I met Shawn Richards when he started attending the Edna Manley College. His abilities as a classical guitarist were abundantly evident yet he seemed to carry himself as a person who started his musical journey later than many and considered it a blessing to be studying music and to be amongst academic musicians. When I heard that he had gone to Venezuela to study Classical Guitar I could not think of anyone more deserving of the opportunity.
As we sat to discuss preparations for the upcoming “Acoustic Delights” performance at Cannonball Cafe I took the opportunity to find out more about his journey and found myself in listening mode. My responses were reduced to nodding, saying “right” and “wow” as he passionately told his story with gratitude.
I have put the interview here with as much conversational detail as I can manage. I hope you enjoy the story of this noble Jamaican who has done so much with so little. We were speaking at Avant Academy of Music in Barbican with his former teacher, Norman McCallum beside him.
Tell me a bit about your journey into music and guitar? What got you on the road to where you are now? What was the thing that got you out the door?
That’s a very good question. Over the years doing music a lot of times I have had second thoughts thinking that maybe I made a mistake choosing this thing.
Right (nodding)
I think there is a reason why I ended up doing music using the guitar as a medium. I think my love for the guitar started when I was about three or four. On my third or fourth birthday, my stepfather bought me a toy guitar. Four strings, a little plastic thing. In those times there was this song, “Pass De Kutchie pon di left-hand side” was a popular song. I used to strum up...,
Two chords!
Not even chords it was open strings and I would sing, “Pass Di Kutchie pon de Tun Tun Side”, that is what I understood [at that early age] from the song.
At the time we were living in August town. At some point, we ended up moving to Old Harbour where I grew up. I remember going to church and I was fascinated with the guitarist at church playing up a storm. I was thinking, “I would love to be able to do that!”. But this time I never had that toy guitar, that was long gone destroyed. I went to my stepfather and said, “Daddy! Daddy! Yuh cyan buy one guitar fi mi? Fi mi birthday?” and he said, “Yeah man, no problem man!”. So when the birthday came I was expecting to see a real guitar. I was excited and Daddy carry one nex’ [another] toy guitar. Mind you I enjoyed playing church with the neighbours daughters. Next door doing our preaching and so on.
Right, right (laughing)
What really got me started was the day when I met a family who were [Seventh Day] Adventists. They had an old guitar stashed away in the corner at home. At the time I was about seventeen or eighteen [years old]. I borrowed that guitar to teach myself and they loaned it to me, afterward, they gave it to me as a gift. I borrowed that guitar and they loaned it to me with two or three books. So I sat with those books, it was a Mel Bay book and another book and I started teaching myself. Then I met a gentleman who was telling me about him liking the Classical Guitar. He was not talking about it in relation to the music itself he was talking about the guitar saying that, “his hands were big just like mine” and “the neck of the guitar is broad” and so on and so forth. When he said that to me if flicked a switch, “the Classical Guitar?”. I had heard the guitar on the radio and certain hours in the evening on IRIE FM they put on some Ernest Ranglin and some Monty Alexander and I really enjoyed that. I think at some point I even heard a few of your music [from the album Silo Sessions] on Radio Mona when Anthony Cuffe used to play [on the radio].
IRIE FM used to play the album often too, I think it was Mighty Mike that used to play it.
I really liked it too.
It was like he flipped a switch when the guy was talking to me about Classical Guitar and he described to me and I remember having a friend with a guitar like that which he was not using. So I ended up borrowing that guitar and he ended up giving me his guitar as well so I ended up with two guitars as well, gifted to me.
I was fooling around with that guitar and ended up at Music Mart buying a few books and surprisingly I got the urge [to do] research on the guitar. I would love to know the history of the guitar as well. So I went to the library in Old Harbour and I was surprised when I found a book talking about the history of the guitar and I joined the Library just to read that book. Believe you me after I read the book and brought back the book, the book was nowhere to be found again.
Long story eh?
No man, we’re good
I met a young gentleman by the name of Steven and here it got started.
