Teaching
Mark is currently Head of Guitar at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and Director of the youth ensemble ‘Guitar Circus-Birmingham‘. From 2003-09 he was Course Director at IGF-Bath and has a wealth of experience teaching both children and adults, from beginners to degree level. He is a very committed teacher and regularly gives masterclasses at International Festivals and Conservatoires of Music.
If you would like any advice on your own playing or just have a general question that Mark can answer in a teaching capacity then please feel free to type in the box below. If you are interested in studying with Mark privately you can email him directly at teaching@markashford.com.
Mark will respond as soon as possible.
Hi Mark, I want to learn some Bach and Sor but am at a loss as to which editions might be best. Can you offer any advice please?
Thanks
Tom
Hi Tom
The most useful J.S.Bach edition if you are talking about the 4 suites is the Frank Koonce. There’s lots of useful information at the beginning, some facsimiles in the back and the works are nicely laid out. Although I don’t entirely agree with all the fingerings they are most helpful to get you started. For the works of Sor the Brian Jeffery editions (published by Tecla) are very reliable. He has had them re-engraved from the originals so they are much easier to read. Unfortunately there are no fingerings so you might prefer either Chanterelle or Mel Bays editions. I hope this helps.
Good luck
Mark
Hi Mark, I noticed recently that you were performing with a support on your guitar. Can you tell me the advantages of using one and where I might buy one? Cheers
Hi Des. It’s called an ‘ergoplay’ and quite widely available so just type this into google. I started to use it as I got quite a bit of lower back pain when performing with a footstool. It does make you sit much more upright and relieves the tension in your back. Be warned it does take quite a bit of getting used to. Hope this helps!
Hi Mark as you were talking about Bach I’ve been looking at the Koonce which seems to be be the best edition but have been trying to use (on the E minor lute suite) an F sharp tuning works great on the Allemande but with drop D as well on the prelude I run into a huge amount of indecision and wish to continue this way was wondering if you might have any suggestions?
P.S. I don’t mean continue with the indecision just the tuning! Or perhaps I’ve just chanced on a psychological insight as to my procrastination for never quite dealing with Bach cos it’s certainly worse than my bite! My apologies for the terrible puns.
Hi Matt. I presume you mean the 3rd string tuned to F sharp? Great that it works so well for the Allemande. Does it not work well for the Prelude? I have never played this piece with the F sharp tuning (or indeed dropped D) but it seeems (particularly in the tricky Presto) that it might be most useful. To begin with of course it may be confusing but it’s great to experiment with these things and never think that it’s a waste of time. Let me know how you get on.