David Russell - Practise Tips and Daily Routine

[yaakovhassoun]

It's funny, when you see the absolute masters teach, you think they're going to teach you some secret guitar wizardry, but they always just focus on getting back to the basics...

[florentintise]

David Russell is one of the greatest guitarists and teachers of our time. This class of students was not very well aware of that 😎

They are all playing while he is talking and explaining things. When David Russell explains something, we ought to listen.

[vincentmaloney]

The best classical guitar teacher in the world.

[knd]

2:50: it is more important to be accurate than to be strong. The demonstration on the left hand begins.

5:00: right hand exercises begin. Try to alternate between, for example: i-m and then m-i. There will be a combination that is less comfortable for you.

Accent the first note of 4 fast note: i-m-i-m, or m-i-m-i
11:11: start the trill left hand technique. Do a trill of 1-3 nice and gentle and walk from 1st strong up to 6th string. Do again for the trill of 2-4. Can combine two trills of 1-3 then two trills of 2-4 on the same string then walk up....
12:08: trill of 1-3, 1-3, 2-4, 2-4, don't play loud : nice and gentle. Walk from 1st string up to 6th string
13:30: longer trill of 1-3 on 1st string - fret 5 and 7, fix finger 2 on the 2nd string, 6th fret. Walk finger 2 up the 3rd string, 4th string... 6 string etc.
14:40: longer trill of 1-4 (4 times, for example) on 1st string, 5 and 8 fret. Exchange finger 2 and 3 on 2nd string, 6th and 7th fret, respectively. Walk finger 2 and 3 up to the next string up: 3rd, 4th, 5th string etc.
15:35: study no. 1: fix finger 1 at 6th string, fret 5; do a trill of finger 2 and 4 on the 5th string --> walk down the trill to the 1st string
16:08: study no. 2: fix finger 2 at 6th string, fret 6; do a trill of finger 1 and 3 on the 5th string --> walk down the trill to the 1st string
16:30: fix finger 3 at 6th string, do trill on the other 3 free fingers.
Overall message: try to be creative, try to invent excercises that suit your own need using the ideas from the master's examples. It will be much more important for yourself to discover your own exercises, your own etudes using those ideas: trill, fix one finger at a a time, or fix two fingers at a time, etc. Your hands will get more agile.
We should look after our hands as we get older if we want to avoid injury and we want to be able to play the guitar until we get really old. Don't jump to difficult pieces without 10-20 minutes of warming up using simple exercises.

[wearetemporary]

I’ve been a fan of David’s playing ever since I was a teenage boy, growing up and learning the guitar. In the subsequent 30 years, I’ve never once seen a video of him, and I can’t tell you what a joy it is to see that he is such a kind and attentive teacher :). What a Mensch.

[us-Bahn]

Mr Russell is a good man, a patient man, to teach these master classes. Bravo, Sir!

[nedlitam]

THAT is very effectively done. A revelation! I did this every day for a month, and it really helped.

[titobattaglia]

To listen to one of the greatest masters so cheerfully explain how important basics are to him is wonderful. I learned a lot and lost a lot of doubts in these few minutes.

[nadejdaraze]

Не только лучший преподаватель, но и очень позитивный.

[kn]

Such patience!! from the master. It's gold

[karaadae]

if only we had youtube in the 80's...

[Guitarschoolat]

Next level high end teaching skills here! Thanks a lot Maestro

[arthurcemb]

He is a wonderful pleasant teacher. He brings the best out of people
His message is to analyze very small things and then put them together in a beautiful musical product.

[Saitenfee]

How much such details are important! Thank you for that video. I have always to remember that again, come back to the basics!

[MrGranitealchemist]

David Russell: warming up is very important
Me as soon as I wake up: butchers
la catedral 3rd movement

[leftoverture]

Awesome class with Mr. Russel, tyvm for sharing this jewel!

[mattbod]

I would love to attend a class by David Russell. He is my favourite guitarist and my teacher’d fsvourite guitarist too. He seems such a nice, down to earth and unforbidding man too.

[skinnykarlos]

We sometimes forget that using one's body to accomplish a task makes one an athlete and 'warming up' is absolutely integral to the end product as Mr. Russell teaches us here. It doesn't have to be long and drawn out but 'done' it needs to be. I teach all of my students the importance of daily warm ups for just 5-10 mins and what a difference I hear about how less their hands hurt when they get to the bigger passages of the bigger pieces that they are working on. Warming up is integral.

[agfpillay]

The photo at the beginning looked like David was going to bless us, and so he did!

[Noud]

His exercises are very useful and to built a sturdy fundament really is very important.
One issue however he should have had to explain: When playing a tirando note, a lot of 
players make their strike in two parts: First movement often is to end with the contact 
on the string. The second movement is the actual strike through the string. This results
in a short moment of a dampened string which results in an unwanted pause.

When striking a string you have to make only one movement. It helps to start with two
but the final strike has to be in one movement. You can hear it by listening carefully 
when you strike one string with an alternate i / m. When there are small moments of 
silence between the notes, you're still striking the string in two movements. In a lot of 
lines played you will notice that the one movement strike sounds more lyrical. I hope I've
added something to a very good basic lesson. Thanks for that.