A Classical Guitar Christmas

By Michael Griego on December 11, 2020 • ( 0 )

Here’s a special treat to help you unwind during this trying year and yet celebrate the peace of Christmas. Prepare a hot cup of tea, and then sit down to relax and read your favorite Biblical Viewpoints while listening to some nice Christmas music on the classical guitar. Merry Christmas! ◊

My parents gave me a $6 guitar from Sears for Christmas when I was 9 years old. It sat in my room for over a year collecting dust. One day a school friend came over and tried to tune it for me. He tuned it too tight and the entire neck of the guitar cracked.

My mom and I took the damaged instrument to a local music store for repair. We both notice a sign over the counter that offered guitar lessons for $3 per hour. I asked my mom if I could take lessons and she kindly agreed. For the next 3 years I took lessons from a gifted music teacher who taught me how to read music and execute good acoustic guitar technique.

I was a passable guitarist through high school, playing for church events and Young Life meetings. When I entered Occidental College as a freshman, I signed up for private Classical Guitar lessons to augment my main studies. For the next 4 years I was under the wise musical tutelage of Darryl Denning, an internationally known classical and flamenco guitarist. For fun and side money while in college, I performed in Los Angeles at recitals, special events, and at restaurants. My idols were Andres Segovia and Christopher Parkening.

While my studies after college steered me to northern California and then the business world, I still continued to play my classical guitar at special events and at church functions. I performed at each of my children’s weddings. My church music playing was on two fronts: 1) leading the worship music band for various children’s and adult groups (I added a Bruce Springsteen wannabe harmonica playing to my repertoire), as well as 2) playing my classical guitar annually for all 5 services at our big mega church (Menlo Park Presbyterian Church) pre-Christmas services.

The church gave me 20 minutes to play whatever I wanted as part of the morning prelude while people were filing into the big church. It was during those 8 years of playing at Christmastime for these multiple services that I formed the basis for all of the arrangements of many classic Christmas songs on the classical guitar. I recorded many of those songs and arrangements on a CD titled Classical Christmas.

Today my Classical Christmas album is readily assessable on Spotify.com (https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6gIjGWmGmjJbyK3Ab7aOiS) and other music players. So download a free copy, prepare a hot cup of tea, and then sit down to relax and read your favorite Biblical Viewpoints while listening to some nice background Christmas music on the classical guitar.

Merry Christmas from Biblical Viewpoint!
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Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with lute and harp. – Psalm 150:3