It was an honor to be interviewed by Nikhil Hogan recently. His YouTube channel, the Nikhil Hogan Show, contains a trove of fascinating interviews with many acclaimed musicians. Nikhil is a very acute musician and thinker who is now focusing his series on early music, music history, classical improvisation and elements of early-music pedagogy (such as partimento, hexachordal solfeggio, counterpoint and schemata). I learned a great deal from the conversation and the messages we exchanged afterwards.
In this interview, we touch on a lot of things, but the focus is on classical improvisation at the guitar. I share some ideas on how classical guitarists might think of improvisation and how to get started in a very simple way. I recommend some materials and strategies for Baroque improvisation in particular.
For yet more on improvisation and how we can incorporate it into the way we learn and practise notated scores, see Guitar, chapter 8, ‘Creative Practice’.
Guitar (Menuhin Guides) 