Day Two: Masterclass Ulrich Steier
As a consequence of a lucky coincidence we got the opportunity to follow an extra masterclass with Ulrich Steier, a German guitarist with a broad repertoire, who is teaching on the Artez Conservatory in Enschede.
Again we played Modinha Brasileira by Celso Machado. Steier's reaction was a pleasant surprise: he was swinging to it, found it delicious music and was wondering why we were not on stage. ;-)) Well, that's a different discussion!
One of his useful instructions for me was, that the atmosphere of the music permitted the melody to be less prominent at times. If it has to be that way, a single tone melody is sometimes hard to perform with sufficient volume. Additionally the thought that you are -underperforming' is not good for the music. The sensual sound of a Brazilian song such as a Bossa, however, appeared to be a perfect example for a really relaxed sound.