One of my least favorite things to do is traveling with a guitar; I am an adamant advocate of carrying it on whenever possible, or at the very least gate-check it, and the Calton Case I use for peace of mind is far from being an ideal solution for airport schlepping, if you catch my drift!
Granted, there are times when I just *have* to take an axe along – for instance if I’m flying to a gig. Since leaving Nashville in 2006, though, I’ve elected to leave at least one of my guitars at my family’s home in Italy, so that whenever I come for a visit I can keep up the practice regimen as well as play the occasional show. My 1993 Ragghianti has been “living” there pretty much ever since, as I’ve used a cedar/cocobolo McGill as my main squeeze starting in the spring of 2007.
Fabio Ragghianti is a terrific builder from Pietrasanta, just a couple of hours south of Genova. The guitar was originally built for my first teacher Armando Corsi in 1993, and I acquired it as my first “serious” classical in 2001. Its main characteristics are stunning looks (curly spruce and birdseye maple), a warm and fundamental tone, and a neck roughly the girth and heft of a baseball bat. I remember being completely captivated by its smell, feel, and overall character when I first played it in a local music store, where it was held on consignment: guitaristic love affairs often involve more than one of our senses.
Continue Reading…
Posted 7 months ago.
From time to time I get questions about my playing position – mostly regarding the reasons that led me to it, but sometimes people ask more “technical” things on how I rig my strap. I decided to write up a little piece, explaining both why, how, and the likes. Continue Reading…
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago.
I remember mentioning something about the new website providing me with more opportunities to post…well, it’s been almost two months since my last update, so that didn’t necessarily went the way I envisioned!
In my defense, I’ve been keeping busy with a new academic adventure; I started in the PhD program at UCSC in September, and it’s been quite a bit of work right from day one – not to mention the rather drastic change from both a summer of leisure and my previous performance-oriented (and practice-heavy!) experience.
Despite the massive amount of reading and the menial aspects of my double involvement as a TA (it literally pays the bills, so no complaints here), I’m trying to keep a dynamic attitude towards the many aspects of my musical enterprise, both on the playing and now scholarly side.
This is where the website comes in – ideally, I’d like to start posting some musings, short writings of sorts about matters more or less musical. I’m not sure what kind of audience there might be for this (what I call the “is this thing on?” syndrome), but if nothing else I will be practicing my writing, as well as developing a style for talking about music in more and more accessible terms.
I do have to be realistic about the frequency of my postings, especially given the amount of my other commitments – let’s say I’d be happy to get something up at least once a week. So, if you’re reading this, expect more to follow – I have other developments in the works, and they’ll be unveiled at more or less the proper time.
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago.
