Nelson Faria's YouTube empire.

28/06/20 - week 3

Tune

In my quest for beautiful nylon string tones, I stumbled across Nelson Faria's extensive body of collaborative material. Faria is a giant of Brazilian guitar and interviews Hermeto Pascoal and João Bosco among others. My favourite is a duet with Toninho Horta where they perform Corcovado to an extremely receptive audience. He's also written The Brazilian Guitar Book and contributes to Inside The Brazilian Rhythm Section - both of which I'm excited explore in greater detail.

Twang

I've been experimenting with Mike Walker's diadic improvisation approach which will eventually become voicing/comping practice - it's much harder than Mike made it sound! I had a tough time jumping straight into improvising with the concept, so jotted down some example studies. Below is a chorus on Moment's Notice.

I learnt Mike's improvisation Quietly Peeping Around Corners as an incentive for my practice - it also doubles up as a bit of a right hand study. He improvises with such freedom!

Thought

In a world where our education system seems to benefit those in power - whether it's with cushy sounding apprenticeships which make rich CEOs richer, or by rushing students into degrees they feel obliged to pursue -  it's now more than ever that we need entrepreneurial creatives to maintain some kind of cultural balance.