Blog
The Tao of Technique
The Tao of Technique Free videos from the Basic Classical Guitar Mastery Series These free videos are all excerpted from a course that you can find at my teaching site, Artofguitar.net.If these videos make you curious, check out these links:Basic...
Classical Guitar Tips
Classical Guitar Tips This is the collection of videos that got me started on youtube. Everything on here still holds true, and is often really helpful and entertaining as well. I’ve had many requests to go back to this format for my teaching videos—-short,...
New Recording: 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...
Bookmarks are Here!
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....
A Tour of the Island of Milonga
I love using video to wander around within a painting. In this painting of the island of Milonga I wanted to create the sense of being in a guitarist's paradise, a world where the music I grew up listening to and playing is magically alive in the architecture and even...
Milonga for Solo Guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=5xSV7agKtX4To purchase the score, click "Add to Cart," and then go to the Shopping Cart page (far right on the page menu). You'll get an instant download of a of 3-page Pdf...
Island Three (Live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRWOO2523s0 This was recorded live at the MakeMusic Harlem Festival. Composition by Jay Kauffman, from Archipelago for Guitar. Subscribe to My Email List and Get a Free CD If you like what you see, hear, and read here, I’d...
Listen to Paganini’s Romanze in A Minor
This has always been one of my favorite classical guitar pieces. It's the middle movement of Paganini's Grand Sonata in A Major, which was originally written for guitar and violin. Most of his works for guitar and violin had virtuosic violin parts, and relatively...
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for Solo Guitar
This is it---the full Serenade No. 13 for Strings, K. 525. It's transcribed for the advanced classical guitar, from G Major into D Major. The Rondo in C is in G 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...
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
Riverside Park 3
Riverside Park 2
Riverside Park 1
Ordering a Signed Print
Below is an unsigned print of Island Two, Bossa Paraiso. The prints are done at Tribeca Printworks. It's a small, friendly business in downtown Manhattan. I work with them on getting things just right. When correcting colors and levels and adjusting these to the paper...
Island 10: Freedom Song
Diving
Valentine Sunday Concert at Bartow-Pell Mansion
I will be playing some romances, romanzas, capriccios, valses, zambas, chacareras, carnavalitos, and a Beatles set. Plus a dramatic & romantic story-set-vignette from my own piece, Archipelago for Guitar!* Please note: Valentine's day is a Wednesday,...
Island Nine
Island 8: Dream Lullaby Prints Available
Island 7 Prints Available
Island 6 Prints Available
island 5: Opala Kevrali Prints Available
Island Four, Tiento Prints Available
Island Four Painting In Progress
The music excerpt is Xuefei Yang (guitarist) playing The Andante from Bach's Violin Concerto, BWV 1040. Elias String Quartet supports her.
Pics from an Exhibition (Music too!)
This concert, put on by Composer's Concordance, happened a while ago (in April), but I wanted to share it with you because now I have some videos! I've included pics of the art show as well, which was very well-recieved. I will add a few more videos of ensemble works...
Island at the Edge of the Sea
A bit of piano-tickling from Glenn Gould never hurt anyone.... I am trying to keep somewhat mum about the narrative content of the Archipelago story, but it's hard to hide some things if they are in the paintings, which are visible to all. The third island in this...
Dream Lullaby
Here's the video from my performance of the 8th Island in my Archipelago for Solo Guitar. It was done at the Composer's Concordance 8th Annual Composers Play Composers Marathon. It's a lullaby that takes place in a dream, hence the title, Dream Lullaby. Most of the...
April 22 Composers Concordance Concert will also feature Jay Kauffman Paintings and Prints, Sigur Ros…and Foot Tambourine
Here's what you need to know about this concert: I get to play some Sigur Ros (one of my favorite bands) I get to play foot tambourine. I get to have my prints and paintings shown. Also, it will be exciting and entertaining concert, packed with adventurous, fun music...
Performance on May 4, 2017–Island 8 (Dream Lullaby)
I'm honored to be playing at the Composers-Play-Composers marathon this Saturday. The program is from 7 PM to 10 PM. There will be a plethora of great musicians and really cool music! Hope you can make it! I'm second on the program, so come early or at least on time...
