Yeah, maybe, Jack, if I buckle down and practice a bit more diligently.

It might come off better as a guitar duet. Some years ago, I took in a concert by the French duo, Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya. They did a whole bunch of harpsichord transcriptions, mostly Scarlatti. They sounded great!

The Seattle Classic Guitar Society threw a party for them after the concert and I had a chance to meet and talk with them there, although I had to rely on my lame high school French. Lagoya gave me a couple of good tips on right hand finger action.

Here's a photo of Ida Presti being a smart-ass and showing off her seven fret stretch. All E's.

The Seattle Classic Guitar Society has some really sharp players in it.    One of them is Michael Partington, seen here busking in Seattle's downtown bus tunnel (CLICKY #1). Not that he needs to. He has CDs out, a full concert schedule, and he recently took over from the retiring Steven Novacek as head of the classic guitar department at the University of Washington School of Music. Another is Elizabeth CD Brown, who graduated from the U. of W. music school and now teaches at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She plays modern classical guitar, lute, and in this video, a Baroque guitar:   CLICKY #2.

I'm not up in the lofty heights that these two kids have achieved, but I can generally blunder my way around a fingerboard without getting lost too often. But there's certainly penty of inspiration in these parts.

I play and sing for the Society every now and then. Taking a leaf from Richard Dyer-Bennet's book (although as a bass-baritone, I don't sound at all like him), I present myself more as a "modern day minstrel" than as a "folk singer." Although the vast majority of what I sing are folk songs and ballads, I do sing a few other things, such as some songs from Shakespeare's plays and an art song or two. It's not a matter of snobbishness on anybody's part, but unfortunately too many guitar society members have met (mutual interest in the guitar) too many folkies who make something of a fetish about being musically ignorant, and sometimes they can get a bit belligerent about it.

Don Firth