In Guitar Talk with Heike Ossig, David Leisner connects his experience of focal dystonia with a broad vision of musical education. He discusses competitions, the purpose of practice, collaboration with composers, improvisation and the future of concert life. This breadth matters to me: healthier playing should open a path to music, rather than trap someone in endless repairs to their hands.

A Beginning without a Romantic Legend

As a child, Leisner also began learning the violin, but did not succeed as his family had hoped. The guitar's accessibility and sound drew him to it. He initially played folk music, recalling an affinity with acoustic music and the singer-songwriter world rather than most electric rock.

Among his teachers, he recalls early encouragement of his relationship with music, John Duarte's systematic work and other brief but important encounters. His considerable independence does not mean a life without teachers. Rather, it suggests that a decisive influence need not be proportional to the number of years formally studied.

Competition Can Help without Consuming the Meaning of Playing

Placings in Toronto and Geneva helped launch his career. Yet he recognised the danger of competing for competition's sake. If the next result and comparison become the main goal, music can recede into the background. Leisner therefore did not want to build his entire life around an uninterrupted competition circuit.

His observations about changes in the competition world belong to the time of the interview, rather than a precisely measured current situation. A broader question remains: does a particular competition support my musical direction, or merely create more pressure? For someone with a health limitation, the right to ask this may be especially important.

Dystonia and the Value of an Imperfect Intermediate Step

Leisner describes his dystonia as spanning 1984 to 1996. After years of unsuccessfully seeking help, he found a way to play mainly with his thumb and index finger, adapting even demanding repertoire. This restored part of his musical life although his original hand control had not yet returned.

Later, a suggestion from Neil Anderson led him to engage larger muscle groups. He felt an initial change quickly, but developed his own approach over another four years. He describes gradual improvements in individual fingers. Again, it is essential to me not to rewrite this history as a story of an instant solution.

Leisner expresses a strong conviction that better use of the body protects against injury and that many difficulties relate to misuse rather than simply the amount of playing. I do not take this generalisation as a guarantee or an explanation of every case of dystonia. Illness is not proof of personal neglect.

A Living Composer Changes How We Read a Score

Leisner says meeting Alberto Ginastera expanded his understanding of the composer's sonata. He describes his collaboration with David Del Tredici on Facts of Life in even greater detail. What was expected to be a shorter piece grew into a substantial work, shaped partly by a long exchange exploring the guitar's possibilities.

The performer explained what worked and where problems arose; the composer accepted some suggestions and rejected others. The score emerges as the result of particular decisions and living musical thought. In my view, respecting it therefore does not mean ceasing to ask why a passage is there and what effect it has.

Guitarists Need Other Musicians Too

Leisner emphasises chamber music with singers and players of other instruments. Guitar ensembles have their own value, but may not open the entire musical world on their own. Another instrument brings further experience of breathing, sustaining a note, colour and mutual response.

He similarly wants to broaden repertoire. He values Mertz and the Czech-born Václav Matějka, and regrets attention repeatedly returning to the same few pieces. Teaching, he believes, should combine major works with discovery, theory, understanding the body and wider cultural awareness. He also includes music by composers and groups previously overlooked.

Practice Needs Both Intention and Room for Change

At the start of a practice session, he recommends having a rough idea of what to work on. But the plan should not be so rigid that it prevents responding to a genuine discovery. He mentions short focused periods, breaks and stopping when attention is exhausted. The times he gives are not a prescribed rehabilitation dose for FD.

He again describes alternating between a musical whole and analytical work. An initial exploration reveals character and difficulties. The piece is then divided into small parts, perhaps working backwards from the final bars towards the beginning, before returning to the whole. Repeatedly playing a piece from first note to last is not the same as addressing a particular passage.

Composition, Improvisation and a Missed Opportunity

Leisner encourages students who bring their own compositions, even when they are just beginning to write. This lets them experience the other side of the relationship between composer and performer. He would similarly like more space for improvisation, openly admitting that he is less confident in it himself.

He recalls an invitation from jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers that he did not feel ready to accept at the time. He regrets the missed opportunity. I find this an appealing moment: an experienced artist need not pretend to have seized every opportunity or mastered everything. Spontaneity can be learned, and its value does not end where written notation begins.

Composer and Performer Need the Same Attention

Leisner describes his life as divided roughly equally between performing and composing, although the actual timetable need not be even. At the time of the interview, he discussed releases of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin with Michael Kelly and an album of his own vocal chamber music. For Confiding, he notes that piano replaced the original guitar instrumentation for the recording. He was also preparing a recording of nineteenth-century repertoire.

He mentions commissions from Rob Nathanson for voice and various chamber combinations involving saxophone and guitar. He is especially delighted about completing a guitar concerto for Pepe Romero. I retain these reports as a picture of his work at that time, rather than current premiere announcements. They show how far his creativity extends beyond solo guitar and dystonia itself.

The Future of Music and Space for an Individual Path

Towards the end, he critically assesses the economic effects of the internet and streaming on musicians. These are observations from a particular period, not a universal financial judgement about every platform. Alongside the difficulties, he sees a need to find new ways of meeting, sharing and earning a living.

For myself, I keep the connection between health and the breadth of life. A person with FD needs specific support, but also the opportunity to remain a listener, collaborator, creator and curious human being. Leisner's perspective reminds me that musical education should protect that breadth.

Approximate locations in the transcript: 01:10 beginnings; 08:57 competitions; 10:49 dystonia; 23:19 collaboration with composers; 27:39 chamber music; 39:49 practice; 54:47 composition and improvisation; 60:10 the future of the profession.

Conversation source

• Podcast:Guitar Talk.
• Episode:Guitar Talk #12 feat. David Leisner (New York).
• Interviewer:Heiko Ossig.
• Guest:David Leisner.
• Published:2023-03-17 at 09:22:41 UTC.
• Platform of the supplied source:Apple Podcasts.
• Listen and programme information: Guitar Talk – Programme archive; the title and date above identify the episode.
• Source material:the supplied English transcript08 - Guitar-Talk-12-feat.-David-Leisner-New-York.txt. Obvious automatic transcription errors in names and titles have been corrected editorially; this article is a thematic treatment rather than a verbatim translation.

Another direct source: David Leisner: the book Playing with Ease. Personal experiences and pedagogical opinions in the interview are not a universal treatment for focal dystonia.

David Leisner - all ten interviews

1. David Leisner: less control, more music
2. David Leisner: how to connect the body, the technique and the sense of the composition
3. David Leisner: own musical voice, stage fright and confidence
4. David Leisner: return after dystonia, creation and life support
5. David Leisner on focal dystonia: the first discovery is not the end of the road
6. David Leisner: first man, then guitar
7. David Leisner: what hides Bach, Ginastera, Villa-Lobos and Mertz
8. David Leisner: A Broader Musical Life, Practice and the Journey out of Dystonia (this article)
9. David Leisner: music beyond the fingers and the concert
10. David Leisner: Playing with Ease, composition and the joy of cooperation