Narciso Yepes

Yepes is credited by many with developing the A-M-I technique of playing notes with the ring (Anular), middle (Medio), and index (Indice) fingers of the right hand.

According to Yepes, Asencio "was a pianist who loathed the guitar because a guitarist couldn't play scales very fast and very legato, as on a piano or a violin.

"[4] Similarly, the composer, violinist, and pianist George Enescu would also push Yepes to improve his technique, which also allowed him to play with greater speed.

[5] On 16 December 1947 he made his Madrid début, performing Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with Ataúlfo Argenta conducting the Spanish National Orchestra.

[8] In 1950, after performing in Paris, he spent a year studying interpretation under the violinist George Enescu, and the pianist Walter Gieseking.

[citation needed] On 18 May 1951, as he leant on the parapet of a bridge in Paris and watched the Seine flow by, Yepes unexpectedly heard a voice inside him ask, "What are you doing?"

[9] In 1952 a work ("Romance"), Yepes claims to have written when he was a young boy,[10] became the theme to the film Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits) by René Clément.

In Paris he met Maria Szumlakowska, a young Polish philosophy student, the daughter of Marian Szumlakowski, the Ambassador of Poland in Spain from 1935 to 1944.

[15] The instrument made it possible to transcribe works originally written for baroque lute without deleterious transposition of the bass notes.

He recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez for the first time with the ten-string guitar in 1969 with Odón Alonso conducting the Orquesta Sinfonica R.T.V.

His research into forgotten manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in the rediscovery of numerous works for guitar or lute.

In addition, through his patient and intensive study of his instrument, Narciso Yepes developed a revolutionary technique and previously unsuspected resources and possibilities.

He was granted many official honours including the gold medal for Distinction in Arts, conferred by King Juan Carlos I; membership in the academy of "Alfonso X el Sabio" and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Murcia.

Yepes in concert at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 1962
Yepes in 1939
Ten-string classical guitar of Yepes
Yepes's 10-string guitar tuning
Monument to Yepes in Lorca
Yepes performing at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 1962