By: Rick Landers
Rick Landers: I’ve found that most classical guitarists have evolved from another area of music, sometimes rock, oftentimes jazz, but rarely begin in the classical realm. Tell us about your journey.
Yorgos Nousis: This also applies to me. In the beginning I was mostly self-taught. At that time I was more into rock bands, different styles of music and also different musical instruments. The classical guitar journey started when I was 15 and entered the Athens Conservatory.
Rick: Was there a single guitarist that inspired you to discover and explore classical guitar or many inspirations?
Yorgos Nousis: Well, during my time at the conservatory, I was very lucky to study under a great teacher and a great guitar player Costas Cotsiolis. Having him as a teacher and watching him practicing and performing was a big inspiration and something that made me want to move on.
I also had the chance to see many classical guitar concerts at that time (mostly during the international guitar festival of Volos, Greece) and could probably mention a few more people to whom I found myself drawn to. In the classical guitar field, the concerts of Aniello Desiderio and Duo-Melis for example also were very inspiring
Rick: Learning technique and building muscle memory must be critical steps to enable you to draw on in order to develop compositions, but beyond such exercises their needs to be another world within yourself that you must explore to create new music. How do you find that magic within yourself or from others?
Yorgos Nousis: The relation I had with the guitar since the very beginning was an ‘improvisational’ one meaning that I loved (and still do) how the instrument sounds. That made me want to improvise all the time, trying different things and exploring the instrument even at the very beginning when I could not even read notes nor understand harmonies. So this other world for me was very natural and is the world of just sitting around and playing the guitar (or other instruments), creating melodies and harmonies. I can never get tired of this. It is, I suppose, of some kind of feeling or idea translated to sounds.
Rick: What are your instruments of choice for performing and for the studio?
Yorgos Nousis: The Guitar I’ve used for a year now for recording and performing is made by a Kretan Luthier Vasilis Sigletos.
My first two CDs were recorded with a guitar made by the Romanian luthier Constantin Dumitriu.
For live performances I also use Schertler, Roland and AKG equipment and for recording RODE microphones, Focusrite interface and Tascam Digital recorder.
Rick: On a typical day, what music do you listen to and who are your favorites?
Yorgos Nousis: To be honest, there are many days that I don’t listen to music and those are the days when I am trying to create my music or to finish something of that I’ve started. The rest of the days, the music I listen is divided in two categories: New music to explore, and music that I already know and like. Everything from pop/rock to to traditional, jazz and classical music.
What I try to do is to see as many live concerts of any music genre as I can. I find that the live concerts are the genuine way to experience music.
Rick: Do you have an electric guitar and amp sitting around the house?
Yorgos Nousis: Yes, of course, a Godin. I have been playing the electric guitar since the very beginning. My first performances were with rock bands. I also performed live many times with different bands and made a few recordings. It is an Instrument which I really really love.
Rick: As a teacher, what advice do you give students who feel that they’ve reached a plateau and they can’t seem to improve?
Yorgos Nousis: Each student should find alone or with guidance of a teacher, how they are connected to the music and what are the things that bring them emotions. When somebody reachs a point like that, they should put an emphasis on the repertoire that personally means something to them and focus on that. It is really important for every student to discover their musical taste and express their emotional world through music.
Rick: I tend to find myself gravitating to your more romantic ethereal compositions like “Aegean Fantasy”. Do you find the nuanced emotional techniques needed to evoke such visual landscapes more challenging than the more studied or structured music you play?
Yorgos Nousis: Aegean Fantasy is more like a piece that is very natural to my general way of playing so if I could compare it, I would say that I find other things more challenging. The only difficulty with such pieces is the process of recording and the process of engraving because of its free/improvised character.
Rick: Many guitarists look for particular complement of tone woods in their instruments. Do you find certain woods more agreeable or do you think the bracing, the size and other building techniques have more to do with the sound you want?
