Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Martin Lloyd Howard

Martin Lloyd Howard - Winter’s Light

This is an original piece for solo classical guitar. It was composed to evoke the image of winter sunlight shining through stained glass. It has a relaxing mood but includes some complexity including a glancing reference to flamenco styles. It is one of an extensive catalogue of original compositions for one or more nylon strung guitars.

Martin Howard is an English guitarist, originally trained in the classical tradition who has expanded into folk, blues and rock, both electric and acoustic. He specialises in original instrumental music featuring both solo and ensemble electric and acoustic guitars. He has also collaborated with a number of other artists, notably Mark Johnson, leader of the Kent based band The Midnight River Crew.

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Interview with Martin Lloyd Howard

What was the first image or feeling that came to you when writing this piece?

It goes back to a painting I saw in an art shop in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, over 30 years ago. It was a great image capturing a brilliant white ray of sunlight shining into a dark church. I had that in mind as I started to put together “Winter’s Light”. I should have bought the painting!

How do you capture something as intangible as winter sunlight through stained glass in sound?

I think the key is clarity of tone and precision in playing. Light rays are beautiful because they so so precise and so clear. The best examples in the piece come in the treble section starting around 2:12.

What made you weave in a subtle nod to flamenco?

I love flamenco even though I am a million miles away from being a real expert. It’s the tension and controlled energy within flamenco style chord sequences and scales that can add real colour, contrast and even a bit of surprise to a piece which might otherwise have been all of the same level and tone.

What does complexity mean to you when composing for solo guitar?

I don’t pursue complexity for its own sake. Most of my compositions start out with a relatively simple phrase and I build from there. That will usually include experimenting with harmonies, octaves and the difference in tone you get from playing themes at different places on the fretboard. I think quite hard about the chord shapes and bass notes that go with the melody and try to vary those away from the familiar, eg using major seventh rather than straight major tonalities. But in the end any complexity in my compositions is emergent rather than deliberate.

How do you balance relaxation with technical depth in a piece like this?

This is really an extension of my previous answer. The overall tone and feel of a piece is important. I want the listener to appreciate the whole thing rather than saying “Ah that’s a clever use of a Phrygian dominant scale”! I’m also a great believer in playability. There are some technical challenges in pieces like “Winter’s Light” but for my own sake, I like to keep them within my own technical mastery.

Where does your classical training still show up strongest in your playing?

In terms of technique, I would say that the most important aspect is the use of the right hand, employing thumb and three fingers. For me that opens up all sorts of options that would be harder or impossible to achieve with six string strumming or flat picking. Please don’t get me wrong: those other techniques are equally valid and require excellence in execution just as much as the classical technique does. The other aspect that helps me in composition is a reasonable knowledge of musical theory and a basic capacity to read and write musical notation. You don’t need to be a great expert, but some understanding of theory is, for me, liberating rather than limiting. When you know the rules, you know when you can break them.

What’s something nylon strings let you do that steel or electric simply can’t?

A nylon strung classical guitar cannot match steel strung acoustic or electric guitars in terms of volume or variety of sound. But in the right setting, the rounded bell like clarity of the treble strings and the warm woody tone of the bass strings create a sound which is instantly recognisable even when the instrument is attacked with gusto as in some flamenco music.

How does this piece fit within your larger catalogue of original compositions?

I think it’s pretty much in the mainstream of my catalogue. It’s composed for solo guitar, it’s in a guitar friendly key, in this case, G/Em and combines chordal sections with melodies and arpeggios. Many of my other compositions eg Lady Teal, Wessex Rose and Unanswered have similar characteristics.

What have you learned from collaborating with artists like Mark Johnson?

Mark is a very experienced and accomplished singer songwriter and his ability to come up with lyrics and deliver them with purpose and feeling is an excellent complement to my approach to multi instrumental composition and recording. The process has been an eye opener for both of us and above all a lot of fun.

Why does instrumental music, especially solo guitar, still matter today?

Nothing can match the human voice and people want to hear songs - and quite right too. So instrumental numbers in popular music are bound to be a minority sport. But when done well a good instrumental can move you, relax you and sometimes surprise you. In my own field, there aren’t that many artists composing accessible, original pieces for solo classical guitar. Yet when people hear it, they nearly always react positively to something which is a bit different to mainstream popular music. So I think the market is there. I just hope I can help meet it.

That's all Folks! Check out Martin Lloyd Howard on the Pigeon Spins Playlist!