Forty years and 25 albums later, Parkening (who is also a champion fly fisherman) returned to Capitol Studios to record Jubilation [EMI/ Angel Records] with baritone Jubilant Sykes. This time, he was in Studio A, and he got a bit more than three hours to record the album. In fact, an entire session was set aside just to dial in the sounds for tracking Andrew York’s “Jubilation,” the first solo-guitar recording of Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Cançoneta,” and pieces by Laurindo Almeida, Aaron Copland, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and others.

What guitar do you play?
I play a José Ramírez with a cedar top and Brazilian rosewood sides and back. I have several, but the one I use for recording is a 1966 MT built by Mariano Tezanos—a very famous luthier who worked for Ramírez in the mid ’60s. He made many of Segovia’s concert guitars. I love the guitar’s warm sounds, and the variety of tonal colors it produces. The bass strings have a depth about them that I enjoy, and it also happens to be a fairly loud instrument. It’s somewhat difficult to play because the action is a little high, but it’s worth the effort. I would prefer to play a guitar with a low action, but in order to get the volume you sometimes need, you need to push the instrument, and I prefer that it not buzz easily.

What type of strings you do you use?
I use D’Addario EJ46C Pro-Arte Composite Hard Tension bass strings, a Savarez Alliance 543J third string, and the first and second strings come from Argentina. They’re really hard to get. I purchased them years ago in great volume.

In your book Grace Like a River, you talked about sanding the bass strings and using warm water to soften your fingertips to avoid string squeaks while recording.
I still do that. If the squeaks are coming through, I may resort to sanding that section of the bass string. Then, I’ll wipe off the string with a Kleenex and continue playing. And there’s definitely something about softening your fingertips that reduces left-hand string noise.

For your string attack, do you favor the right side of the nail, or the left side?
What I found fascinating about Segovia’s playing was the variety of tonal colors he would get. That necessitated sometimes playing off the right-hand side, and sometimes playing off the left-hand side. Sometimes, you use the entire nail, or a combination of nail and flesh. You might even use the weight of your hand and forearm in a stroke to give it the depth and body that you wouldn’t have if you just used your knuckle. You need to produce a variety of sound that transforms the guitar into what Beethoven called a miniature orchestra.

When you work with living composers, do they impose their views on your performance?
Usually, they prefer to hear the piece where it sounds best on the guitar. For example, I was asked by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco to premiere his second Concerto in C Major for Guitar and Orchestra. He wasn’t a guitarist himself, and he had written many of the chords in the first position, which forced the melody to be played on the first string. I told him that if I could invert the chord, it would allow playing the phrases on the second string, which would be much more beautiful and warm. He completely agreed.

I also had a chance to go over Fantasia para un Gentilhombre with Joaquín Rodrigo right before I recorded the piece. His daughter Cecilia was translating. Now, Segovia had made 30 or 40 changes to Joaquín’s original composition, and Joaquín said he liked them—until we got to one place toward the end of the concerto. Here, Cecilia said, “My father says he likes the way he wrote it best. Could you keep it the same?”

Which part was this?
The “Fanfare de la Caballero de Napoli.” I’ll grab my guitar to show you what Segovia had done [plays piece]. Segovia went open B, D, C#—which sounds nice—and Rodrigo had written D#, D, C#. The problem is that after the guitar plays the melody, it drops out, and then the orchestra performs the line. Rodrigo wanted the echo of the melody to be perfect.

How has Segovia influenced your teaching style?
The elements that made Segovia the greatest guitarist in the world were his great technique, his passion, his beautiful sound, and his ability to communicate all of that to the public. In view of those things, I teach how to get a variety of tonal colors. Then, we work on musicianship—which I consider key—and I often tell students to sing each phrase in order to best translate it to the poetry of the guitar. Lastly, I work with them on stage presence—even something as basic as walking on stage.

How does one become an excellent guitarist?
I encourage my students to pursue a commitment to personal excellence based on their own God-given potential. Success and excellence are often competing ideals. Being successful does not mean you will be excellent, and being excellent does not necessarily mean you will be successful. Success may be cheap, and you can take shortcuts to get there, but excellence will always cost you everything.