In performnce:
Richard Hannemann -- Singer-- Guitarist
The first question almost anyone asks a musician is "Who do you sound llike?" The question is supposed to elicit a response that tells the questioner what kind of music they are likely to hear by association with one or more A-List commercial pop artists. There is the other question -- "what are your influences?" Or "what kind of music do you play?" Same question really looking for the same response to give the questioner an idea of what style/kind/genre of music -- and what instrumentation and presentation -- they are about to hear.
The quick answer to the above is this: I perform a variety of music both as a singer/guitarist and as a semi-classical/solo instrumental guitarist. In either case I work solo -- its just me ang guitar -- no band. As such I offer 3 basic programs: 1) Singer/Guitarist. Vocally, I am a lyric baritone -- my range runs from bass through the entire baritone range and (on a good day) into the lower tenor range. My playlist comes from a variety of sources, though primarily traditional folk, country, blues, and "standards". The guitar accompaniment is a variety of finger-style arpeggios and/or strums using a variety of techniques and each arrangement is my own based on what I think works best for the particular song. I choose the song based on the song -- not the source, written or recorded, form which I first learned it. 2) Semi-classical solo guitarist. The playlist here is straight guitar solos played finger-style (I don't use a pick) on a nylon strung acoustic guitar. Though this type of guitar is often referred to as a "classical" guitar the music can come, again, from a variety of sources. Certainly classical, Spanish classical, blues, and light jazz but also my own arrangements of "popular" works such as my arrangement of "Apache" or "Saint Louis Blues" or "Moonlight in Vermont". Additionally, I can "noodle" something -- noodling is composing on the fly which basically starts from scratch as opposed to "improvisation" which generally is arranging on the fly from a pre-established melody. 3) Mix. Simple enough -- a mix of vocals and solo instrumentals.
The elements which have shaped my music and musicianship are Who, How, When, and most significantly Where I grew up. So let's start there.
1) I grew up in the 50' & 60's -- and I wasn't listening to the pop music of the time. I was listening to everything. By the time I was in 2nd grade I had memorized all the themes from "The Swan Lake". "Oh, " you might say, "classical". Well sort of. My Dad signed up with the Capitol and Columbia record of the month clubs and when asked to check off the music he wanted to hear he checked "All of the above". So what came in the house was a very wide variety and I absorbed all of it. Add to that, the local radio station, KRSN (now defunct) played a hodge-podge of everything -- in no particular order. You might hear Sinatra followed by Kenny Rogers followed by the Beatles followed by Kai Winding followed by -- you get the drift :)
2) Instruments. Let's start with I hate screaming electric guitars. Hard on the ears, I'm pretty much all about acoustic. That said -- My first instrument was, of course, a harmonica which my grandfather Hannemann gave me at age 4. "Pop" was a musician himself -- percussionist in the USMC Band White House detachment. He taught me some basics of how to play it and from then on I almost always had a harmonica with me. When my parents asked what I wanted as a graduation gift I told them a Hohner 64 chromatica. Somewhere along the ine I discovered the melodica which can be heard in many of my arrangements. In elementary school I had a wonderful music teacher -- Mrs. Betty Snell. By the time she was finished with me I had a solid grounding in music language -- so called "theory" though there is nothing theoretical about it. Mrs Snell had an autoharp and the kid who did best in class got to play the autoharp at lunch and recess. I loved that autoharp and I spent hours strumming the chords listening carefully to how they changed one to the other. Mrs Snell also had me singing in the school choir -- at that age I was a first soprano -- at least until 4th grade when the voice cracked so badly that I could hit 3 octaves on the same note. So much for singing for a couple of years -- though once my voice settled I was singing double bass in the church junior and senior choirs. By now the voice is in the range of a lyric baritone. But in lieu of singing I took up the clarinet in school band which I played until my junior year of high school. And around age 10 I got my hands on my grandfather's banjo-mandolin -- a 1925 Vega Little Wonder which I still play and which you can hear in my arrangements on many of my recordings. I could read music so I taught myself how to play the instrument. And then there was the piano. 4 years in elementary age and I still can't cross finger. I had a very sneaky piano teacher. I was lousy at practicing but I did like writing little melodies of my own. My piano teacher used this to get me to practice -- and to learn music. She would have me write a melody then practice it to play it perfectly. Then she had me add a bass line. And simple chords. This started in about 1st grade and I've been writing music ever since.