At the time I was going to St Jago High and there was this classmate of mine named Pierre and he was a violinist. He was studying the violin. I said to him, “have you ever heard any classical guitar music before?” and he said, “yes, my father has a record at home with two Indians playing.”He was speaking about “Los Indios Trabajaras”. He said, “I will record it for you”. At the time CD’s weren’t out yet. It was either a [vinyl] record or a cassette. So he recorded it on a cassette after I pestered him for a few weeks. When he gave me that thing and I went home and listened to it and I was stone dumbstruck. I was like, “seriously? Is this the guitar playing? This sounds more like a piano!”. From there I was like, “wow I would like to learn how to play (the guitar) like this!” Pierre introduced me to a friend of his who was studying with Mr. Mac [Norman McCallum]. He was once Mr. Mac’s student, I think only for a year or something like that. I got in touch with the gentleman and he was telling me about Mr. McCallum at Edna Manley [College] and I said, “Bwoy, I would love to meet your teacher still because I would not mind if I could have some classes with him”. At the time I had been teaching myself for one or two years before I ended up meeting Mr. Mac. I link up with the guy and we went to Edna [Manley College and] I had the guy’s guitar. I never brought any guitar of mine I had the guy’s guitar and met Mr. Mac.
Mr. Mac was querying me, he wanted me to play for him just to hear what I sounded like and he was looking at the guitar and he realized that the guitar strings were very high on the guitar and he was like, “How can you play a thing like that?”. There was a point in our conversation when he said, “I can’t understand how you being way out into Old Harbour region near country region, how did you come into contact with the Classical Guitar? In a country where dancehall and reggae is the most listened to music [genres]?
I did not know what to tell him. Because I found it surprising myself how I ended up doing this because as I said [before], sometimes I felt like giving up because it is not easy in Jamaica surviving as an academic musician.
Indeed (nodding)
That is where it got started, so after I met Mr. Mac and Mr. Mac started to draw out some music and have me play a grade three level piece and I played it and he said, “What, your sightreading is good man!”, and he draw out a grade four level piece [and I played it] and he said “wow!”. It seems that he got inspired and went to Rosina Moder and I don’t know what he said to her, probably something like, “Rosina, I met this young lad, he doesn’t have any money, would you be willing to sponsor him to come and do the evening program at Edna Manley [College]? And she was like, “I don’t really have any money, but we will see what we can do”.
At the time I was going to JAGAS, the Jamaica German Automotive School, imagining myself out there as a big mechanic, fixing up cars and then afterward I was thinking of becoming a, after getting some years of experience I was thinking of becoming an examiner. Because that is where the money is, you just pay me under the table and collect some money (laughing). Examiner nuh drive pyah,pyah vehicle (laughing).
(Laughing) wow…
Mr. Mac called me and said, “there’s an opportunity, can you come and talk to me?” I went in to talk to him and he was telling me about this opportunity where Rosina was sponsoring me for six months. She said that her foundation never had any money at the time but she is able to sponsor me just for the first six months and we see how things work out. At that point, I was not really thinking of doing music again. I was thinking of going the route of becoming a mechanic. I was inspired after going to that institution [JAGAS]. He [Norman McCallum] encouraged me and I said, “Alright, I will come in and start working with you”.
I went to Edna[Manley College] in the evening while I went to JAGAS full time during the first year. I did [music theory with] Mr. Cavell and the good thing was that he did not hold me back. I started at the grade three level theory, he had me do a test and realized that my theory was at a competent level. Within a span of four to five months I had gone up to grade five [level of music thoery] and was sitting the exam afterward. Mr. McCallum groomed me from a grade four to a grade five practical level to sit the practical exam as well.
I don’t know if Rosina was checking up on me or what, but afterwards is like she was saying, “Wouldn’t you be interested in doing the certificate in Instrumental [Teaching] Program at the Edna Manley College?”. I said, “I wasn’t thinking of getting any accreditation in this thing! I was already thinking about becoming a mechanic and examiner under table!” (laughter)
She convinced me and I entered to do the Certificate in Instrumental Teaching Program. Then afterward when I completed that program I ended up graduating from Edna Manley [College] and JAGAS at the same time, a month apart. After I finished that program, Rosina again, “You cannot stop here you know, you need to do the Diploma Program”. I said, “what is there to lose?”.
So went and did the Diploma [and the] Diploma [program] finished. Then afterwards was there at Edna [Manley College] teaching for a little while.
Right…
And then now, Mr. Valmore Nieves was invited by the Venezuelan Embassy to perform in Jamaica because they were having some Venezuelan event. It was up by UWI in one of those lecture rooms. We went up there and met the gentleman. The gentleman was kind to allow me to touch his guitar and “ting ting”. I played for him the Natalia by Antonio Lauro (Venezuelan musician, considered to be one of the foremost composers for the guitar in the 20th century). And he was like, “Where did you learn that young man?!”. I had someone translate for me, he never spoke English, he was speaking in Spanish. Rosina, she speaks a little Spanish so just before the man performed, she was talking to him and said, “we have a young man here, we would not mind if we could find somewhere outside of Jamaica for him to continue his studies.” He said, “I am the head of the guitar department of the conservatory in Barquisimeto. We could accept him there.”
