VICKY GENFAN used to have a mute button that she would push while she twisted her guitar between the 31 different tunings she uses in her songs. The New Jersey singer/songwriter thought she was sparing the audience the drudgery of the technical details. Then she realized the details were exactly what they wanted.
Now, she lets the audience in on everything they could possibly want to know about the offbeat, percussive “slap-tap” style that won her Guitar Player magazine’s Guitar Superstar title in 2008. She has a 3-1/2-hour instructional video. She talks to guitar nerds at length about her technique. And most importantly, the mute button is gone.
“Depending on how I’ve ordered my set, going from one tuning to another may be particularly easy, or particularly challenging,” says Genfan. “Now I try to bring the audience into that, especially with the stranger tunings.”
Her willingness to explain the method behind what is often shorthanded as guitar “magic” makes her a good match for this weekend’s sixth annual Guitar Festival, presented by the South Bay Guitar Society. Genfan will perform Friday at the festival, at Le Petit Trianon Theatre in San Jose, while Chilean master guitarist Carlos Perez plays Saturday.
“I don’t want it to be mystical to people,” says Genfan.
Neither does the SBGS, whose members, for 24 years now, have made it their mission to demystify the guitar. The festival’s daylight hours are dedicated to workshops, lectures, exhibits, clinics and demonstrations dedicated to every imaginable facet of the instrument. The topics are as specific as a class on the proper use of one particular finger and as general as another on guitar improvisation. All the daytime events will be held on the campus of Independence High School, one of the many schools SBGS works with throughout the year.
Although the festival is the Guitar Society’s biggest event, it’s really an offshoot of the group’s intense educational effort around the South Bay, at high schools like Independence, Santa Teresa and James Lick.
At the center of this campaign is president and artistic director James Snyder. “The arts need more exposure in the schools for sure,” he says. “There’s been a lot of cutbacks. It’s great to take local and touring artists to these schools.”
Snyder, who’s been involved with the society for the last decade, knows a little something about guitar classes in high schools. In 1968, he taught what may have been the first such class in the country, in San Jose’s Piedmont Hills High School. “Back then, when you mentioned the word ‘guitar,’ it conjured up rock & roll,” he says.
But Snyder convinced the administration that instruction in a range of basic techniques had a place in the school—and kids were lining up to learn. Soon other schools in the district wanted a guitar class, and Snyder spent a summer teaching other teachers how to teach it.
In fact, the 72-year-old guitar educator is so known for his teaching—including dozens of educational publications, 27 of which are still in print and in use in schools—that the SBGS’ vice president Tom Ingalz remembers several occasions where Snyder has been treated more like a celebrity at school visits than the musician he has brought to class.
“Yeah,” admit Snyder. “That’s pretty funny. I’ll run into some guy who’ll say, ‘I had your Bach for Classical Guitar, and that’s what made me want to learn.'”
He loves meeting guitarists who grew up on his manuals, but considering how long he’s been putting them out, he thinks they’re often surprised he’s still around. “They probably think I’m a 100 years old,” says Snyder.
Because they know the educational bias against guitar all too well, the group puts a lot of value on the adjudicated recitals that are among the most popular events at the festival. Guitar students from all over the South Bay apply to be one of those elected to play for eight minutes for a professional musician (as well as the audience). The performers get feedback and pointers. Again, it’s an example of SBGS filling a hole. The Bay Area chapter of the California Music Educators Association has a solo and ensemble festival that offers the same opportunity for about every instrument but guitar.
“If you’re a guitar player,” says Snyder, “they don’t know what to do with you.”
THE SIXTH ANNUAL GUITAR FESTIVAL will be held Saturday (March 13), 9:30am–4:30pm, and Sunday (March 14), 11am–4:30pm, at Independence High School’s Music Department Building, 1776 Educational Park Dr., San Jose. VICKI GENFAN performs Friday (March 12) at 7:30pm at Le Petit Trianon Theatre, 72 N. Fifth St., San Jose. CARLOS PEREZ performs Saturday (March 13) at 8pm at Le Petit Trianon Theatre. Tickets for each show are $15–$25. (408.292.0704)