That covers the who, how, and when. But the most significant element is the Where.
The quick answer to the above is this: I perform a variety of music both as a singer/guitarist and as a semi-classical/solo instrumental guitarist. In either case I work solo -- its just me ang guitar -- no band. As such I offer 3 basic programs: 1) Singer/Guitarist. Vocally, I am a lyric baritone -- my range runs from bass through the entire baritone range and (on a good day) into the lower tenor range. My playlist comes from a variety of sources, though primarily traditional folk, country, blues, and "standards". The guitar accompaniment is a variety of finger-style arpeggios and/or strums using a variety of techniques and each arrangement is my own based on what I think works best for the particular song. I choose the song based on the song -- not the source, written or recorded, form which I first learned it. 2) Semi-classical solo guitarist. The playlist here is straight guitar solos played finger-style (I don't use a pick) on a nylon strung acoustic guitar. Though this type of guitar is often referred to as a "classical" guitar the music can come, again, from a variety of sources. Certainly classical, Spanish classical, blues, and light jazz but also my own arrangements of "popular" works such as my arrangement of "Apache" or "Saint Louis Blues" or "Moonlight in Vermont". Additionally, I can "noodle" something -- noodling is composing on the fly which basically starts from scratch as opposed to "improvisation" which generally is arranging on the fly from a pre-established melody. 3) Mix. Simple enough -- a mix of vocals and solo instrumentals.
The elements which have shaped my music and musicianship are Who, How, When, and most significantly Where I grew up. So let's start there.
1) I grew up in the 50' & 60's -- and I wasn't listening to the pop music of the time. I was listening to everything. By the time I was in 2nd grade I had memorized all the themes from "The Swan Lake". "Oh, " you might say, "classical". Well sort of. My Dad signed up with the Capitol and Columbia record of the month clubs and when asked to check off the music he wanted to hear he checked "All of the above". So what came in the house was a very wide variety and I absorbed all of it. Add to that, the local radio station, KRSN (now defunct) played a hodge-podge of everything -- in no particular order. You might hear Sinatra followed by Kenny Rogers followed by the Beatles followed by Kai Winding followed by -- you get the drift :)
2) Instruments. Let's start with I hate screaming electric guitars. Hard on the ears, I'm pretty much all about acoustic. That said -- My first instrument was, of course, a harmonica which my grandfather Hannemann gave me at age 4. "Pop" was a musician himself -- percussionist in the USMC Band White House detachment. He taught me some basics of how to play it and from then on I almost always had a harmonica with me. When my parents asked what I wanted as a graduation gift I told them a Hohner 64 chromatica. Somewhere along the ine I discovered the melodica which can be heard in many of my arrangements. In elementary school I had a wonderful music teacher -- Mrs. Betty Snell. By the time she was finished with me I had a solid grounding in music language -- so called "theory" though there is nothing theoretical about it. Mrs Snell had an autoharp and the kid who did best in class got to play the autoharp at lunch and recess. I loved that autoharp and I spent hours strumming the chords listening carefully to how they changed one to the other. Mrs Snell also had me singing in the school choir -- at that age I was a first soprano -- at least until 4th grade when the voice cracked so badly that I could hit 3 octaves on the same note. So much for singing for a couple of years -- though once my voice settled I was singing double bass in the church junior and senior choirs. By now the voice is in the range of a lyric baritone. But in lieu of singing I took up the clarinet in school band which I played until my junior year of high school. And around age 10 I got my hands on my grandfather's banjo-mandolin -- a 1925 Vega Little Wonder which I still play and which you can hear in my arrangements on many of my recordings. I could read music so I taught myself how to play the instrument. And then there was the piano. 4 years in elementary age and I still can't cross finger. I had a very sneaky piano teacher. I was lousy at practicing but I did like writing little melodies of my own. My piano teacher used this to get me to practice -- and to learn music. She would have me write a melody then practice it to play it perfectly. Then she had me add a bass line. And simple chords. This started in about 1st grade and I've been writing music ever since.
