Often we are told that if at first we don't succeed, we must try again. But when a piece is as difficult as Vicente Asencio's La Gaubança, trying to work out a problem by playing it repeatedly is not as useful as isolating the problem and developing an exercise to solve it. This is an example of how to do just that. Thanks for watching! Please like and subscribe. ©Jorge Caballero Guitarist www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

Once you reach a high level, it’s important to build your own exercises. In this video, I’m using one of the most technically complex excerpts from Yamashita’s arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition to create an exercise to improve the flexibility of my right hand. Thanks for watching! Please like and subscribe. ©Jorge Caballero, 2022. All rights reserved. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV 903, arranged for guitar by Jorge Caballero. Live from Sapporo, Japan, August 29, 2022. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

Jorge Morel, 3 pieces: 1. Danza del Sur 2. Little Serenade 3. Staccatto Dance Born in Argentina in 1921, Jorge Morel rose to prominence in the guitar world after concert performances throughout South and Central America, eventually settling in New York City, where he lived for the majority of his life. A great virtuoso with a unique style that blended classical guitar staples like the music of Isaac Albeniz and Agustin Barrios, he also added to his repertoire original arrangements of music by George Gershwin (one of his favourite composers), film soundtracks, jazz standards and popular Latin American songs. He also began composing original music, a survey of which reveals at various instances the influence of the musical styles listed above. His compositional output is extensive, and it features well established works like his Sonatina (dedicated to David Russell) and his Dansa Brasilera, in addition to several concerti and some chamber works for guitar and other instruments. I have a personal affinity to the works I play here, which date from ca. 2003 - 2005. Having known Jorge Morel somewhat closely, especially at that time, I heard him play these works before they were published. I also made a rather informal recording of him playing Danza del Sur and Little Serenade (dedicated to Sharon Isbin and Liona Boyd respectively). The first time I heard of Staccato Dance was during its gestation. Mr. Morel told me he had the idea of writing an Etude in the style of Bluegrass as he was playing some of the notes that eventually became the piece. It was dedicated to Bill Bay, his longtime publisher. Jorge Morel passed away on February 10 of this year, a few months short of his 90th birthday... Cicero said that the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. With this video, I would like to shine a light into the portion of life that Jorge Morel's music, as well as his gentle and kind soul, left imprinted in my memory, in the hope that it will live on in the memory of those watching it. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

I've been asked many times to explain the mechanics of my tremolo technique. I think this video gives a good insight into them. ©Jorge Caballero, 2022. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

The following are notes by the composer: "Three Dedications is an early work written not long after I was first introduced to the classical guitar. Growing up with the electric guitar in my hands, and progressive rock in my ears, the tonal and textural possibilities of this “other type of guitar” presented a vast and intriguing terrain I was eager to explore. The guitar music of Heitor Villa-Lobos was some of the first repertoire for this instrument I was exposed to; his musical output is an impressive compendium of guitar technique and sound. As a composer, one with rock music in his veins, I felt an affinity, a kinship to his use of driving rhythms, shifting meters, and what I heard as aspects of propulsive “pattern music” that foreshadowed electric guitar idiom. The vigorous Danza alludes to these elements of Villa-Lobos’s style in various ways. I have always been drawn in by the evocative beauty and subtlety of the music of Maurice Ravel. I was disappointed to discover that he never had the opportunity to write for the guitar. The soft-spoken Aria is my modest tip-of-the-hat to Ravel’s finely-wrought, not-so-simple elegance, as it might be realized on this instrument. The Toccata is the most virtuosic of the three movements. It is a perpetual-motion work that weaves a small melodic motive into its tight rhythmic fabric. It is dedicated to my good friend, guitarist Keith Fanella who was the prime mover in my writing these Dedications and the person who introduced me to the world of the classical guitar, an instrument that Beethoven purportedly described as a “miniature orchestra.” Matthew Halper has received performances in many leading venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Moores Opera House in Houston, and live on Chicago Radio and Public Television. He received a Whitaker Reading Prize from the American Composers Orchestra for his orchestral work Stalin’s Wake: Homage to Shostakovich. His String Quartet was awarded the Walsum Prize and premiered by principal members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Recordings include the release of his Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble on Albany Records (TROY821) which the American Record Guide lauded as “ambitious, ... lyrically dramatic, majestic and broadly American in flavor.” The St. Louis Post Dispatch characterized his Transfiguration as “a most satisfying piece, …and an ultimately mysterious work.” Recent performances of his Trio in Taiwan include the National Theater and Concert Hall in Tapei. Other recent premieres include Shadow on the Andes (for string orchestra) by the Arco Ensemble, Paul Lustig Dunkel, conductor. He was Composer-in-Residence in 2011-12 with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Greater Newark Youth Symphony and in 2013-14 with the New Jersey Youth Symphony. His Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra was performed that season by the NJYS at the Union County PAC. He has lectured on contemporary music, music technology and has had his works performed at conferences of the College Music Society, College Band Directors National Association, National Association of Composers USA, the Society of Composers, the National Flute Association, and at various institutions including the Juilliard School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received several awards from ASCAP and is a 2000 and 2006 recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship. As a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Halper has been exploring the boundaries of art music, progressive rock, heavy metal and jazz-rock fusion with projects such as the instrumental power trio Before the Calm. Dr. Halper is Professor of Music in the Music Conservatory at Kean University where he was awarded the 2006 Presidential Excellence Award for Creative Work and Scholarship, and is Artistic Director of Ars Vitalis: The New Jersey New Music Forum. He received the D.M.A. degree in music composition and theory from the University of Maryland and holds an M.S. degree in applied mathematics, an M.A. degree in composition and theory, and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering. www.matthewhalper.com Please like and subscribe! Produced by Jorge Caballero, 2022. All rights reserved. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

Phil Palmarozzo is one of my guitar students. He began studying composition quite recently, and within a couple of months he wrote this impressive and beautiful collection of five pieces for guitar. Congratulations, Phil! Keep up the good work! Phil Palmarozzo, Little Suite for Guitar 1. Promise 2. Ash 3. Revel 4. Rain 5. Remembrance Jorge Caballero, guitar Thanks for watching! Don't forget to like and subscribe. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

In this video I discuss one of the best known exercises for intermediate students trying to reach advanced levels in guitar. This exercise, commonly known as "The Spider" can be played in two different ways, depending on your learning objectives. In this video, I discuss both. Given the complexity of addressing technical topics, a lot of information is packed into the videos I produce. Please pause the video if you feel you couldn't capture all of the information contained in it, or view it as many times as you need. Thank you for watching! Please don't forget to like and subscribe. © Jorge Caballero, 2022. www.jorgecaballeroguitarist.com

Fragment from Alberto Ginastera's Sonata, 4th mvt. It's always been my belief that good right hand technique stems from chord technique. This piece will test the limits of that. That aside, there is no other piece in the repertoire that rivals the strength of Ginastera's Sonata.