ames Smith, class coordinator, suggested a question and answer with the students, auditors and Maestro Segovia. There are some of the questions that were asked.

Question:
Maestro, do you plan to give any master classes after this one?
Segovia:
Not for the moment, because I am at the end of my labor, and from here I go to Switzerland- a little apartment that I have there. We are going to rest, and I have to prepare for my next concert tour in Europe and in this country.

Question:
What is your opinion of Augustin Barrios?
Segovia:
You know, I knew Augustin Barrios. I had great empathy for him, but I think that he lacked sufficient knowledge in music to consider him a composer. It is a great pity because he had very beautiful ideas, but the development of those ideas, according to the eternal laws of composition, was absolutely absent, and this is why I don't play anything by him.

Question:
Maestro, how do you achieve your unique velvet sound?
Segovia:
I have to tell you that the sound is a kind of physiognomy of every artist. It is important to make it clear (the quality of the sound). It is born with the artist, exactly like his physiognomy. Even with the piano, which is separated from the soul-the skin-of the player, there are pianists who have delicious sound. It is a question of sensitivity, and I never keep any secrets about my technique or about my way to express, etc., and all my pupils know that, Parkening, Gighlia, Alirio Diaz, and so forth-I don't keep any secrets. The secret is to work.

Question:
Maestro, what is your opinion of the value of technical exercises?
Segovia:
I think that it is always necessary to prepare the fingers for the difficulties to come. By that, to play scales, and for the right hand, Giuliani has composed formulas of arpeggios that are very, very good. Myself-besides the ones that I have created-I always look at the arpeggios made by Giuliani. Of course there are only two chords-tonic and dominant. That is very annoying to play, but I suppose that a student who is a good musician may go through a continuous progression of chords, without forgetting that those arpeggios for the right hand are magnificent. And for the left hand, I have always recommended to my pupils chords-7 chords-while they are practicing arpeggios in all the positions of the chord, first taking as a bass the sixth string, then the fifth string, and then the fourth string. This is very, very good for the hand. Then, of course, legatos. The method of Aguado in not methodical but it contains beautiful studies for the right and for the left hand.

Question:
What should I have in my heart to be a good guitarist?
Segovia:
First, to have the heart. Second, to have the will to work properly. I see many excellent students here, and many have neglected the position. It is exactly like a violinist who instead of playing like this (demonstrates correct position), plays like this (demonstrates incorrect position)-bad position.
It's a great pity because for the quality of the sound, and even for the technique, they will encounter more difficulties in this position than in the normal position-I mean, the fingers perpendicular to the horizontal line of the strings. Because like this (demonstrates without a guitar) you touch the string with the whole finger. That is not good at all-it is absolutely incorrect. The logical way to play is like this, not like this (demonstrates without guitar ). (Asks for a guitar to better demonstrate, plays and demonstrates briefly.)

Question:
Who is the lady who is helping you onstage?
Segovia:
I knew her family for about 50 years before she was born, and then she became my pupil, before becoming my boss (laughter). This, you know, is my wife, and my son is the result of our wedding. She was a magnificent guitarist-and this time it is not the husband who praises who praises her but the musician and the guitarist. But unfortunately-and this I am very sorry for- she has given up the guitar. Sometimes I push her, because she began to play when she was six years old. If she had the will to work two or three hours a day, she would recover everything immediately, and after a year she would be extremely like she was. But, it is very difficult to convince a lady. (Applause.)

Question:
What is Mrs. Segovia's nationality?
Segovia:
She is Spanish, like myself, but she has the pride to be from Madrid. I am from a little village in Andalusia.

Question:
What is the best method for the guitar?
Segovia:
The best is not methodical. It is the Aguado, but it contains many beautiful pieces; and then Giuliani, which contains very good preludes and studies. Then, of course we have the 20 studies by Sor that were selected by me, and many little studies, like compositions by Schumann. They are very beautiful, and can be played in concert as "little pieces"-not one, but several together.

Question:
Maestro, how do you calm nervousness during a performance?
Segovia:
I have to tell you that when I am going to play I would like to cancel my concert, and when I finish my concert I would like to begin it again! There was a great French actress named Sarah Bernhardt-and her company accepted a girl because she was recommended by high personalities in politics, and they were speaking once about the volume of stage fright, and the girl said "Oh, I never suffer from stage freight." "My dear, wait," answered Sarah Bernhardt. "Wait. When you have done it, you will have stage freight." In as much that we have to deal with an instrument that is terribly unpredictable, maybe because of the curve-the feminine curve, you know-unpredictable! (Laughter.) If the hall is too warm, it is bad for the strings. If is too humid, it is bad for the sound. We begin the concert without knowing how the guitar will react to our will of playing. I think that the guitar is sometimes very hysterical, against the player, and other times delicious. That is her condition of immunity.

Question:
Maestro, what is your opinion of playing the guitar left-handed?
Segovia:
It is not necessary to transport to the guitar the condition of being right-handed of left handed, because both hands work the same, and it's not necessary to reverse the instrument. Do you ask a pianist if he is left-handed or right-handed? Both hands have to work with equal dexterity, arriving at this by very hard work. If you have the will to work, it is the same to play whether or not you are left-handed.

Question:
When are guitar transcriptions successful?
Segovia:
When the identity of the piece doesn't suffer. On the contrary, the sound of the guitar adds to the poetry. For that it is necessary to have a good experience of the technique of the guitar-to be a good player, and a good performer, and to be a good musician. You have to be a good musician and a good guitarist to transcribe a piece.

Question:
Can you give a remembrance Manuel Ponce?
Segovia:
Ponce was a man of great soul. The soul was greater than his body, and his talent had always been directed by his soul. He was a magnificent student. When he went to Germany to study the professor asked Ponce, "You are a composer, yes? You come here to enlarge your knowledge of composition?" "Yes." "From where do you come?" "From Mexico, sir." "Mexico? I don't know that Mexico has any well-know composer. Well, listen, for the next class, tomorrow, bring me a fugue upon a theme of a fugue by Handel." He came with a fugue. The professor looked at it and became very serious. "You are a composer, sir. You are a composer." Then I remember that his wife once said to him, "my dear, you should compose something that becomes popular and could be, by printing it, able to give a little more possibility of living better." And he answered, "My dear, I have no time to make money." And then, for the guitar, he has composed always like a sail on a sailboat. The sail for pushing the boat should be full of wind, you see, and his compositions were always full of wind, full of talent. Once I was rehearsing the Concierto del Sur with Kliburn, who was one of the best German conductors, and he told him, "My dear, where from heaven came these magnificent phrases in the Andante?" And really, it is from Heaven that he took this beauty.

Pictures by Scott Bach