One week ago today, I had the pleasure of having Elliot Frank visit and perform a recital at MSU. There were about 80 in attendance, which I think is a great crowd for us on a Sunday afternoon. Some things that really struck me about his playing were his great tone and very clean rest stroke scales.

After the concert, we spent some time in the car talking about different players that we know and different teachers, etc. and I asked him about his rest stroke scales. I have had some struggles in the past and had been a little unclear on the best way to approach rest stroke, particularly because of the great difference in length of the right hand i and m  fingers. He shared with me what was told to him by the great guitar virtuoso Pepe Romero. The approach that he takes is to pivot the right hand slightly toward the thumb. If you try this, you will see that the change in position creates more equality between the two fingers and makes rest stroke scales much easier. I had seen other players do this, but I wasn't ready to fully embrace the idea. Once Elliot and I talked about it, and I sat down with the guitar and tried it, I realized it made a huge difference. Back a few years ago, when I was doing a program of the complete Villa-Lobos Etudes, I had always dreaded no. 7, due to the fact that the work starts with a pretty tricky rest stroke scale. I think I will go back and revisit that one!

When I get a little better at this blog thing, and figure out the best way to post printed music, I will include some scale exercises that I have recently written. In the meantime, take some simple scales and give the pivoting idea a try!

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