ily Afshar, Professor of Guitar at the University of Memphis, taught a 3-hour master class to five students at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts on the afternoon of January 18, 2002. The following is a summary of the class.

Jose Feliciano performed Prelude No. 5 by H. Villa-Lobos. Lily reminded him about the importance of stopping open bass notes that were sustaining too long. She demonstrated the techniques used to stop bass strings and had Jose try these techniques. She then talked about the importance of making the melody sing, had Jose try to sing the opening melody to get it in his ear, and suggested using the portamento technique (a slight glissando when shifting position) to help the legato. She then stressed that the student feel and accent the meter of the opening section, with a warning that too much accent can take away from the melodic line. They then worked together on the scales in triplets in the third section of the piece, making sure that the triplet rhythm was clearly articulated.

Chris Columbaro performed Barcarola and Danza Pomposa by A. Tansman. Lily first worked with him on his sitting position. He was too hunched over the guitar, and this caused his right hand to play too close to the fingerboard most of the time. This caused his tone to be too dolce. She recommends that her students place the right hand slightly to the right of the sound hole. When the melody goes to the lower strings, or during the vamping section, the color must be changed. The topic then changed to left-hand fingering. One point on this subject was made to several of the players that day: "Try to avoid moving from the tip of the first finger to a barre position and vice-versa. This move interferes with legato playing. The use of a hinged barre was suggested to overcome this problem. Lily also chided Chris and all guitarists for rolling, or arpeggiating too many chords. Pianists don't do it at all, she said, and we should avoid this habit and use the technique sparingly.

Jeff Warren performed the Prelude from the 3rd Lute Suite by J.S. Bach. Most of the suggestions made to him were about left-hand technique. Lily thought that he had too much motion and that his fourth finger was not curved enough. She worked with him on slurs, especially the descending slur from 4 to 3. She stressed the importance of feeling the weight of the arm behind the third finger as you do this slur. This led to a general discussion on the use of arm weight to press the strings. "This is the secret of the left hand,' she said. She then corrected some of Jeff's fingering and talked about how important logical fingering is: " If you're missing something, its probably not you, it's the fingering." She also recommended always placing slurs on the downbeat moving to the upbeat.

Paul Schmitz performed Usher Waltz by N. Koshkin. A lot of the corrections for him were about the importance of reading and following the score carefully. Get your own ideas about a piece before listening to a recording, otherwise you will be influenced by that interpretation, she said. "Your job is to stay true to what the composer says." Turning the score, Lily then suggested that Paul emphasize the waltz feel by simply accenting the downbeat of each measure. In the rasgueado section of the piece, she said, the player must convey the angry and crazed state of mind of the protaganist in the Poe story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." "You must be like an actor and feel the different I moods of the piece to bring out the music."

Filip Mitrovic performed La Muerte del Angel by A. Piazzolla. Lily first talked about the rasgueados in the piece. She told him that there are many kinds of rasgueado fingerings and one must search for the best one for each musical passage. In the fast sections of Piazzolla pieces, she said, the most important thing is the accents. Tangos need drama, and the accents help to express this. Sing the rhythm with the accents in the right place and slow down the tempo during practice to get better results. Lily worked with Filip on the phrasing in the slow section. She recommended that the tempo be rubato and that, to do this well, he must understand the phrasing. She suggested that he sing the melody and not to pause too much on the harmonic changes.