Product Details

• Actors: Charles Postlewate
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
• DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• ASIN: B0007A100M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,790 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

About the Actor

Charles Postlewate began studying the guitar at age 12 with Lloyd Hazelbaker but received his first college education as a cooperative engineering student for Buick Motor Division at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, Michigan. During his final years of engineering studies at GMI, he studied jazz with Bob Brown and played electric guitar in jazz bands in the Flint and Detroit areas. He graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree in 1964 and continued to work for Buick for two more years to save up enough money to study music at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan. He was a theory/composition major who switched to classical guitar performance and received the first Bachelor and Master of Music degrees (1969 and 1973) in guitar performance in the school’s history, studying with Joseph Fava. His further studies on classical guitar include masterclass performances for Michael Lorimer and Oscar Ghiglia as well as occasional private lessons with Lorimer. As part of his graduate studies at WSU, Postlewate developed and taught classes in ensemble, literature, pedagogy, harmony and improvisation for the guitar. He has performed solo, chamber music, and concertos with orchestra in concerts across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru and the Caribbean. He has recorded three albums and three CDs, to critical acclaim, for Prism Studios and his latest CD, Homage to Villa-Lobos, is the result of a 14 year research project to incorporate the little finger into the right hand technique of the classical guitar.

Product Description

This two-hour DVD is a presentation of the 19-year project by Charles Postlewate on extending right hand technique for guitar to include the little finger. PART I presents this technique in actual repertoire, including standard guitar repertoire (by Barrios, Sor, Torroba and Villa-Lobos), new arrangements & transcriptions and original compositions. It features complete performances of twelve pieces recorded on Postlewate's Homage to Villa-Lobos CD (Prism 9904) and published by Mel Bay Publications in the book by the same name (MB98711). Each performance is introduced by Postlewate with explanations and demonstrations of how and where the little finger is used in the execution of scales, chords, arpeggios, tremolos and harmonics, with close-up shots of the right hand. PART II explains the training of the right hand in a five-finger technique, with demonstrations of the above techniques using sample studies from the different chapters of his book, Right-Hand Studies for Five Fingers (MB98710). As in PART I, close-up shots show the viewer precisely how to position the right hand and move the fingers for each study or set of studies. Each set of studies uses a special progression up and down the fingerboard and, like the book, this video demonstrates how to make chromatic variations of these progressions to increase the interest. At the end of PART II Postlewate demonstrates how the guitarist can develop similar studies to fit specific right-hand problems not covered in this book and video. The video ends with an ENCORE interview of five questions and answers with Charles Postlewate to give some background information on this historic project.