In an attempt to organise my YT pages, I’ve added three Playlists to the BalcarresGuy Channel – Lute, Baroque Guitar, and 19th-Century Guitar. How do you access these? Locate the Subscribe, Uploads and Playlists buttons above the main video – click Playlists. Choose which Playlist you want to view, then once you press Play on the first video, all the videos in that Playlist will play in order.

I’ve removed ‘Three Renaissance Spanish Pieces’ because it was out of tune. I was pushing the limits of the cheap beginners guitar that got me excited about playing classical guitar again. The prospect of playing 400 years of music on one instrument goes against the philosophy I’ve lived by for the last twenty years – the right instrument for the right music- yet I can see a way of retaining integrity through an aesthetic of historically-informed perfomance on a modern instrument. The technique I’ve developed through lute and baroque guitar plucking has allowed me to bring something new to the modern classical guitar. Fernando Sor used a similar technique, and he too knew he was swimming against the tide. It might not work for music by Koshkin or Ohana, but why does it have to? Lots of people playing that music already.

I plan to record quite a bit of lute and vihuela repertoire on the modern classical guitar, but to do that I need to upgrade the instrument. Manuel Rodriguez Jr is overseeing a 60cms guitar for me, with an ebony fingerboard (never liked rosewood) and a French polished top. Should arrive in a month. Manuel has been very impressed with the videos I made of the ‘Baby Rodriguez’ guitar, and is giving me a good deal on this new model. Looking forward to it. So I might hold back on recording new pieces until it arrives.