I think Vivências will be eighteen chapters in total. They will be small episodes (some, a little longer, seven minutes at most) around specific topics, which will follow each other in a chronological order. The first was a presentation of sorts, and this will be followed by my search in music, the influence of my father, my friendships, and, ultimately, my experiences and what I have been taught. I will try to make them as unpretentious and as far removed from attempting to teach anyone as possible. Teaching does not interest me. In other words, I hope they are the opposite of those videos of masterclasses by Andrés Segovia. He was such a pain! I wouldn’t even have a beer with him. I do not wish to be anyone’s teacher; this is not what I am after. I am aiming for the chapters to have a total combined duration of about fifty minutes and will be published over three or four months. In the future, I will also release them in podcast format.
Some episodes will include more didactic or pedagogical topics and will deal with interesting issues such as right-hand rhythms or, as they’re called in my country, “levadas.” But I will approach these in my own way. I’m not a teacher; I don’t know how to explain things very well. My great inspiration is Lúcio Yanel, an Argentinian who lives in Brazil and who is a tremendous guitarist with incredible depth, who says that he is like a “besouro,” that little beetle that flies off without knowing where it is going to stop, and it collides with everything.
I run away from dogmas. One thing which may be valid for one person may not work for another. A dogma is a moralism, a limitation. And schools have those perceptual limitations. For example, in Vivências we talk about the guitarist’s position: there are people who defend a certain “perfect position,” but that is silly because each human body has its own morphology, so each one should find their own way of playing. The opposite is absurd because what works for me may not work for you. It is illogical to try to limit things.
—Yamandú Costa
Yamandú’s YouTube Channel: Yamandú Costa
