Classical guitar camp coming up - I can't wait!

Pic from CGC Summer School

To say I'm excited is an understatement!   In a week's time I'll be in Massachusetts at the start of my first classical guitar camp organized by Simon Powis from NYC.   This is not his first camp, though I believe it will be his first in the US (he hails from Australia).  I've attended Folk camps and larger craft/music/social camps with my guitar before - and they are a great deal of fun (where else can you play along with everything from lap dulcimers to washboards?)  However this is a totally new animal, and something of a challenge to boot -  all week we get to practice in ensembles ( a small one geared to our playing ability and a large ensemble consisting of everyone) for a performance at the end of the week.  Yikes!  I'm used to having a couple of months to get proficient in ensemble music.  I can only hope that everyone else is much better at sight reading than I am and will cover for my lapses.  In addition, of course, concerts by the faculty (Simon Powis, Gohar Vardanyan, Ben Verdery, Raphaele and Janet Agostino and David Belcher), plus workshops and the opportunity to do an open stage performance.   What a treat! [Except for participation in the open stage performance, which will not include me, although I am intending to be ready to do it next year, honestly...]

Pic from CGC summer school

Naturally I'm a bit worried that I haven't been able to practice the orchestra music because of my arm,  (we don't know which parts we are playing in any case). I'm even more worried that we are supposed to have prepared 2 pieces for a private lesson.    When I signed up for this, I obviously didn't know I'd be out of action for a couple of months right beforehand.  I can only marvel at the amount I forgot in 2 short months of not playing.  It remains to be seen whether I manage to claw something back (without stressing my arm) or plead incompetence and sit that one out.

Visesnut with cover

What I am going to do is take my new guitar ...  I'm not even thinking about what a Southwest commuter hop might possibly do to it - though I do expect it will be well protected in my spiffy Christmas-present Visesnut case.  I now have guitars in 3 different sizes so it's good that the case adjusts to fit the guitar - I would most definitely not want to cart it around in the very solid but exceptionally heavy case it came in!

Endicott college dorms

I probably should be more worried about the accommodations - dorm style beds might well be great for teenagers, but I'm not so sure about those of us who have advanced quite a few years since!  And I don't even have the option of packing a foam mattress, like I did last time I did the dorm thing.   Assuming I survive the experience,  I will definitely be reporting on the accommodations as well as everything else when I get back!

In the meantime I have a couple of lectures to prepare.  Stay tuned...

My Marcus Dominelli guitar

 630's ...  Dominelli on the right

Well I managed it: a month of extremely limited guitar playing followed by an entire month without using my left hand on the guitar at all.  Quite an achievement, if I say so myself.

The most notable results of this seem to have been that I have totally forgotten anything I ever knew how to play on the guitar, and my finger-ends hurt. Oh and the pain in my arm is much improved, but sadly not totally gone.  To be honest, if I didn't have classical guitar camp coming up in just over a week, I'd probably let it sit a bit longer, but there's ensemble music to prepare, so very gingerly, I've picked up the guitar and am working on small segments.

Actually it's the perfect stuff to practice on - nothing too challenging to fret, and I can practice sight reading too.  So long as my arm doesn't get any worse, I figure I'm good for the time being.

Anyway this is the perfect time to do an initial review of my new Marcus Dominelli double top 630/50mm guitar.  Spruce and cedar top (with the Spruce uppermost) and Indian rosewood back and sides.

Really really nice workmanship - very precise understated elegance.  And the main goal - easy for me to play - is more than accomplished.   Marcus carved the neck to a profile I sent him from my other guitar and it feels just the same, only everything is a bit closer and easier to reach.

To the main question - how does it sound?  What attracted me to these guitars was the very sweet, penetrating yet full trebles - and this guitar lives up to that expectation.  An absolute pleasure to play the higher notes and just listen to that bell-like sound.  And it's loud.  And resonant - very resonant. That's before taking off the soundport cover (yes it comes with a little magnetic piece of curved rosewood to cover the soundport in case it's too loud).

A couple of things I'm still fine-tuning - on arrival the 3rd string sounded a bit dull compared to that gorgeous crystalline sound on the top 2.  Replacing the d'Addario nylon with a denser Savarez carbon string seems to have sorted that out.  UPDATE Aug 8: best yet - Hannabach Goldin HT super high carbon on the third string.  I experimented with some La Bella medium tension strings (thinking of my arm) and they work fine on the bass but the trebles lost a lot of punch, so back to HT's on the trebles - currently nylon Hannabachs. UPDATE Aug 8: back to the D'Addario HT except for the 3rd string.  I'm now pretty happy with the trebles, but may be experimenting more with the basses.  How do the basses sound?  I definitely think the spruce comes out in this guitar - I think of cedar as offering a mellower softer sound: this guitar is darker and more focused, and certainly not lacking in the loudness department.   It will be interesting to see if the cedar comes out more as it gets played in, Overall I am more than happy with it. My (admittedly non-scientific) test of a guitar is simply whether I want to go on playing it once I start and this one passes - I don't want to put it down!  I suspect it will be quite a while before my other guitar gets an outing...