Donald Miller is the most active retired guitar instructor, choral conductor, and music history teacher I have ever met. He has a BA and MA music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and he earned his DMA at the University of Southern California in 1981. Frustrated with the reading skills of incoming freshman guitar students, Don came up with the idea of arranging various styles of music as level-1 ensemble material in three or four parts, all in first position. Now with six Donald Miller Guitar Ensemble Series books to his credit plus a companion CD and video, he shows no signs of slowing down. When not angling for walleye in Lake Oneida or composing a new piece of music, Don and his wife Mary travel throughout North America offering guitar ensemble seminars wherever they go.
Stephen Rekas
Guitar Sessions: Please describe your guitar and music education.
Donald Miller: I played mandolin before guitar during junior high school. An old man taught me many tunes all by rote, pieces like "Red Wing" and "Way Down in Columbus, Georgia." When I was a sophomore in high school, my uncle took me to Russell's Point Amusement Park at Indian Lake, Ohio where I heard Les Paul and Mary Ford perform. Around that time, my aunt had a couple of 78-LP recordings of Django Reinhardt which I played on her old manual crank RCA Victrola. From this point on, I became totally dedicated to learning everything I could about the guitar. My first guitar was borrowed from my uncle, an acoustic Epiphone. I spent a great amount of time listening to records and copying the tunes and solos "by ear." The first book I bought was Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method, Book 1.
At what age did you begin playing the guitar or taking guitar lessons? Who were your early influences?
One of the most important influences in my life was my music teacher Robert Schierloh who had recently graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He came to Jamestown, Ohio to head the high school music program where I was a junior. The year before, I had played a little tuba and continued with Mr. Schierloh. At the end of my junior year, he asked me to play tuba in a parade during the summer.
After the performance he came over to me and said "That's a great tuba part you just played." I thanked him and he added, "But none of the notes you are playing are on the score." He knew my secret, I could play by ear but could not read the part. From this point on, for the rest of my life, learning to read music has become an obsession and a major source of frustration, especially with guitar.
Mr. Schierloh knew I played guitar and asked me to come to his home and play various pieces on guitar for him. By this time, I knew a lot of chords from studying Mel Bay's Atomic Powered Chords but I was painfully slow as a reader. I was trying to learn one of George Van Eps' books. My first guitar teacher was Howard Early in Cincinnati. Mr. Schierloh's family lived in Cincinnati and he took me with him each weekend for a lesson. By my senior year in high school, I could read chord symbols very well and I played many big band dance jobs as a rhythm guitarist. My early influences were Johnny Smith, Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Barney Kessell, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Rainey, et al.
Bob Schierloh encouraged me to audition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. I passed the audition as a provisional student because my sight-reading was still very poor. I majored in music education because there was no guitar major at that time (1955). That summer I heard Segovia perform a concert with the
Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Orchestra and heard the classical guitar for the first time in a concert setting.
I then studied classical guitar at the university with the bartender of the Avalon Bar! During my first lesson he played some Sor studies for me and I wept and could not control my emotions. Such a great difference from jazz, and a beautiful new perspective to my ears! A few years later I applied for my master's degree at the same university and had to major in composition because they still did not offer a degree in classical guitar (1960)!
How did you overcome your problems with note reading?
When I started high school, I read some standard notation on my own- even without a teacher. As I mentioned, I learned beginning guitar by using Mel Bay's Book 1. At this stage of my development, I was almost a non-reader.
I don't believe I really began to overcome my reading problems until I began to study and listen to string quartets, playing the Violin I or Violin II part on the guitar along with the music and recording. Unfortunately, this was much later in my life. It was obvious that there was a marked improvement in my reading skills, all because I was getting ensemble experience- even without having the benefit of a live ensemble to work with. This strengthened my conviction that the quickest way to improve reading skills is through ensemble experience. The ensemble forces the player to keep going even while mistakes are being made.
What is your opinion of guitar tablature as a teaching or learning tool?
In general, I feel tablature can cripple a player's reading ability with standard notation. There are exceptions to this. If a player can only play with tab, try to introduce standard notation as soon as possible, if necessary, one string at a time. Tablature can be used very effectively if (in certain contemporary works) keys become more complex or tonal centers change frequently; tab may be a simpler solution. Perhaps my strongest argument against using tab is the low-esteem in which other professional musicians hold the "typical guitarist" who uses tab.
When did you conceive the idea of "The New Frontier"?
