Summer
1999
For the Love of
It By Craig Einhorn
It was a small coffee shop and I had been performing
there off and on for about three years. The pay was really
low, $35 for two hours. I usually avoid such low-paying gigs,
but for some reason I keep playing there.
There is nothing really special about the place
and the coffee crowd is unappreciative at best. I play Classical
Guitar music from noon to 2:00 PM. Usually I time my last
few pieces so I can get up and go precisely at the end of
my gig. But this day I had a different idea.
I had been struggling with the need to love
guitar playing. Playing professionally can really take a
toll on your soul and I have to keep on reminding myself
that I love what I do. I don't have to remind myself that
this is what I am meant to do, or that it is the focus of
my whole life, but loving it is entirely different.
So I decided I would play another piece after
2:00 PM and I had never played past quitting time before.
I wanted to play a piece I love to play and really enjoy
what I was doing, knowing that my obligation of playing till
2:00 PM was fulfilled.
The piece I chose was "Recuerdos de la
Alhambra" by Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909). Among Classical
Guitarists it is a well known part of the Repertoire. It
is frequently overlooked for two reasons. First, it is so
ingrained into the memory of the accomplished Classical Guitarist
that it seems like a song that receives too much air play
on the radio. Second, it is a difficult piece to play well
because it is a Tremolo piece. There is a little rhyme among
Classical Guitarists which sheds light on the difficulty
of playing a tremolo: "I feel so low, I'm playing a
tremolo." The reason we feel so low while playing a
tremolo is because we play it so poorly, and many guitarists
will go their entire careers without performing a tremolo
piece in public.
In my late twenties I decided it was high time
I buckled down and developed a presentable tremolo. The first
thing I discovered is that in order to play it I had to shed
any feelings of inadequacy. My new mantra was, "I feel
like a king, my tremolo rings." Now at age 33 I have
a very good tremolo and the work to develop it was worth
the effort.
Tremolo pieces are incredibly heart-warming
and "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" is arguably the
most beautiful piece ever written for the guitar. So at 2:00
PM I lowered my head down for a moment of concentration before
I began the piece.
Just before I started, a woman walked in front
of me, put a dollar in my tip jar, and asked inquisitively, "Can
you play Recuerdos de la Alhambra"?
--------
Craig Einhorn teaches classical guitar at
Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. Write to him
at einhorn@efn.org.
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