described in my book that I've played a bernabe classic guitar that was actually "X" braced and sounded GREAT. I also had a conversation yesterday with a musician who has an exceptional Bernabe guitar that has diamond bracing (four stout diagonal braces, in the upper and lower right- and left-hand 'corners', with the apexes (apices?) at the top and bottom of the centerline and the widest points of the lower bout!) and three much more delicate braces in the middle, under the bridge, and parallel to the strings. And it sound AMAZING. Wow.

Sincerely, Ervin Somogyi

[Nick]

Thanks for the update Ervin, good to see you back again. The 'mix' of the class sounds like a good makeup & the fact that one had an albeit, indirect link to one of your hero's must have made the class that much more interesting. I imagine the exchange rate & the value of the American $ at the moment may have contributed to the international flavour?
I've managed to get the link to the picture of your students up & running for you...which one is the Aussie?

[kiwigeo]

That's easy...the one wearing the hat