Art of Guitar Studio
Art of Guitar Studio
Art of Guitar Studio
What’s with all the variations on Fernando Sor’s “Variations on a Theme of Mozart?”
What's with all the variations on Fernando Sor's Variations on a Theme of Mozart?" The Spanish classical guitarist Fernando Sor (1778–1839) wrote many virtuosic variations on various themes. But his most famous—and most frequently performed—set is based on a melody by...
Jarabi (Passion)
Here's my performance-ready version of this amazing endless melody of a piece. I've been enjoying Derek Grippers arrangements of Kora music for classical guitar for years, and finally got a chance to try some of them out. Someone once said (I forgot who) that it's...
What Can You Change When You Can’t Change the Notes?
New classical guitar video on creative interpretation. In this video I play the same piece 5 or 6 completely different ways, and show you how you can experiment with this too.
How do you manage to practice a piece of music that many times and still not go crazy?
When you are learning a piece of music, you have to play it hundreds of times. Over, and over. And over again. The same notes, the same chords, the same fingerings. In one life, you might play the same set of notes tens of thousands of times. I haven’t done the...
Learning Repertoire: Jarabi Runthrough
This is a follow-up to last week's video on "finishing" learning a challenging piece of music. In this video I run through Jarabi, the arrangement by South African guitarist and composer Derek Gripper of Toumani Diabate's amazing Kora version. I have the piece...
How Do You “Finish” Learning a Piece of Music?
Once you can play something well enough that it's fun to run through, the temptation is to stop practicing it and just play it over and over. Here is one method I use to keep myself focused on mastering repertoire up until the time it's actually ready to perform....
Announcing a New Online Course
This 6-part interactive pilot course is designed to help you break through limitations and master the best, fastest, and most musical ways to learn the pieces you most want to play. By joining the course and doing the work seriously, you will be getting two-plus months of carefully designed coursework on the most powerful ways I’ve found to transform your playing…
Classical Guitar Repertoire Reading: Guardame las Vacas by Luis de Narvaez
Read up on Luis de Narvaez at his Wkipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Narv%C3%A1ez This deservedly well-known work the first known written example of the musical form "variations on a theme." It's always been one of my favorite pieces! The theme upon...
What’s with all the variations on Fernando Sor’s “Variations on a Theme of Mozart?”
What's with all the variations on Fernando Sor's Variations on a Theme of Mozart?" The Spanish classical guitarist Fernando Sor (1778–1839) wrote many virtuosic variations on various themes. But his most famous—and most frequently performed—set is based on a melody by...
Jarabi (Passion)
Here's my performance-ready version of this amazing endless melody of a piece. I've been enjoying Derek Grippers arrangements of Kora music for classical guitar for years, and finally got a chance to try some of them out. Someone once said (I forgot who) that it's...
What Can You Change When You Can’t Change the Notes?
New classical guitar video on creative interpretation. In this video I play the same piece 5 or 6 completely different ways, and show you how you can experiment with this too.
How do you manage to practice a piece of music that many times and still not go crazy?
When you are learning a piece of music, you have to play it hundreds of times. Over, and over. And over again. The same notes, the same chords, the same fingerings. In one life, you might play the same set of notes tens of thousands of times. I haven’t done the...
Learning Repertoire: Jarabi Runthrough
This is a follow-up to last week's video on "finishing" learning a challenging piece of music. In this video I run through Jarabi, the arrangement by South African guitarist and composer Derek Gripper of Toumani Diabate's amazing Kora version. I have the piece...
How Do You “Finish” Learning a Piece of Music?
Once you can play something well enough that it's fun to run through, the temptation is to stop practicing it and just play it over and over. Here is one method I use to keep myself focused on mastering repertoire up until the time it's actually ready to perform....
I'd love to stay in touch with you!
Other Projects
Archipelago for Guitar
CD with original artwork available for streaming and purchase at Bandcamp: Music is everywhere these days, but listening to it is getting harder. Classical music– and all serious “listening” music—-hails from a time before app-driven dopamine hits ruled our...
William Tell Overture for Solo Guitar
This is my arrangement of the full finale (the famous part) of the William Tell Overture for solo classical guitar. Mauro Giuliani, the accomplished 19th century guitarist-composer wrote a number of “Rossinianes,” virtuosic potpourris into which he threw many of the...
Archipelago for Guitar
Not too long ago, I had the idea to weave a storyline into the performance of a series of guitar pieces. Each piece I wrote seemed to have its own musical ecosystem, so I called them "islands." Narrating a tale while tuning the guitar between "islands" would draw the...
Bookmark Shop
The many benefits of bookmarks for all your books: Bookmarks are Beautiful. Bookmarks are Fun. Bookmarks are Elegant. Bookmarks inspire you to read more good books and keep your place in them with pleasure, for years at a time. Bookmarks never run out of batteries....
Milonga for Solo Guitar
This is a live performance of Milonga, the first “island” in my Archipelago for Guitar, performed at the “Piano Lunch” concert at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, New York, NY.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for Solo Guitar
All 4 movements of Serenade No. 13 for Strings, K. 525, transcribed for the advanced classical guitar, from G Major into D Major. If you're a bit burned out on Sor and Giuliani and their ilk, it's a lot of fun to play a great composer such as Mozart on the guitar. A...
Five Preludes
Prelude 1: Lullaby from a Paper Boat / Prelude 2: With Variation / Prelude 3: Brookrolick / Prelude 4: Like a Passacaglia / Prelude 5: Moto Perpetuo
Fingerprint: Guitar Solos
CD available for streaming and purchase at Bandcamp: Fingerprint is a musical tour of the world through the strings of Jay Kauffman’s guitar. It is a refreshingly original collection of music inspired by folk and popular idioms from around the globe. It features some...
Get 10 Free Video Lessons on Building the Perfect Practice Session
I’m Jay Kauffman, a guitarist, teacher, composer, and illustrator. My training is in classical guitar, and I studied performance at the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music. I recently moved to Tucson, Arizona, and am seeking to fill my teaching studio both locally and online. I love teaching guitar, all ages and levels. I teach all popular guitar styles (not jazz.) I also teach children and teens.
My highest goal in teaching is to create and hold a space of inspiration, support and challenge in service of your ongoing improvement.
- I offer several stand-alone online courses, including a technique course that is focused on embodied musicianship.
- This is my latest CD, of original classical guitar compositions illustrated by my own watercolors and accompanied by an evolving storyline.
- If you were brought to this site to find the scores for my Youtube recordings of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik or Rossini’s William Tell Overture, then click those links if you wish to go straight to them. Here is a full listing of my scores available, including published works.
- Another experiment of mine has been the creation of watercolor bookmarks–please check these out, since you just might love them. My hope, in a world full of screens, is to contribute eye-rest, and the human enjoyment of reading physical books.