Official Luthiers Forum!

Shawn and Joshua, and whoever else has attended this course,

I'm thinking of attending his workshop for 2007 if I can get in. Liam is sending me a booking form sometime soon (a few weeks). I would love to attend but I've never traveled overseas, I'm not sure what to expect, I don't think I even know how to properly pronounce Romanillos. Do I need to know any spanish?Marc39021.734525463

The class is held at a monastery that is about 90 miles from Madrid (NE) in the town of Siguenza. There are currently over 200 people who have requested the brochure for the 2007 class. The key is getting your deposit in as soon as you get the email from Liam...I waited a few years until I got in.

The class is a maximum of 20 people and skills range from beginners to seasoned professional luthiers and everywhere in between. There are usually a few people who have attended the class before that because of that will be building at a faster pace than others just starting.

In the class I was in this years there were people from 14 countries that spoke a total of over 20 languages. You do not need to know Spanish as English is the only one language that most spoke.

It is all hand tools, with the only power tools available being a Fox style bender (or a hot pipe if you prefer) and a hegner scrollsaw for cutting tops and backs to shape. You would need to bring all of your materials AND tools so packing light is preferable.

The class is mostly everyone building at their own pace with little instruction other than a morning lecture/demonstration from Jose. Liam and one or two helper/instructors monitor each ones progress and offer help as needed.

The only wood that is prepared beforehand is the neck needs to be cut and the headjoint built, preferably using the Romanillos V-Joint although several came with spliced head joints which is fine.

In the past the plan used was to build a guitar to the Romanillos model. This year will be slightly different in that the plan for this next years class is to build a Second Epoch Torres design.

This is important to note because Jose is more knowledgable about Torres than any other person alive and has greater insights into Torres construction and his contribution to the classical guitar than anyone ever. Jose has seen and examined every known Torres guitar that is still around including some that are controversial in that they are most likely copies of a Torres as was done by Ramirez, Santos Hernandez and others at the turn of the century.

Toward the end of the two weeks there is usually an evening concert with really good guitarists who play Romanillos guitars.

As far as the travel is concerned, you can take the train from Madrid to Siguenza but it is long and takes up several hours. A rental car for the 2 weeks will run about $450.00 so several of the people took taxis from Madrid to Siguenza which run about 125 euros each way but is still less than a rental car. It is preferable to arrive a day early to get your workspace setup and tools and wood arranged.

It is very important to have all your tools sharp and bring sharpening tools with. While there will be sharpening stones there, there will be twenty people who also want to use them as well as the jigs, forms and such.

The monastery is a conference center in which people have their own room and bathroom but because that part of Spain gets very little water, there is rarely such a thing as a hot shower. The food is served in a cafeteria and is mostly grown at the monastery...simple country food but with a good variety and all healthy. Even if you are a vegetarian they can accomodate.

The schedule is that you can start in the shop at any time but most show up between 7-7:30 and work until 9 when breakfast is served. Then after breakfast Josae will lecture and or demonstrate some phase of building and then you work until 2 when lunch is served. In most of Spain siesta is from 2-4 with all stores closing. You then work until 9:00pm when dinner is served and then after dinner you can work as late as you want with most working until about 12.

It is long days of hand building but it is very gratifying and when you look at it as learning from a master builder, building to a higher standard than ever before, all by hand and then adding in the whole experience in Spain, it is very reasonable and the experience is priceless.

Romanillos is pronounced like it is spelled with the exception that in Spanish the i is pronounced as E.

Guess there won't be much for followup questions!!

The only thing I have to add to Shawn's information here: there is a lot of wine.

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[QUOTE=Shawn] Romanillos is pronounced like it is spelled with the exception that in Spanish the i is pronounced as E.[/QUOTE]
I guess I'll have to ask for a little clarification here.

It's my understanding that double "L's" in Spanish are pronounced like a "Y", as in "yes"--hence, "pollo" (chicken) is pronounced PAW-yoh. Thus it seems that Romanillos should be roh-mah-NEE-yohs (or -yohth, depending on which part of the country you're from). Comments?

You are correct CarltonM, that is the way we pronounce the LL down here in Texas. Interesting little tidbit on the Spanish Language. Over time in Spain the original Spanish of the Conquistadors if you will began to disappear. Linquists from Spain came over to New Mexico in the 1980's, to a small town of Mora, located between Las Vegas and Taos on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristos to study the language. It seemed that this region of locals still spoke the language of old Spain or what they called the language of the Conquistadores and according to the visitors the only place in the world they knew of.

No extra charge for spinning a few yarns on local history with the folks    

Mike

[QUOTE=CarltonM] [QUOTE=Shawn]
Thus it seems that Romanillos should be roh-mah-NEE-yohs
[/QUOTE]

This is correct ( ll is pronounced as y and the stress generaly falls on the next to last sylable - don't worry most people understand at least soome english )Cachalote39022.3444560185

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Richard

Thanks Shawn, I appreciate the detailed information, very helpful.

[QUOTE=jfrench]
...
there is a lot of wine.
...
[/QUOTE]

Good thing

You are correct...I have always pronounced it as roh-mah-NEE-yohs but forgot to mention the double L...

As to the wine, In Spain it is common to serve a red wine with lunch and supper. It is always there at every meal as well as crusty bread. The glasses that they drink it from are small glasses the size that most in the US use for orange juice but it is there at every meal.

Coffee is always served at meals as well. In Spain the coffee is drunk "solo" meaning black, just coffee or "con leche" with milk. It is brewed very strong and as often as not will be instant coffee. When they serve it con leche it is with equal amounts coffee and steamed milk, but not usually with a frothy foam as in cappuchino or Latte drinks.

What was interesting about the diversity of the class was at one point I was in a conversation with three German speaking builders, one from Austria, one from Switzerland and one from Northern Germany. They had difficulty getting past each others dialects but because I speak German as a non-native do not have a dialect to get in the way.

Likewise there were three Spaniards in the class of which one was Basque (Northern Spain) and spoke Basque, another spoke Catalan and the other spoke Castillian, several languages and dialects but it was still a matter of translation. They could all understand a woman in the class that was Mexican but often could not understand certain words that each other spoke.

There were a couple chaps from England, one from West London and one from South London...I got on well with them but we were also sometimes divided by a common language as I spoke American, not English... We played a game of scrabble that was comical in that some of the words used the others were not familiar.