Tips For The Gigging Classical-Spanish Guitarist

Concerts, recitals, gigs. Whatever you call them, concerts in all genres have many things in common. In classical, the process of the musical side of the preparation is well-known; e.g. material, performance technique, programme notes, visual presentation or 'image', announcements, etc. I do not intend to expand on these matters in this article. Instead, the issue of how the music arrives at the audience is my interest here.

In classical, the authentic approach is 'acoustic'. Take a guitar, foot-rest, music, music stand. Arrange a suitable chair, or take your own. Is that it? Well, no. What about your mailing or fan list, business contact cards, CD's to sell? So, you must have a CD as it has the potential to reach a number of potential new listeners and is a great souvenir for your audience to remember you by. You'll need an on-line personal website and hopefully a presence on myspace, facebook fan page, linkedin, etc. A camcorder gets you onto youtube, and you can learn from your mistakes if your record your concerts too. These are all important if you would like to maintain contact with your audience and for a possible repeat ticket sale in the future. But is that it? I'd say no.

What about taking a small acoustic amp to your concert? If you don't know much about the acoustic in the venue, a small boost can make all the difference. You don't want your audience to strain their ears in order to hear you do you? They might go to hear a violin next time if you don't have this option available to you. AER make a great little 40 watt Alpha amp, but you'll need a transducer pick-up, like a Fishman SBT. Add an equalizer and preamp to your set-up and the sound will be even better. But is that it? If you want to stay as near to authentic within reason, I'd say yes. If you want to play to bigger halls and a bigger audience, then I'd again say no.

What about putting together a 300-600 (at 8 ohms) watt P.A. system? You'll need either a power amp, mixer and speakers or powered mixer and speakers. Don't forget the speaker stands, and check the speaker output of your mixer to the inputs on the speakers; in combinations of either 3-pin XLR, TRS jack or Speakon. The more authentically inclined can add to this a condenser microphone and stand (and xlr cable) ensuring that your mixing desk has phantom power for the microphone otherwise you'll need a seperate pre-amp. Your pre-amp may be small like a Buddybox, or 19" rack pre-amp but you'll probably need a flightcase for that! Your speakers should be small. About 10" woofer plus tweeter is fine for guitar, and it'll leave room in the boot of your car for the case of Remy Martin or Bollinger. Add a digital reverb or ensure your mixer comes equipped with FX just in case you play dry horrible venues. But is that it? If you want to stay semi-authentic and don't mind upsetting a few diehards then I'd say yes. If you want to play to even bigger halls and a much bigger audience and don't mind upsetting the entire authenic brigade, then I'd again say no.

Unless you have roadies, can afford to pay excess baggage when jetting to international venues, then your acoustic guitar can cause you too much time consumption when either setting up the sound, or a feedback nightmare if you need to crank up the volume to your 500+ audience. Then you might need to have an electro-acoustic guitar to hand. I used to use an ovation electric classical, and have tried a number of other models. By far the easiest and most authentic sounding electro classical guitar is the Godin Grand Concert. Plug in your jack to an amp or PA and it'll sound good, and rarely if ever feeds back. Plus it has outputs to midi, so you can score out your compositions and arrangements, and have access to synth sounds. If you want to go bigger than this then you'll need a power amp rating of 1200 watts at 2ohms, and a three tier (bass/mid/top range) system. Then you'll need a van and a physiotherapist and chiropractor for your back pain after carrying all that gear to your gig, and regular hearing checks would help too. But rest easy in that you'll be able to afford to cope with all the physical ailments as your ticket sales should have substantially increased. If they haven't, then you'd better go back to playing acoustically and 'authentically'.

DH