No structure, just unarticulated flow of thoughts today 🫠

get ready

Okay so I was super busy around this whole Guitar Summit thing and now that it’s over, it really gave me the push I needed to set up a solid plan for the last quarter of the year. You heard it… it is the last quarter of the year 🤯

I’ve been streaming and uploading a little less, so I thought maybe it’s time to talk to you about what’s going on and what I’m working on. So today’s newsletter will be just about catching up with you and sharing a bit more about my journey 🤗 This will be a peak into my mind and what I really think right now.

Podcast

The second season of ‘Oh sheet!’ starts this month! It’s something I’ve been planning to do for some time now, but I didn’t have the funds I needed. It’s not a very high budget project, but the editor, hosting servers, and online recording tools can add up pretty quickly, so I was relieved when D’addario decided to sponsor the whole 2nd season. 

These episodes will include conversations with amazing musicians like Mike Dawes, which is the episode that comes later this month, or Yvette Young. Furthermore, I’ll dedicate an episode to the topic of how to start composing on classical guitar with Daniel Nistico, and I’ll talk about practice strategies and stage fright to Barry Green, the author of the bestseller book ‘The Inner Game of Music”. If you have topics of guests you’d like to see on the show, please let me know in the comments under this post.

If you enjoyed the previous episodes with Stephanie Jones, Alexandra Whittingham, Brandon Acker and others, consider supporting the show by buying a T-shirt or a notebook!

Music

Some of you noticed that I haven’t really uploaded any music videos for 3-4 months now, so I thought I’d address this too. There are a couple of reasons for this.

One thing is my new microphone setup. It is amazing, but now that I have studio level microphones, I’m trying to learn how to make the best quality of sound, so I can not only record music for my YouTube videos, but I could also publish them as singles on Spotify. I’m experimenting a lot, still looking for the best positioning and settings. I guess I’m just in a learning phase again, and I want to give myself time to get a good job done with this.

Another factor is that I’m not entirely sure what to record. I could record pieces from my repertoire, things I have learned in the past, or pieces I can expect lots of views from like Asturias. But honestly, I’m not sure if that’s the best use of my time. There are many people playing these popular pieces on YouTube, so lately I tried to focus on the things I might be really unique at: composing original music.

This year I finalized 2 compositions and I need to finish the intro of another one, and I have one piece pretty much in parts that I want to assemble by the end of this year. Composing originals has been a completely new area for me, and it’s so much less clear than learning to play a classical piece. When I play a piece, I have music on a page, I just need to read and decode the message that the composer left me. Composing starts with a blank page, and it’s really intimidating. Not to mention that it is very time consuming for me, I’m extremely slow - like with every new thing we are beginners at.

I intend to record many classical pieces in the future for sure, don’t worry. I want to record Mertz pieces and Lulu by Goran Ivanovic for YouTube, and an EP with lighter music like Hoy y siempre and Nowhere by Angela Mair. But I know I can’t do everything at once. So the focus now is on improvisation/composing for myself, bringing you awesome conversations on my podcast and helping you to become the best artist you can be through my educational videos. And when I’m ready, I’ll bring music videos again 🙂

New videos

I recorded a vlog at the Guitar Summit, and my favorite part of it is when we asked exhibitors about their instruments. It was so amazing to talk to all these devoted makers and to see how much they care for the instruments they brought. Video premier is later today, join us and let me know if you’d like to see more of this format in the future!

Furthermore, Siccas Guitars just uploaded a music video of me playing Mozart variations last summer:

Education

I put together some sheet music and tabs for my patrons including Lágrima, Spanish Romance, Adagio by Mertz and Nights in Venice by Minicetti. Anyone can buy them, but if you become a patron, you’ll get access to them automatically, and other downloads as well. Consider becoming a patron for $3 and get access to over $50 worth of digital downloads!

In the meantime, I’m also working on my first online video course, but I’ll tell you more about it later.

If you need personalized guitar lessons and help with your progress, don’t hesitate to book a lesson with me!

Conclusion?

The conclusion is that I’m excited to keep making the videos like I do, I’ll be streaming on Mondays and Wednesdays on Twitch and YouTube (see you later today), I’ll work on finishing my compositions and my first online course, and I’ll try to be back at music recordings as soon as I can. 😊 And I hope, I really do hope that from next year on I can play concerts and gigs where you live and I can meet more of you in person.

My favourite things last week

I was listening to this piece last week and there's something really magnetic in it. I am buying sheet music today. I didn’t plan to learn it, but I’m so hooked, I just have to.

And let me share some other music with you. I fell in love with this Overture when I was studying at university and my teacher played it a lot. It’s really tempting to jump into learning it, but it’s a huge commitment. Anyhow, I love listening to it any time. The part starting from 3:38 is giving me goosebumps.

Okay so I think I’m looking at a rather busy last quarter, better get going. Have a fantastic week and see you later, maybe at the YouTube premier, or the livestream, or next week right here.

Hugs,

Beatrix