Sung Min LeeProfessor UselmannFWS 121: Heroes, Gods, and MonstersDecember 16, 2014Chaos of the GuitarAndres Segovia is considered to be the legend that had completely changed the way that the world views the classical guitar. Eliot Fisk, virtuoso guitarist professor at the New England Conservatory of Music and very last student of Segovia, said at a Ted Talk that, Segovia was to the classical guitar in the 20th century pretty much what Einstein was to physics. Basically, he reinvented the guitar, (Eliot Fisk). Being that the classical guitar was a fairly new instrument, people before Segovia did not quite know how to express their musicality on it. The guitar world before Segovia could be exaggeratedly compared to a mass of chaos because people did not have the knowledge and ability of unleashing the guitars full potential. When Segovia came along, he found ways of easing that chaos. He found the guitars true potential of being able to sound like what he described as, an orchestra to which we could look with the reverse side of binoculars. (Andres Segovia). Unfortunately, being as great as Segovia did create the flaw developing a pride believing that he was the most ideal guitarist in the world. Nonetheless, Segovia had deserved the status that he had been given of becoming the creator of what we know as the modern classical guitar. Born in Linares, Spain on the 21st of February of 1893, Segovia was sent to live with his uncle and aunt at a young age. Seeing that he had potential for music, he was first sent to learn the violin. However due to his strict teacher, his uncle had quickly put a stop to his lessons. Fortunately for Segovia, he and his aunt and uncle later moved to Granada, Spain where Segovia had picked up the classical guitar. Though Spain was and still is very well known for the flamenco style, Segovia had fortunately chose a different road by choosing to play works by classical composers such as Trrega and Sor. He had started to learn the classical guitar by himself without any other resources, and being that he was self-taught, he was able to modify his techniques and create a repertoire for the guitar. Segovia debuted in Granada at the age of sixteen in 1909, and continued to play on stage for up to thousands of people. One of the most important choices that Segovia had made in his life was not conforming to others by being self-taught. What this had done was allow him to as Fisk had said, reinvent the guitar. Back when Segovia had started learning to play, most guitarists had gone to one of the worlds leading guitarists at the time, Francisco Trrega. Unfortunately for them, they did not have the imagination that Segovia had. They created sounds on the guitar that were mostly the same, and due to Segovias innovative and new techniques, Trregas students had criticized Segovia endlessly, but Segovia had yet continued his studies on his own.Segovia had demonstrated his innovative techniques by changing a few ways of playing the guitar. He first changed the way that he attacked the strings with his nails. Instead of hitting the strings straight with only his nails as Trrega had done, he hit the strings where the nail meets the flesh. This helped him to create many different sounds on the guitar. Not only did he change his nails, but also he played in different areas of the guitar and nails to make different timbres. Straightening, going closer to the bridge, and playing thinner strings of the guitar gave a much brighter sound that imitated sounds of brass instruments whereas curving the nails in, playing more near the fretboard, and playing thicker strings created a much warmer sound. Due to these new discoveries he was able to open up the guitar and create a wide range of possibilities of different sounds. The guitar world was redeemed from chaos by Segovia to make it approachable to the more modern audience. Kind of like in The Dark Knight, the guitar world could be related to the Joker, an instigator for chaos in the city of Gotham. He is the character that messes with peoples heads and creates many problems. Harvey Dent was known as the white knight for the people of Gotham. He was the character who acted as a role model for the people kind of like how Segovia had for many guitarists. He acted as a template for the modern classical guitar society. However, no matter who sets a template, the ultimate resolve is us kind of like how Batman is the ultimate solution maker.No matter how great Segovia was to the classical guitar, he did have some flaws. One of the greatest flaws that he had was pride. It is possible that this is because he had basically created a totally different approach on an instrument, but he felt that his interpretations on pieces were the absolute perfect way to play the piece. This caused him to become somewhat of an abusive teacher to his students, depriving them from their imagination and creativity. John Williams, a famous guitarist and student of Segovia, had said that Segovia had bullied students into copying every interpretation that he made in a piece as if he had owned that piece. A very famous example of this type of abuse had happened at a masterclass in USC. A guitarist by the name of Michael Chapdelaine had gone up to get a lesson from Segovia. It seemed that Chapdelaine had changed some of the fingerings that Segovia had made in his transcriptions. However, this caused Segovia do be infuriated. He stopped Chapdelaine three times during the masterclass to yell at him for changing the fingerings, and then finally later told him to leave the stage. This clearly shows that Segovia feels that his interpretations of songs are the only interpretations that should be played.Due to Segovias fame and popularity in the world, people were able to imitate and use his discoveries in their own playing. These discoveries have allowed the guitar to be one of the most colorful instruments in the world, and it gave the guitar a very unique quality that no other instrument has. Though Segovia had some flaws in his life, he had contributed greatly to the guitar society, resurrecting it to become a concert instrument that many people in the world enjoy today.