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Classical Guitar

© Deborah Jeter

Naftali Lahav is a classical guitar soloist, composer and guitar teacher in Israel. Naftali agreed to contribute to the topic of Music Education by writing this article. I hope you enjoy the insights of this creative and talented guitar teacher from Israel.

Increasing classical guitar awareness through schools, private teachers, and music courses

Until five or six years ago, I was teaching guitar with a traditional, classic guitar approach. My guitar students played fine and many of them graduated from the Music Academy in Israel. Some of my students became guitar teachers and some kept playing. In Israel, we have a major problem of not having enough classical guitar pupils. There are more going to electric guitars via Rock, Blues, and other styles, but not Classical and not acoustic guitar. All of these categories are justifiable art forms. One shouldn't say "Classical guitar" is to be placed on a higher level, because what matters is whether the music is being played well or not. We could compare this with writing text. Whether you are writing with your pen or typing with your computer, what is important are the ideas and the style you will use and how well you communicate. What you write with, shouldn't matter. However, as a classical guitarist, I do care about a few things like:

• Direct Touch - Where your string controls the sound without electric intermediary

• You have the ability of playing anywhere, such as under a tree, without the need of electrical sockets.

• Also having the ability to playing a soft and natural sound that is not dependent on a button.

All this thinking brought me into a long, deep thought process resulting in the realization that is a 'New Music Education' that I have developed.

It has already worked very successfully in Israel. Its name? The New Music Education Project.

In this program, each pupil constructs an eastern Kit-Guitar for himself. We design a modular Kit-Guitar that can be easily glued together into a wonderful music instrument. By self-construction, the pupil feels very close and attached to their guitar. He or she wants to learn how to play a few songs. They find it difficult and can't play. That's where we come in. We guide them in groups, how to sit, how to hold the instrument, how to place their left hand, how to move each finger independently, in short ...HOW TO PLAY!!!