We were in touch with the Venezuelan Embassy and the Venezuelan Institute where they were teaching Spanish and via that route I ended up in Venezuela thanks to a number of people who contributed some money to the effort. At the time Mr. Jeffrey Cobham was the chairman of the Edna Manley college where I met him. He was very instrumental by contributing his time, money and expertise to help me raise money for the first year studying in Venezuela. I was there for the first year, thanks to that help and we approached CHASE and CHASE took over [the financial assistance]. I was over there studying for three or four years and then came back and here I am.
Was the experience in Venezuela a game-changing experience? Or was it just more of the same?
To be honest with you, the experience did not work out how I had imagined [that it would]. I was hoping for a different kind of experience. I learned a number of things, I learned a lot of stuff. Spending roughly three and a half years in a conservatory and coming out without a university title is a daunting little experience. The biggest experience for me over there, what I ended up learning, was when I ended up teaching at a community centre. They were searching for a teacher as the teacher who was there had left without informing them. They called my teacher at the time Mr. Navez and asked him if he knew of someone who could come in and teach at the institution. He already knew that I was teaching in Jamaica before I went there [in Venezuela]. So he suggested that I could come in.
I was speaking sufficient Spanish (my Spanish was not so great) and the gentleman called me and I went, and we spoke, and I started [to teach]. That is when things started to happen. I started to see the possibility of things that I could do right here at home. The first class I went to teach I saw fourteen to sixteen students sitting in front of me. I was like, “These people are crazy!”. I was used to having four or five students if so much in front of me to teach guitar and it was a challenge. So can you imagine fourteen students?
Wow…
But, [I ]got through and came out with a different level of understanding as to how to teach group classes from that [experience]. When I came back home I was putting together a handout or something I could use to start teaching. I was scolded by Rosina saying that I am breaching the copyright [act] even though the copyright law states that you can use “x” percentage of a material. I said, “to heck with that man. I’m gonna start writing my own thing!”.
Yes...I remember that.
That’s when it started. So I started drafting up something to use with my students. Still working on it now, I have not touched the materials since 2014 thereabout, but that’s where it got started.
So here I am! Having a new experience at Mico [University College], started teaching there last year. I started realizing what is needed out there as it relates to the guitar. The image of the guitar here in Jamaica, people see a man walking up and down strumming. The first thing they start to imagine when they see you with a guitar is strumming some Mento. They don’t see the guitar as a serious instrument that can be used to play the national anthem.
What I am seeing in the future is to have youngsters going out to change the face of the guitar so the guitar can earn some degree of respect that is similar to what is handed to the piano.
Where the [classical] guitar [technique] is concerned a lot of us don’t really understand or realize the importance it holds in the folk category. Playing folk music and not being able to pick with your fingers is a disadvantage. Unless you have two guitarists, one strumming and the other picking with a pick, but you as the only guitarist sitting on stage accompanying a choir you are at a disadvantage if you are not able to play fingerstyle. We are the ones who need to change the face of this instrument here in Jamaica and create an audience for it. The audience we are creating for it is actually our own students. They are the ones who are going to be able to appreciate a concert like what we are trying to do. They will be the potential audience for the future. So that is where we are at right now.
So, you’ve moved from the toy guitar, to the part-time guitarist/mechanic/examiner (under the table) (laughter) to travelling to Venezuela and having the experience of seeing a different vision for educational methods and techniques, especially with large groups or using culture, or using different types of notation and different approaches. And now you are having the Mico [University College] experience that is now a formal institution of teacher education. What about you now? What about your legacy? When the book is written and we think about what you have left behind, do you have a sense of what you would like to leave behind?
I would not mind building a foundation for the guitar, there is no book out there set up to teach guitar. There is no book out there with an arrangement of the [Jamaican] National Anthem, the National Song, Folk songs etc.
So when you say foundation you do not mean a financial foundation you mean an actual teaching method and materials?
Yes, so that people who come after can use that and build themselves up. So that’s one of the things I am thinking of.
Steven Woodham has done a pretty good job up by Immaculate Prep [and High School] setting up the orchestra. We can do the same for the guitar too. We can have a guitar orchestra. Youngsters playing together in an ensemble in an orchestral setting using guitars. That’s like a game-changer. In the rest of Europe and Asia are running with it. It is just us in the Caribbean, we have been lagging behind. If we can set up a program like that in Jamaica it would be another plus.
Thanks so much for sharing. We are looking forward to the show.