That covers the who, how, and when. But the most significant element is the Where.
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One aspect that often greatly influences musicianship is the environment in which the developing musician lives. This is not usually discussed though maybe it should be. Part of that environment is socio-cultural, but also the actual physical environment plays a significant if un-noticed role.
I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico -- located about 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe. Los Alamos is situated on the Pajarito plateau on the east flank of the Jemez Mountains. The Jemez are the what's left of the Valles Caldera super-volcano and the Plateau is a series of mesas and canyons formed by the ash flow of the Caldera. To the east of the Plateau is the Rio Grande Valley -- part of a great rift which extends from Wyoming to almost the Mexican border. To the east of the river are the Sangre de Cristos -- part of the great Rockiy Mountain chain. The whole area rises from an altitude of about 5600 feet at the river to 11,561 feet at the summit of the tallest peak in the Jemez encompassing several ecological zones and an amazing plethora of wildlife.
The area is a multi-cultural mix of Pueblo, Spanish, and Anglo. The Pueblos are the descendents of the inhabitants of Bandelier and Tsankawi which were likely outliers of the Chaco civilization. Go to Bandelier or Tsankawi and sit and listen very quietly and you can sense the spirits of those who once ived there. As well, you can sense the ghosts of Coronado and other conquistadores, and of the mountain men, and the cowboys. It is a land where past and present merge -- where history lives side by side with ranching, farming, art, and science. Past, Present and Future blend seamlessly overlapping each other into the same dream as the land remembers the early peoples and seekers while the Los Alamos National Laboratory actively seeks the stars.
This then is my world -- the world I grew up in hiking the canyons, climbing the mesa cliffs, hiking the Jemez, studying the wildlife and feeling the spirits of a very spiritual land. Some of this I have hopefully captured in some of the music i've written -- Jemez Overture, High Desert River, Anasazi, and The Lone Spanish Chapel -- and in some of the poetry I've written as well.
I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico -- located about 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe. Los Alamos is situated on the Pajarito plateau on the east flank of the Jemez Mountains. The Jemez are the what's left of the Valles Caldera super-volcano and the Plateau is a series of mesas and canyons formed by the ash flow of the Caldera. To the east of the Plateau is the Rio Grande Valley -- part of a great rift which extends from Wyoming to almost the Mexican border. To the east of the river are the Sangre de Cristos -- part of the great Rockiy Mountain chain. The whole area rises from an altitude of about 5600 feet at the river to 11,561 feet at the summit of the tallest peak in the Jemez encompassing several ecological zones and an amazing plethora of wildlife.
The area is a multi-cultural mix of Pueblo, Spanish, and Anglo. The Pueblos are the descendents of the inhabitants of Bandelier and Tsankawi which were likely outliers of the Chaco civilization. Go to Bandelier or Tsankawi and sit and listen very quietly and you can sense the spirits of those who once ived there. As well, you can sense the ghosts of Coronado and other conquistadores, and of the mountain men, and the cowboys. It is a land where past and present merge -- where history lives side by side with ranching, farming, art, and science. Past, Present and Future blend seamlessly overlapping each other into the same dream as the land remembers the early peoples and seekers while the Los Alamos National Laboratory actively seeks the stars.
This then is my world -- the world I grew up in hiking the canyons, climbing the mesa cliffs, hiking the Jemez, studying the wildlife and feeling the spirits of a very spiritual land. Some of this I have hopefully captured in some of the music i've written -- Jemez Overture, High Desert River, Anasazi, and The Lone Spanish Chapel -- and in some of the poetry I've written as well.
How environment influences musicianship
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Richard Hannemann
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