Classical guitar

I like that guitar line in Come Out and Play.

It's almost like a Spanish.

It's more like a Middle Eastern thing.

Yeah, Middle Eastern, I guess.

I started out with classical music.

For those of you who don't know, before I played bass, I was... pretty heavily into classical guitar went through the grade system in the UK to grade 8 and played in guitar ensembles and as a soloist here and there and was really quite heavily into that solo unaccompanied classical guitar Where you do exactly the kinds of tech you employ the exactly the kinds of techniques you're hearing me use here This is where all of that technique comes from very there's a lot of crossover to the electric bass if you play it this way and It's been so long since that was my main comfort zone.

I think I get moments of oh, yeah like really positive moments where I think back on all that felt really good to play that way I like the sound of that combination of techniques and sounds and textures.

But I haven't, I guess at the end of the day, I just haven't dedicated the time to the process to sit down and say, okay, this is what I want.

Any door, the right support.

Welcome back to Finding Our Way, an oral history archive of Afro classical guitar traditions.

I'm your host, Damian Goggins.

And today we're continuing the conversation with Kareem McCullough.

In the last episode, we got to know more about Kareem as a composer, a teacher, and a guitarist.

And in this episode, we will follow his journey and philosophy as it pertains to the Afro-classical guitar tradition.

For me... especially because improvisation was such a big part of how I learned music, a lot of times it starts with improvising something, and then I find something I like, and then it ends up building and developing from there.

Let's take Finding My Way, for example, the ensemble piece I wrote.

Back on the mainland as the sun starts to slant, I head to the Avalik Amphitheater for the last concert I will catch of this festival season.

The AIMA Festival, the Avalik International Music Academy, has been running chamber concerts all week in different venues around town, and tonight is a classical guitar recital.

I am told the festival runs until August 30th, Victory Day, so there is still a week of music left.

but this might be my only free evening.