[On Stage] "In Classical Guitar, Fingernails Act as Bows... Nail Buffers Are Essential"

Park Gyuhee Classical Guitarist
"Performance Completely Changes Depending on Nail Condition"
Next Month, Collaboration with National Symphony on 'Aranjuez Concerto'

For classical guitarist Park Gyu-hee, a nail buffer is an essential item. To produce clear and beautiful guitar sounds, the right-hand nails must be smoothly maintained. On the 30th, we met Park Gyu-hee at his agency's studio in Sadang-dong, Seoul. Before the interview, Park Gyu-hee played the guitar. While continuously smoothing his right-hand nails with a nail buffer, he said, "In classical guitar, the nails are like a bow. The guitar sound changes completely depending on the condition of the nails."

Both the guitar and violin are string instruments, but the violin is a bowed string instrument that produces sound using a bow, while the guitar is a plucked string instrument that produces sound by directly plucking the strings with the fingers without a bow. The reason for filing the right-hand nails is to smooth the nail surface that directly touches the strings. This allows for a soft and gentle sound. If the nails are rough, the guitar sound becomes rough as well.

Classical Guitarist Park Gyuhee [Photo provided by National Symphony Orchestra, Photo by Sihoon Kim]

On February 2nd, Park Gyu-hee will perform as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, playing the representative piece "Concierto de Aranjuez" by Spanish composer Joaqu?n Rodrigo (1901?1999). Park Gyu-hee said, "It is such a famous piece that it can be described as the guitar itself," adding, "I think I have performed it about 30 times so far." Especially, the second movement of this piece was used as the signal music for KBS Saturday Classic in the past, making it very familiar to us.

Originally, Montenegrin-born guitarist Milos Karadaglic was scheduled to perform, but due to an unexpected injury, Park Gyu-hee will take the stage instead.

Park Gyu-hee received the sudden call from the National Symphony just five days before the performance on the 28th. He said, "Fortunately, I performed this piece in Japan in mid-November," and added, "I only have four days, so I am practicing hard day and night now."

Thanks to his mother, Park Gyu-hee naturally encountered the guitar from a very young age. The first time he came into contact with the guitar was when he was three years old living in Japan. His mother, who wanted to learn guitar, could not leave her young daughter alone at home, so she took him to the academy, where Park Gyu-hee naturally played with the guitar. "I remember that by the time I was five, I was already playing the guitar. It was like air to me, something natural regardless of my will. Even when I reached an age where I could have my own will, I loved the guitar so much. I had no interest in anything else. It was a fateful encounter from the start."

Park Gyu-hee debuted in 2010 with the album "Sueno." He established his global reputation by winning several international competitions, including the August?n Barrios International Competition in 2010 and the Alhambra International Guitar Competition in 2012.

In Korea, classical guitar is not very popular, so in the early days of his debut, he had few opportunities to perform in Korea. "Until 2014, it was so rare that I might have had only one chance to perform in Korea per year. In Korea, when people think of guitar, most think of acoustic guitar, so I often felt frustrated."

He explained that there is a big difference between acoustic guitar and classical guitar, starting with the material of the strings. "Acoustic guitars have metal strings, so there is a lot of friction noise. Therefore, the sound is loud around the instrument. On the other hand, classical guitars have nylon strings, so the sound is soft and quiet around the instrument but projects far. Also, classical guitar is played without a pick, using flesh and nails, so the sound varies greatly depending on the player's characteristics. Moreover, classical guitar is a much older instrument, while acoustic guitar is a more modern instrument."

Classical Guitarist Park Gyuhee [Photo by Sihoon Kim, provided by National Symphony Orchestra]

Park Gyu-hee hopes that more people in Korea will become familiar with classical guitar. He also wants to raise awareness that there are many classical guitar pieces.

In Korea, the Concierto de Aranjuez and Francisco T?rrega's (1852?1909) "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" are widely known to the public. T?rrega is also a Spanish composer.

"Spain is currently the place where the prototype of classical guitar was created. Guitar and Spain are inseparable. Guitar music is also gypsy music. The Concierto de Aranjuez is a very suitable piece to bring out that gypsy-like charm. When you hear it for the first time, it feels very Spanish, and you get the sense that this is exactly what guitar is."

Park Gyu-hee named Paraguayan composer Agust?n Barrios (1885?1944) as a composer he wants to promote. "He is my favorite composer. In Paraguay, he is a heroic figure, and his face is even engraved on currency. He is very famous and respected in South America and Spain. Barrios's music is very poetic."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.