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Classical guitar has no effect on a female wallaby

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norman lebrecht

December 31, 2016

Has anyone tried it on humans?

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Malcolm James says:

December 31, 2016 at 7:53 pm

Anyone tried the effect of a viola on a wallaby?

Scott Fields says:

December 31, 2016 at 8:29 pm

That’s not classical guitar in either sense. Sense One being the instrument, a guitar made for nylon or gut strings, and Sense Two being the style of music, which in this case is be-bop jazz. Wallabies do in fact like classical music played on classical guitars.

cj says:

January 1, 2017 at 1:50 am

Scott Fields, you are absolutely right, any decent wallaby, female or male, would have stopped grazing on the spot if she/he had heard any piece by Dowland or Bach, Boccherini, Paganini, Fernando Sor, Carcassi, Carulli, Giuliani, Tarrega, Villa-Lobos, even Roland Dyens, who alas left us recently, played on a real (i.e. non-cutaway!) classical guitar (and on the left knee).
This wallaby should watch on YouTube Andrés Segovia, Narciso Yepes, above all the great Julian Bream, Frédéric Zigante, the young Tibaut Garcia and Thibault Cauvin (playing Vivaldi).
That’s what classical guitar is.

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- Scott Fields says:
  
  January 1, 2017 at 8:55 am
  
  Adolescent male Wallabies go for toe-tapping, methamphetamine-fueled, flattop steel-string, Django Reinhardtesque be-bop. But it is common knowledge, and so indeed not news at all, that female Wallabies and mature Wallabies of either sex turn up their fuzzy noses at the sort of plectrum insanity on display in the clip above.
  
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Elene Gusch says:

January 1, 2017 at 7:31 pm

That was my first thought, that this is not classical guitar! As a person with a degree in same, I am used to people being ignorant about the instrument and its repertoire, but I would have expected better from Mr. Lebrecht.

Still, Wendy didn’t wander away, so she must have liked the playing and/or the player well enough. And she got treats, which often go along with concerts, as an incentive.

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