News: Guitar
SAAGC Conference Call Notes
Festival Report
Frank Longay reports that the International Suzuki Festival planning is going well. He is encouraging teachers from out of town to bring their students and make the festival more diverse. Dave Madsen and Andy Lafreneniere are organizing kids to come.
Book 7, 9 Report
Frank Longay reports that the revisions are done for Book 9’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra and that he is starting in on Capricho Arabe. Bill Kossler and Seth Himmelhoch finished going over the details of the Book 9 Sor Opus 9. The recording for the Book 7 CD is still in progress, George Sakellariou is the guitarist. The Committee is looking to find a player for Book 9, several suggestions are made.
Committee Membership
Frank Longay suggests that the Committee should start revising Book 1 after Book 9 is done. Previous discussions concerning committee membership included the idea of rotating membership among guitar teacher trainers. The decision was made that the current membership of 5 was manageable for conference calls, but that more members would make the calls unwieldy. Frank Longay wants to rotate off the committee after Book 1 revision work is done.
SAA Conference Update
At this point there are 3 soloists and one ensemble are set to play for Ben Verdery. There is a session set for Ben V. and Ben needs a topic for his talk.
Session topic suggestions for Ben include 1) how to support students who play advanced repertoire (psychological support) and 2) favorite teaching techniques, what does he rely on? Andrea Cannon did an interview with Ben and a topic came up which excited him, namely balancing all his three jobs, teacher, composer, player. All SAA Guitar Committee members plan to do their best to attend this conference.
Guitar at Conference 2008
Details on the guitar events at the 2008 Conference in Minneapolis have been posted.
A Gift Across the Miles
By Andrea Cannon
Shortly after I returned home from teaching students and training teachers at the 2005 Festival sponsored by Suzuki Association of El Salvador (ASUSAL), one of the new guitar teachers sent an email. She was invited to begin a program at a school nearby, but seventy-five students had signed up and there were only three guitars! A few weeks later at the Colorado Suzuki Institute, I learned that through the “Viva Suzuki!” program, several guitars had been donated. Fortunately through the generosity of this program, three of the guitars were available to be given to the Suzuki Association of El Salvador.
Violin and Guitar Practicum
Music in the Mountains Suzuki Institute is adding 2 practicum courses, violin and guitar, June 22-26. Enrollment is limited. Email Nan Freeman at musicinthemountains@yahoo.com if you are interested.
SAAGC Conference Call Notes
All members were present.
The first topic was a publication update. It is reported that Book 8 is going into production. It should be on the shelves in a couple of weeks. The Bach minuets have been fixed according to our recent discussions.
George Sakellariou will be re-recording the Vivaldi concerto on 1/7/07. Prominent members of major orchestras participated in the project. The committee will review the previous version to make suggestions about tempo and performance details in the new version. The committee will respond with its comments ASAP.
The committee is reviewing the SAA training syllabus. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
Several questions are raised concerning the screening of videos for Institute workshops. Is there an appeal process for rejected videos? Who are the screeners? It is suggested that there should be an appeal process for those whose videos have been initially rejected.
Good news! Ben Verdery has agreed to serve on the honorary board.
Our next call is scheduled for 2/4/07 at 8:00 EST
Members of the Suzuki Guitar community who have concerns that they would like to see discussed at SAA Guitar Committee conference calls should contact one of the committee members.
SAAGC Conference Call Notes
The subject of committee function and organization is discussed and it is decided that the committee does not need to change now. According to SAA, we can do what we want to within reason.
William Kossler submits these points concerning committee membership:
- Membership limited to 6.
- A degree in music is required (this can be overlooked by majority vote of the committee members).
- Set up a rotation schedule. 2 committee members would move off the committee in September for the period of one year. Committee size is limited to 6; therefore every 4th year 2 people will have a one-year break.
Some issues that come to mind:
- Coordination of SAAGC and ISGC membership.
- All committee members should be involved in repertoire changes regardless of their rotation status.
- The committee will send inactive members the results of committee discussions for approval.
The committee agrees to limit the membership to 6.
The committee agrees that a degree in music be required for membership and that this requirement can be overlooked by majority vote of the committee members.
The committee will coordinate with the ISGC to be sure that our ISGC representative is on the SGC committee as well.
