Christopher Parkening: A Singing Sound and a Teacher’s Legacy

Hearing a line sing

A guitarist cannot sustain a note with breath or a moving bow. The sound begins with a pluck and then fades. Yet a well-shaped phrase can still seem to sing. The performer connects one note to the next through timing, balance and touch, persuading the ear to follow a line beyond the separate attacks.

Christopher Parkening has made that expressive ideal central to his public account of music-making. His Pepperdine faculty profile describes his wish to pass on the phrasing and tonal beauty he learned from Andrés Segovia. That emphasis gives listeners a productive way into his recordings and teaching. Pepperdine faculty profile

For Knoxville guitar enthusiasts, Parkening belongs in the wider story of the American concert guitar. It follows the recordings and educational work through which a musician can reach players well beyond a concert hall.

A career heard in many settings

Pepperdine’s biography records a performing career that included Carnegie Hall, the White House and national television, as well as more than twenty albums. He took up Pepperdine’s chair in classical guitar in 2002. The university also identifies Christian faith as an important part of his approach to performance and teaching. Pepperdine, “About Christopher Parkening”

In a 2015 interview, Parkening recalled signing his first six-album recording contract at nineteen. He also described how arrangements developed through collaborations, including work with his cousin Jack Marshall and guitarist Rick Foster. In explaining his teaching priorities, he emphasized warmth and lyricism. Parkening interviewed by Mark Small, Classical Guitar

The collaboration behind a solo recording is easy to miss. A listener hears one guitarist, but that performance may depend on an arranger, editor, producer and the experience of earlier players. Recognizing those contributions makes the repertoire’s history more interesting.

Bach through six strings

Parkening Plays Bach, first released in 1972, is a useful listening doorway. Parkening’s official discography credits transcriptions by several guitarists and arrangers. Rick Foster’s contributions include “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “Sheep May Safely Graze”; other selections involve work by Segovia, John Williams and Parkening himself. Official album page

A transcription adapts music for an instrument other than the original medium. It requires choices about what to retain, what to redistribute and how to make the result speak naturally. Music that involved a singer and accompanying instruments may need several functions gathered into one pair of hands.

The corresponding published collection lets players explore some of that repertoire themselves. Hal Leonard identifies its contents as transcriptions edited and fingered by Parkening, including Bach preludes, gavottes and cantata-derived pieces. Hal Leonard, Parkening Plays Bach

A fingering is more than a convenience. The same pitch can sometimes be played on different strings, with different tonal consequences. An editor’s choices can suggest how to connect a phrase or allow another note to keep ringing. Studying an edition therefore offers a practical encounter with interpretation.

The sound of an individual instrument

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a Ramírez guitar associated with Parkening. Its account places the instrument among guitars linked with other major performers, including Segovia and Julian Bream. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Grammy Winners at the Met”

In his 2015 interview, Parkening recalled choosing among a large selection of Ramírez guitars and keeping the instrument whose expressive possibilities best suited him. He described the “Bach guitar” as a 1967 instrument used on many recordings. Classical Guitar interview

A method built around music

The first volume of The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method includes pieces, exercises and duets, with instruction in reading music, basic technique and effective practice. The publisher credits David Brandon and Jack Marshall as collaborators. Hal Leonard, Volume 1

The duets are an important feature to notice. Even elementary ensemble music asks a player to keep time with someone else, listen while playing, and recover if something goes wrong. A teacher’s part can also let a student hear a simple line in a fuller musical context.

Volume 2 develops upper-position playing, tone production and techniques including tremolo, harmonics, vibrato and slurs, then applies technical work to repertoire. Its selections include music associated with Dowland, Bach, Scarlatti, Sor and Tárrega. Hal Leonard, Volume 2

These terms describe different ways of shaping a string’s sound. Harmonics bring out higher components of its vibration. Tremolo uses rapid repeated notes to create an impression of continuity. A slur connects notes through the fretting hand without a separate pluck for each one. Their musical value depends on what they help a phrase express.

Encouraging the next generation

Pepperdine hosted the first Parkening International Guitar Competition in 2006. Its historical results include a parallel young-guitarist competition, documenting opportunities at different stages of development. Pepperdine competition history

Competition is only one route through musical life. Its importance here is the deliberate investment in younger performers. Parkening’s faculty work includes individual instruction, ensemble study, performance skills and public masterclasses, extending that investment beyond an award ceremony. Pepperdine faculty profile

For a local listening community, his example offers several ways to participate. Hear a recording closely. Explore an arrangement at an appropriate level. Attend a recital with a question about how a melody is shaped. The guitar’s singing voice becomes more rewarding as we learn to hear the decisions that make it possible.

Sources

Andrés Segovia and the Concert Guitar
Anisa Angarola: The Guitar as a Shared Voice
David Starobin: Helping the Guitar Find New Music
Classical and Fingerstyle Guitar in East Tennessee