Thanks to Segovia

by Roy Sarkin
(White River South Africa)

It was 1958 and my father was given something new to South Africa , a long playing record the first in the country and it was a Segovia Recital. I was 8 yrs old and would fall asleep listening to the marvellous sounds coming from the record.

Fifty years later (after dabbling with a guitar for years) I decided to play the guitar in ernest. Sadly there are no teachers where I live (30kls from the Kruger National Park) so I have had to teach myself to read music and to play this difficult instrument.

What a voyage of discovery!

The amount of pieces I have dicovered and composers I have never heard of before. The feeling you get when one plays the guitar is hard to describe to anyone who hasn't played.

I play every day and my guitar goes with me everywhere, we are lucky to have such a pleasure in the world today when all enjoyment seems to involve buying things (spending money).

Segovia gave a recital 6 weeks before he died at 97 yrs old . What an amazing man, to be able to remember all those millions of notes and have the dexterity at that age to play. We owe a lot to this man, me especially for turning me on to Torroba, Tarrega, Ponce and many others.

Kind Regards Roy Sarkin , White River, South Africa