By Nick Perkins
Student Reporter
There is nothing quite like pulling a guitar out of its case, wiping it down, checking the tuning and then performing in front of people.
That is one of the reasons Northwestern Oklahoma State University is hosting the third annual NWOSU guitar festival on April 6.
“We started the guitar festival to give students another opportunity to perform,” Max Ridgway, adjunct instructor of music, said. There are not many competitions in this area that allow students who play guitar to perform in front of judges.
The guitar festival is only for middle and high school students who are privately taught students as well as students who are a part of a guitar class or a music class.
“Some of them come from guitar classes that are held at the Enid middle school,” Ridgeway said. “The first year that we held the festival many of those same students from the Enid middle school and some of the private students studying in Enid came to the festival, and it was very successful.”
Most of the students who come to the competition are from the northwestern area, like Enid and Woodward.
According to an NWOSU press release, the contest will start at 9:30 a.m., and there will be an awards ceremony at 11:30 a.m. that will be held in the Fine Arts building, room 200, after the after the contest. The contest is not open to the public because the contestants will be performing solo acts, although the awards ceremony will be open to the public.
There are about 60 performances signed up in the guitar festival. “That’s not to say that some are doubling up,” Seth Cudd, director of instrumental music and music education, said. “So there might be somebody that plays a solo and somebody that might play a duet.”
The contestants at the festival are allowed to play anything they want to play. According to Ridgeway, Most of what students play are what their music teacher suggests for them to play. Usually it is classical pieces or theme songs from a movie.
The guitars that are played are usually acoustic classical guitars, which have a wider neck and nylon strings instead of steel strings, like a regular acoustic guitar. “From time to time a student will perform on an electric guitar,” Ridgeway said. “Which is fine.” There have also been some students who performed on the electric bass guitar.
The guitar is an instrument that many people are attracted to learn to play because, unlike other instruments, it doesn’t take years to learn to play.
“Within about a year you can get started playing on the guitar,” Ridgeway said. In some cases, it is a fairly accessible and affordable instrument. It is also an instrument that is seen and heard in a lot of music genres.
“We’re excited to host the third annual NWOSU guitar festival,” Cudd said in an NWOSU press release. “We look forward to hearing the guitar players from this area.”