EVENT REVIEW
It is their naturally beautiful sounds that make acoustic instruments everlasting. When they are brought onto the stage, their pureness ought not to be spoiled in any way for amplification. This makes high quality amplifiers indispensable for acoustic musicians. John Goldie is no doubt one of them. Being a world-class acoustic guitarist, John has been using AER acoustic guitar amplifier for more than ten years. On the night of 31 October, 2008, he showed us with his prominent fingerstyles how wonderful yet simple AER amplifier is. Meanwhile, Udo Roesner, the Managing Director of AER, was also there to explain the special features of AER amplification system and related technical issues.
On the stage of Tom Lee Academy Hall located at Kowloon Bay, John played some of the well-known pieces – both standards and his compositions. This time, however, the guitars he used for demonstration were not his own – were borrowed from Tom Lee, as his guitar was trapped in the Hong Kong International Airport with his luggage. New as John was to the borrowed guitar, his fingers swept deftly on the strings, and meanwhile beautiful tunes swirled around the hall.
After soloing "Paper Moon", John used the Jazz tune "Summertime" as an example and showed the audience how to mix rhythm and tune together so as to form a new combination. Throughout the clinic, John played several more soft and tender tunes like "The Linhe Fires" and "Secret Love" as well as some other lilts. As we could see from John’s demonstration, with the authentic performance of AER amplifier, there is no need to strike hard on the strings, and thus it does not spoil the soft melody. This is of special importance to acoustics as it allows musicians just relax and play without worrying losing the natural beauty of the songs.
Take "Secret Love" as example, this tune is simple but it flows a lot from the bass, with the amplifier the audience in the hall could clearly hear the lingering sound from the bass. After that, John further demonstrated tapping and sweeping with a pick, and tunes were accurately transmitted through the AER amplification. As John put it, subtle thing is huge thing. This is especially true for live performance.
In order to demonstrate the performance of the amplification system, Udo asked the technicians to first turn off the amplifier and PA system and let the audience hear just the chords played by the guitar, and then with the system on again and let the audience have a comparison.
Balance between musician and instrument is extremely important, as Udo said. However, this balance is not easy to achieve. Udo further mentioned the importance of dynamics control for acoustics. An authentic amplifier should then be able to keep the tunes extremely clear that everyone in the room can hear without distortion.
In the question and answer section, an audience asked whether John prefer using microphones or plugging in the bridge. For John, this depends on engineer – if the engineer is good enough, then they can set microphones for various parts of the guitar without worrying about feedback problem. Anyway, it all depends on what you want. This question led to the point of “simplicity”. John remembered having endless problems for amplification before. Later with AER amplifier, not only the sound quality is much better, it is also much simple to use. No matter you play soft tunes or hard ones, there is no need to adjust anything because the amplifier will pick up everything.
Another audience was interested in the pick-up system. In response to this audience’s request, John and Udo again demonstrated the system with microphones on and off respectively. Results showed that the system is reliable even in high volume; whereas microphones will cause feedback problem at such volume level. John, who has done thousands of gigs, is used to keeping everything flat and just doing the instrument.
About John Goldie
Being acclaimed "one of the most talented guitarists to appear on the UK jazz scene" by Martin Taylor and "one of Europe's most accomplished fingerstyle guitarists", John Goldie is eminent for his startling technique and ability to blend various styles of music including jazz, blues, Celtic and funk. No wonder The Herald described him as "One-man Acid Jazz Band".
He was invited by Martin Taylor to join the group "Spirit of D’jango", which won the "Best Small Group" in British Jazz Awards in 1997 and 1999. John has also written music for the TV comedy Dear Green Place which won a Scottish BAFTA for "Best Entertainment". His albums include《Turn and Twist》,《The View from Here》,《This Time and Place》and the latest one《Open 4 Closure》.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Q: When you were a kid, you taught yourself playing the guitar and later you received formal training. What do you think is the main difference between the two ways of learning?
For the way I learn, actually I taught myself, I learnt the thing by ear through listening to LPs, records and albums. When I went about 14, I wanted to learn formally – read music, write music and understand harmonic theory, so I went to a teacher. He is a gentleman and is really fantastic. Through self-learning I can play a lot of different styles, and from my teacher I can read and write music; I put the two things together, that is a great thing and great experience.
Q: How did you start blending different styles of music?
When I was young, I began with folk. However, I don’t want limitation, so I started playing jazz and rock, and personally I think it all works. It kind of started as a joke, and later people agreed that was a great idea.
Q: Among the three main areas you are working on – performance, composition and recording, which one do you enjoy most?
Well, playing live on the stage is the most important. Composition did not take much time because when I hear a tune, ideas will come to my head easily. However, sometimes the tune I come up with is not easy to play. It sounds a bit crazy, but it is true. Recording, on the other hand, is hard and there is pressure. You have to get everything right, like engineer and different instruments.
Q: When and why did you start using AER amplifier?
When I started playing acoustic guitar with terrible amplifier, the quality was awful. One day on a concert – about 12 years ago, an AER staff showed me their amplifier and let me try. I found its quality is so much better and it’s straight forward – I just need to plug in, and it will transmit everything you play without changing your tune.
- Clarice Liu -
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