How To Make A Guitar-Powered Boat
First you have to design it. What does it need? Definitely a treble clef or two, a guitar, a guitar player....perhaps a mast made out of an eighth-note? Or....you could try building the mast out of a guitar fretboard instead! And definitely add a sail! Maybe the sail...
The 997 Siren Islands of Bossa Paraiso
This is the second adventure of our guitar hero, in which he passes through the 997 islands of Bossa Paraiso. He's left his home, the Island of Milonga. He's on his way to the Last Island before he launches his tiny boat into the unknown of the Sea of Song. I wrote a...
Mastering Right Hand Technique: Right Hand Position and Movement
This video is from my online technique course, Basic Classical Guitar Mastery. Video Number Four introduces to all of the most basic, important points about how, where and why classical guitarists position our right hands as we do. This is an excerpt of a longer video...
Right and Left Hand Technique: The Workhorse and the Voice of the Guitar
This video is from my online technique course, Basic Classical Guitar Mastery. Video Number Three introduces you to the obvious differences between the left and right and, as well as the less obvious but equally important commonalities. The course is over 40 videos...
Mastering Left Hand Technique: Left Hand Leverage
This is a video excerpted from my online technique course, Basic Classical Guitar Mastery. Video Number Two gives you one of the hidden keys to Left Hand leverage and a powerful left hand technique The course is over 40 videos long, It's designed to rebuild and refine...
All That Supports Your Technique: Why How You Hold the Guitar is So Important
This is a video from online technique course, Basic Classical Guitar Mastery, . The course is over 40 videos long, It's designed to rebuild and refine your basic technique from the ground up. If you're a beginner, then much of the material will serve to set you up on...
Video Course: How To Conquer Technical Hurdles
This course is jam-packed with creatively filmed and entertainingly edited demonstrations of all the fundamentals of basic classical guitar technique. I present them in a way that is intended to upload as much knowledge as I can—knowledge that I’ve struggled for...
Allegro from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Revised 2015 Version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyKOgWtBwsY This Allegro has still been flying off the virtual shelves at $7. This edition features a revised version of the Allegro that includes a few changes that elegantly eliminate some tricky tempo bottlenecks. (I still include...
Jay Kauffman Classical Guitar Recital at Bartow-Pell Mansion
Click here for maps and transportation info to the mansion September 20 at 4:30 PM Tickets $20 895 Shore Road Pelham Bay Park Bronx, New York 10464 718.885.1461 [mashshare] The recital takes place in a lovely period room with great acoustics. It fits about 50 people,...
Rondo from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
This is a full arrangement of the Rondo for advanced players. This is perhaps the most difficult movement to perform on the classical guitar. But it does sound fantastic and is worth the effort needed to learn, memorize---and then work it up to a decent...
Menuet from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
This is a full arrangement of the Menuet, for intermediate to advanced players. This is the easiest movement to transcribe for classical guitar, but I've been careful to create a lively and nuanced arrangement that would be welcome on any concert stage in the hands of...
Romanze from Eine Kleine Nachmusik
This is a full arrangement of the Romanze, for advanced players. It's quite amenable to the classical guitar...but the third section was a special challenge to transcribe, with it's call/answer figurations between the high and low voices while at the same time...
Archipelago
I'm exploring an extended group of Islands that have been hidden from Google Maps due to their aural nature. The musical ecology I have found so far in this journey seems to draw its inspiration from many parts of the globe. And yet each island in this hitherto hidden...
How to Play Classical Guitar without Dysfunctional Tension
——Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor! I’m not a tendinitis expert! If you have lingering pain or some other issue with your hands that really concerns you , and just doesn’t friggin’ go away — see an appropriate professional. ASAP!——Jay Excess Tension comes from Good...
Learning Music Theory on the Guitar is Just Crazy
I'm reading a book called Guitar Zero, by Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist who decided he was going to fulfill his dream of playing guitar at the age of 40, no matter how scary that seemed and no matter how humiliating his previous attempts had been. He's someone...
How to Integrate Your Technique with Natural Musical Expressiveness: A Video Lesson on Villa-Lobos Etude 1
If you really want others to enjoy what you play, you need to be enjoying yourself. They call it self-expression, but how can you fully express yourself if you aren't fully connected to yourself or to the music? How can you fully express yourself if everything is...
