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When I was 11 my father came to me. "I have always wanted to play the guitar," he said. "I think it would be good if you learned to play too." Soon we went to Music City on Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, where we bought identical Goya guitars and left with the name of a teacher- Vahdah Olcott-Bickford. We called her and she accepted us as pupils.
This was the start of my engagement with the guitar. My father would soon end his lessons due to career demands, but I was encouraged to continue. His decision would one day be mine, but not before I had the good fortune to study with Mrs. Bickford and two other remarkable teachers, Luis Elorriaga and Vicente Gómez. In recounting my experiences with them, I hope to illuminate their singular natures. I begin with Mrs. Bickford.
I. Vahdah Olcott-Bickford (1885-1980)
On the appointed day, March 3, 1956, as my father and I drove the steep, winding street to her Hollywood Hills home, we were innocent of the person we would meet, the preeminent lady of the American guitar, a child prodigy who had ascended to greatness as a concert artist, thrived in the society of New York City musicians, set new standards for guitarists, and founded the American Guitar Society. We would learn.
Mrs. Bickford received us warmly and, one at a time, we began our studies in her bright, open music room. She was 70 when I, an absolute blank slate, became her 11-year-old pupil. That day, she gave each of us the first book of her guitar method.1 She introduced me to the open strings and wrote, "Every good boy deserves fudge" at the top of a page. It was a good beginning.
Lessons in the music room were one hour. Mrs. Bickford introduced each new exercise or song by penciling the date in the left margin. We then worked through it. She was calm and gentle, always encouraging, though in her way somewhat firm. She sat on my right and used a red knitting needle to direct errant fingers. Then, when the piece was read, she would write in the margin the number of times I was to practice it daily. It might be eight...