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• Arts and Culture
• Music
• 04 / 26 / 2007

Guitar player Aldo Rodriguez was greatly influenced by the songs of the Beatles as a boy during the 1960s and is still mesmerized by their music. "The Beatles take me to the first steps of my career when my big brother and I used to sing Let it be and Yesterday as a duet.

"Over the last few years, Aldo has broadened his horizons. He recently returned from a tour of Mexico and Costa Rica, which started last December with the Tenth International Campeche Festival and ended in Costa Rica, where he offered guitar workshops to students.Aldo fondly recalls: "I was invited to inaugurate the concert season at the Castella Conservatory, a very important center. We open with the song From Yesterday to Penny Lane, a piece based on seven Beatles songs, orchestrated and reworked by Leo Brower.

The concerts were well-received by a packed theatre." Sometimes Aldo speaks with a low tone and slow rhythm that seems like he barely needs to breathe. Today, however, he speaks with urgency."I believe the guitar movement in Cuba needs an injection with a lot of vitamins because, unfortunately, it has lost quality both in training and teaching. Guitar players lack sound and power. They do not play the same way any more; perhaps because they have been trained under unsuitable methodological approaches.

This is why the Cuban school of guitar is no long characterized by its vigorous sound or its great performances full of passion and intensity. The new way of playing guitar just produces asthmatic sounds. This must end. What we need is an urgent plan to revitalize teaching methods."In addition, we have lost our international guitar festival. It was a significant incentive to teaching. It was like a window to a world in which we could listen to the new things that were being done and show our own.

Nevertheless, his face lights up with satisfaction when speaking about the talented young guitar players that "are on the right path. I am proud to talk about the Caturla Conservatory; it has shown the best results at the elementary teaching level."

And as the good teacher he is, Aldo urges students "To work hard and to work only for the music, for the good of art. Talent is important, but the will and the effort are even more important."

Source: By Michel Hernández, Granma