The True Instrument You Must Learn (according to Dr. Firgus-Fortuna Zelfrumzinger Bones)
When you learn to play an instrument like the classical guitar there's plenty to worry about. Your hand position. Your other hand position. Coordinating your hands (and your fingers) with each other. Your fingering. Your sitting position. Your repertoire. Your...
Music Theory? Why Should I Care?
I was never much of a music theory whiz. Music theory was required for music majors---lots of music theory---and it always felt like I was cramming a toolkit into my brain that my brain didn't quite see the need for----the tools were for fixing airplane engines and...
Mini Classical Guitar Lesson: Right Hand Technique
I have been getting some really interesting questions in response to my poll from those who've joined my list recently. Right now I'm in Amish Country for my Kauffman family reunion, driving past quilt shops and horse-and-buggies, but wanted to answer a question or...
Learning Classical Guitar: Why Do You Play Classical Guitar Anyways?
There are thousands of ways to play guitar, and most of them aren't "classical," by any stretch of the imagination. Why would anyone choose to play classical guitar in specific, when there are so many other options? I don't know about you; for me there's only one real...
Mini Classical Guitar Lesson: Finding the “seed” of your mistake
In this post, I'm elaborating on a useful metaphor I used in my last post. Simply put, it's this: "Practicing is Editing" FIlm editors, as far as I can surmise, put a lot of careful work and thought into transitions and connections. Every moment needs to connect...
Memorizing Repertoire On the Classical Guitar: Method to the Madness?
Although many things we do require skill, there's really nothing in everyday life even remotely like learning, memorizing, and performing a piece of music. Where else in your daily life do you do all the following: At the drop of a hat, repeat a lengthy, extremely...
Why are Classical Guitarists so OBSESSED with their Left Hand
This is really a post about chasing windmills....and conquering the universe. I want to start of this post with a disclaimer. I have a theory about why classical guitarists are always watching their left hand, and it's just a theory. It may be true, it may be...
Knocking “eye-to-hand coordination” Off Its Pedestal.
I've been thinking about about the difference between what I say here on this blog, and how I actually teach most of the time. In a guitar lesson, we're working on something specific....how to play a bar chord, how to interpret a piece of music, how to finger...
One of the Worst Mistakes that Guitarists Make (and how to start fixing it yourself)
I my last post I sort of left you hanging: Here's how it ended: There’s one basic polarity that seems to yield such a huge effect and has so many repercussions that one of my students sent me a long email about how much her experience of practicing had changed after...
The Yin and Yang of Classical Guitar Mastery
I've been thinking a lot lately about some of my most recent discoveries in guitar playing and teaching. My work with polarities, going deeper into how they effect life in such profound ways has resulted in some breakthroughs in how I teach and in how I approach my...
What’s holding you back as a guitarist?
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Breaking Through The Technical Obsession Barrier
Playing classical guitar is technically demanding. There are a lot of hurdles even if you want to play a relatively simple piece well enough for it to be satisfying. The tendency for many players—and for many teachers—is to focus on technique, and leave everything...
What Do Bedbugs Have to Do With How You Learn Classical Guitar?
Summer has just ended here in New York city but the mosquitoes are still around, along with plenty of other critters whose natural inclination it is to deliver little distractions to us humans as we go through our day….a tiny bite, maybe on one’s ankle, or...
Is There One Absolute “Best-in-the-universe” Classical Guitar Method?
Yes. And no. It really depends on how you are asking this question. Some of the Classical Guitar Methods out there are definitely more comprehensive, more well thought out, more revised and time-tested than others. But all of them have valuable points of view, and all...
Picking (or Picking On) Your Classical Guitar Teacher
What should you look for when considering classical guitar lessons? What should you hope for? What might you have to settle for? Every teacher has something valuable to teach, and no-one is perfect. But here are some possible teaching styles or situations that can...
The Classical Guitarist With No Bad Habits
Have you heard the legend of the guitarist with no bad habits? It goes like this: "there was this guy, who my friend used to go to school with, a monster guitarist, who'd been taught so well as a child that he never developed any bad habits!" His father showed him...
The Learning Zone
Here's a little piece for anyone who practices but doesn't seem to improve much. I suggest you take a look at a book called "Talent is Overrated," by Geoff Colvin. The book is not written primarily to musicians but to a general audience of business, organizational and...