Description
15 pieces for solo guitar
With exercises in musical creation, composition and improvisation
A method for students in their third and fourth years of study. Text in french and english.
PREFACE
While classical music is generally taught to a high standard throughout France, the same cannot always be said of disciplines that, alongside or as part of conventional instrumental instruction, could nurture creativity and imagination in young musicians.
This is somewhat regrettable, given how greatly these aspects of musical education can enrich the very process of learning to play well. As far as this shortcoming is concerned, the guitar, owing to its harmonic structure, is undoubtedly, along with the piano, one of the instruments best suited to benefiting from these still somewhat ill-defined disciplines, whose wider inclusion in music education should nevertheless be strongly encouraged, particularly in our music schools.
Today, however, the educational landscape in this field is gradually beginning to change, one step at a time. And it is gratifying that, with Guitare en liberté, Jean-Max Frézignac is among those helping to bring about this welcome transformation.
After devoting a few pages to the essential fundamentals of basic chords, using his own compositions as a starting point, he soon invites young guitarists to put their first musical inventions down on paper, even providing space for the title of each piece and the name of its «composer»!
By encouraging them to play with notes and to let their imagination run free, without judging the outcome, he helps them overcome their inhibitions and demystifies the dreaded «wrong note» that so often makes life difficult for us – particularly when improvising.
In my view, this is precisely the approach to take if we want aspiring guitarists to finally discover that the essential practice of their instrument can also be a source of pleasure: the very pleasure inherent in this music, which, despite all its demands, we love so dearly.
Roland Dyens, guitarist and composer
Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris
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