The concept of "The New Frontier" came from a wonderful educator and head of the guitar department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Clare Callahan. I was conducting one of my guitar clinics during the summer about three years ago for Prof. Callahan. After the clinic, she approached me and said "You know, what you're doing is one of the most important and greatly neglected skills that guitarists need to acquire, it's the new frontier." I carried the concept a little further to include the goal that "guitarists acquire the same level of reading skills as other instrumentalists."
How did the idea of the Donald Miller Guitar Ensemble Series evolve?
I was getting close to retirement from my college teaching position and was still disappointed and frustrated with the reading skills of incoming freshman guitar students. I called William Bay and explained some of the problems and frustrations we were having. He was already well-aware of this common dilemma. I told Mr. Bay I had been writing my own arrangements for the past 20 years to raise the quality of ensemble repertoire and include great music, even at Level 1 sight-reading material. He asked me to send him a few samples of my arrangements which he sent out for evaluation to four university/college guitar programs. The response was favorable and he asked me to develop a series of six guitar ensemble books that would not only embrace the history of music but also include works that would enhance the guitar repertoire.
What has been the response of academia, private teachers, and individual students?
The response has been overwhelmingly positive at first with teachers at the university/college level and also private teachers and students. When the series was first introduced about three years ago at the GFA Convention in San Antonio, TX (when only two books were available-Music of the Masters and the Christmas Book), the books sold out in the first few hours of the convention with many people placing orders.
Do your play any other instrument besides the guitar? If so, is there any advantage or disadvantage to being a multi-instrumentalist?
Other than the guitar, I play several instruments but not very well. I wouldn't want anyone to know this however! I believe everyone would benefit from having some keyboard skills. It is a great help in building sight-reading skills because it requires you to read two clefs at the same time.
So it seems comparatively easy to return to reading a single clef?
Yes, exactly.
You are not the first educator to notice what miserable sight readers guitarists are, but you may be the first to do anything significant about it. What kinds of changes do you see occurring as the result of applying the Ensemble Series at the high school and college levels?
The first intent of the Ensemble Series was to provide a broad variety of ensemble works for sight-reading and performance at concerts of Level 1 music. It has been proven that the more ensemble experience a player has, the better sight-reading skills he or she will acquire. A far loftier goal is to perform these works in the performance-practice that these works were written. For example, how do you authentically perform and interpret a work from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classic, Romantic and Contemporary periods according to the style of the music. When this goal is reached, we will have literate guitarists who perform a piece not the way they "feel it should be played", but rather a performance based on the style of the period and the manner in which the composer intended the work to be played.
What are your plans for future development of the series?
I've thought of developing a jazz ensemble book to compliment and/or complete the series for Level 1 players. This would provide an opportunity to teach jazz eighths and jazz harmonies.
What other projects do you have on the front burner?
I've just finished an arrangement of the "Hallelujah Chorus" for guitar ensemble which should be a fun piece to play to close a winter concert (especially if the audience stands!). This arrangement has an additional bass guitar part. I also recently finished a jazz piece called "Down 5" and I am currently looking for a jazz singer and group to record it.
How did you learn of the existence of the Magnificat? What sorts of adjustments or judgment calls did you make in converting the piece from a choral piece to a double guitar quartet?
I've always had a love for dramatic works having spent the majority of my teaching years as a guitar instructor, choral conductor, and music history teacher. Several years ago, I performed Theodore Pachelbel's Magnificat with my chamber singers and it was a favorite with the audience. Historically, the work is very important, coming as it did from the American Colonies in 1736 and being part of the first documented performance of any music whatever in New York City at that time. As I began doing a lot of writing for Mel Bay Publications, I felt this would be a great addition to the guitar ensemble repertoire. At this writing, according to colleagues and friends, it appears to be the only guitar double quartet in the repertoire.
Thank you for the opportunity to share some ideas and thoughts in this fascinating area of our profession.
My pleasure, I assure you!
While performing in the Notre Dame Intercollegiate Jazz Festivals of 1959 and 1960, Don Miller won the "Best Guitar" award both years with Stan Kenton participating as one of the judges. As a jazz player he was included in coverage in Time Magazine and his LP recording with the Don Miller Quartet received a three-star rating in Downbeat Magazine.
While on sabbatical in 1988, Miller composed the Finger Lakes Suite for the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra who premiered the work in 1989. The work was recorded and appeared as a Music Appreciation video for EAV, Chicago. The video won a National Library Award.
A few years ago Miller wrote a piece for chorus and brass entitled "Here Rests in Honored Glory." The work has been adopted as the official hymn of mourning for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc. All of his royalties from the sale of sheet music for this composition go to these two organizations. He would like to have the piece re-recorded with all royalties from sales of the CD going to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the War on Terror.