The 6 members will have the final say on repertoire decisions.
The pool of committee members comes from the current committee membership and including all new teacher trainers.
The committee feels that Pam Brasch will be flexible with what the committee needs to do.
How teachers treat other teachers’ students at institutes and workshops
The committee agrees that it is important to respect all students and their respective teachers. As a Master Class visitor, it is important that we as teachers know how to treat other teachers’ students.
Great news! The guitar book six CD is available from Alfred.
The SAAGC chair discussed coordinating teaching points for all the books with the EGC representative. The committee will review the teaching points before being submitted to the ISGC.
Meeting adjourned.
SAAGC Conference Call Notes
Refer by last names; all present except Andy.
Book 5 Update
Longay wants to get started updating Book 5. He will send materials to the committee to get the ball rolling.
Guitars—finding better small instruments
Longay is getting advanced youngsters who need higher quality instruments. He says if there is someone willing to pay for it there should be a fine instrument available for them. He says Eduardo Moreno Moore has a better quality small guitar he made for his daughter and he is sending it to him as a sample.
Recordings for teacher trainee status
Question: should we have three levels of audition tapes instead of two for those who need more incremental progress? Or should we stick to the two levels we have now so that people will strive to get the harder piece on tape and rise to a higher level? On the other hand, the Bach Prelude and the Pernambuco Sounds of Bells from Book 7 are significantly difficult. The Committee will table this discussion until next call meeting.
Web Page suggestions
The Committee decided that we should include South American workshops in the Institute listings. The Committee agreed to change the information on repertoire development news by saying that the revised Book 6 is now available. Before the page goes online, the status of the final recordings of the new books will be checked so that the text concerning these recordings can reflect whether the final or the provisional versions are available. The Committee also decided to include on the web page photos of students with excellent posture and hand position.
Report on Madsen’s talk with the SAA concerning a proposed Guitar video
The SAA contact said that the idea sounds very good and the SAA will want to be involved. SAA feels that it would need to be very professional and polished if it were to be used to introduce the method. Madsen agrees to continue research on this project. For additional support SAA said we could approach Warner Bros., Ruben Flores, or anyone who stands to benefit from the growth of the method.
Committee Flow Chart Update
The committee needs to review our flow chart to prepare ourselves for the next meeting. This is an effort to better define our respective responsibilities within the Committee.
Guitar News
Repertoire Development News
The ISGC and Warner Bros. Publications is pleased to announce the publication of Books 5, 6 and 7 of the Suzuki Guitar School which is now available at Warner Bros. as well as from most music outlets. Book 6 has undergone editorial improvements and the reprinted edition is currently available. Revised reprints of Books 5 and 7 will follow shortly. Book 8 will be submitted to Warner Brothers for publication on June 1, publication date to be announced later. To order the edition(s) directly from Warner Bros. contact their retail outlet at (800) 327-7643, ext 1637.
Volume 6 of the Suzuki Guitar School is now commercially available. It can be ordered directly from your favorite music store. A date for the availability of a recording for Volume 7 will posted at this location on the Suzuki Guitar Website as soon as that date is determined.
The recordings were made by noted virtuoso George Sakellariou. The members of the ISGC wish to express our deepest appreciation to all those who contributed to this effort. It is hoped that these works meet the highest standards of musical and pedagogical excellence.
Closing the Interim Teacher Trainer Status for Guitar
Suzuki guitar has seen a steady growth over the years, and there has been an ever increasing need for trainers, especially for Books 1 and 2. In February of 2000 the books for the upper levels of the Suzuki Guitar repertoire were not yet available, making the application process for new trainers impossible to put into place. To meet the need for additional trainers, an interim process of offering Teacher Trainer certification in phases for the guitar was implemented by the SAA.
With the establishment of the Suzuki Guitar Repertoire through Book 9, and with the recent certification of several new guitar teacher trainers, the decision has been made to terminate this interim application process for guitar as of 11/04/00. Current interim trainers have a period of 5 years from the time of interim certification to finish their application process to acquire full teacher trainer status.
If there are any individuals who have already prepared materials for the interim application, these same materials can be used for the full teacher trainer application. Any further questions about the Teacher Trainer Application process specific to the guitar can be directed to William Kossler. For more detailed information on the Teacher Training application process, please see the SAA Audition Guide.