Yorgos Nousis: Generally, I am not really paying attention to the different woods that constitute a guitar, except for the top. I have always been playing with Cedar top guitar since that is more of my style, and the only difference I notice in different instruments comes mostly because of the sounding board and the building technique.
Rick: I’ve found the most daunting challenge for guitarists is learning the fret board. Do you have any secrets to reveal that can help novice guitarists figure out how find their away around all of those confusing notes?
Yorgos Nousis: It is a challenge for everybody I suppose. A good tip I like to give as an exercise is to learn string by string over a fair period of time. So after you learn the notes on the first three frets, you learn how to find the notes of let’s say 1st string according to the whole tones and half tones. Something else that helps a lot are the intervals. So if you know where E on the 7th fret 5th string is, you can learn the octave, the 5th the 3rd etc. That is something that could also help advanced players who want to learn how to improvise.
Rick: Your most recent album, “My Guitar”, offers a range of styles. How did the CD come together, who’s “little Lizetaki” and were you inspired by the Aegean Sea when composing “Aegean Fantasy” or did you just tack that on because it felt right?
Yorgos Nousis: My recent album “My Guitar” is a collection of solo guitar pieces (original and arrangements) which are mostly inspired by the Naxian scenery, the Aegean sea and my family. After my first CD “An introduction to a theme” that was performed with a band (Yorgos Nousis/guitar, Roger Lock/bass, Alex Petkov/drums, Clemens Nowak/Piano), I decided to record my solo guitar pieces and see what kind of feedback I will get.
Little Lizetaki is my niece. She is already three years old now but I composed the pieces for her when she was a newborn. The ‘Five pieces for Little Lizetaki’ are also the first pieces to be published by the Doberman-Yppan editions in Canada. Regarding Aegean Fantasy, my mother comes from the island of Naxos and as a child I spent a lot of time on the island. It is my favorite place in the world and I don’t miss a chance to visit it every year. Aegean fantasy contains two well-known island melodies (a traditional song and another song by Giorgos Konitopoulos) and as I’ve had them in my mind since I was little, I decided to improvise on them and suddenly Aegean Fantasy was born.
Rick: What projects do you have underway and do you have performances scheduled for 2015?
Yorgos Nousis: My future plans include mostly composing, arranging and song writing.
My new album is going to come out this summer and it is going to include my classical guitar arrangements of Greek music with the vision of entering some of those works to the standard guitar repertoire. After that, I will focus on a new set of solo concerts containing electronics, samples and effects. This has been a field that I have been experimenting and presenting in small doses already and now I feel is the time to present them as a whole set. Collaboration with other musicians is also included.
For the rest of 2015 the future concerts include for now Croatia, Greece, Slovakia and Czech Republic.
Rick: Occasionally, I’m surprised and charmed by the sound of an inexpensive used guitar and sometimes even more so than my pricey guitars. Have you had similar experiences…if so, tell us about it.
Yorgos Nousis: Oh yes I do have similar experiences. Fortunately it is not the price range that determines the quality of an instrument. I have bought used instruments that sound absolutely amazing. But this also the mentality I am following with new instruments: I search really a lot before I buy something and I constantly keep discovering constructors that are doing an excellent job with a very fair price. A typical example is the guitar I am using now made by Vasilis Sigletos. In my opinion it sounds as good as guitar with double or triple the price.
Rick:Is there any composition or song that is so emotionally charged that it simply crushes you and you find your way back to it as a favorite?
Yorgos Nousis: Being emotionally crushed by music was actually the main reason that I wanted to become a musician. As a child I was thinking, if music can make you feel like that, then I should just make music. There are many pieces (songs or instrumental pieces) that bring me those kinds of feelings. A lot of them are connected with text (mostly poetry) that I adore, and those are the pieces that I know they can always remind me those beautiful and sad feelings! If I can
mention a few examples, I could say the “1st Ballade” of Frederic Chopin as instrumental and the “Aksion Esti” by Mikis Theodorakis/Odyseas Ellytis, as songs.
