Guitarist Eckels offers a new take on holiday classics

Story by Nancy Kimball, The Daily Inter Lake, Saturday December 14, 2002

It was a tall order. Produce an encyclopedia of Christmas music, Steve Eckels was told. Keep it between 90 and 106 pages. The rest was up to him.

Today, "Christmas Encyclopedia, Fingerstyle Guitar Edition" is one of the newest music books in the Mel Bay Publications catalog. With this being his 10th book of music, Eckels is a familiar name in the popular music publisher's guitar library.

In one sense, it's a groundbreaking edition for the Flathead High School guitar teacher.

"So far, my books have been geared more toward the advanced player," he said. "But the Christmas book can be played by the beginner and embellished on by the professional."

To accomplish that, he featured each song in three formats for the Christmas Encyclopedia: one with the bare-bones melody, another with intermediate level fills, and a third with a full complement of chords, counterpoints and more.

That's not all. "I'm proud of the table of contents," Eckels said. He ran his finger down the extensive list of carefully chosen holiday favorites.

"There are Renaissance songs, like the 'Oxford Carol,' there's a whole set of 'Nutcracker' songs," he said, ticking off a handful from the waltz to the the dance of the sugarplum fairies. "And they're playable."

He continued through the list — "Avé Maria," Pachelbel's "Canon," Bach's immortal "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." His rendition of Arcangelo Corelli's "Pastoral" from "The Christmas Concerto," he believes, represents the first time it's ever been done for guitar.

There are even 10 dreidel songs for the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. "Nothing got cut," he said. "Everything that I wanted to go in got in."

A primary goal in producing the Christmas book was to make it usable.

"I wanted this to be the most utilitarian book on the market," he said. "I treat it as quite an honor to be given this duty."

In fact, his high school students already are playing holiday tunes from the book. "They can get immediate satisfaction," he said. "And that's important."

Eckels himself gave the book a "street run" during his performance at the Hockaday Museum of Art's craft fair Dec. 6-7, during the Kalispell Art Walk. He was pleased. Even the simplest one-page arrangements can be embellished into three- or four-minute songs, he discovered.

At Flathead High, Eckels offers three levels of instruction to about 120 students a year. He sees each player as unique. "We don't have a cookie cutter approach," he said. "They feel respected. Maybe they're a rocker, or they play bluegrass, or whatever. I try to encourage their own style."

Whether dealing with active church musicians, rock band veterans or self-styled musicologists, he's not afraid to push them hard enough to achieve their highest potential. "They get the satisfaction, they like it," Eckels said. "It's more fun to be good, and they know it."

Eckels developed his own classroom workbook geared for three skill levels of high school guitarists, using songs in popular, traditional and classical literature. He revamps it each summer to incorporate ideas that arise throughout the school year.

His books incorporate both tablature for the beginning guitarist and traditional notation for his students who read music. "From day one," he said, "I encourage students to learn to read music."

Eckels doesn't get bogged down in the medium. He aims for the message.

"I see the joy of music making" coming from these students, he said.

A familiar onstage performer in the Flathead, Missoula and beyond — he'll play at Café Max from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 19 and return to First Night Flathead this year — the teacher revels in seeing his students share that passion.

He also stretches himself professionally, performing and publishing in a wide range of musical styles.

An accomplished jazz guitarist, Eckels holds a master's degree in music from the New England Conservatory and began his teaching career with a year at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He taught at colleges in Wisconsin and New Mexico before joining the Flathead High staff in 2000.

Earlier, he was a regular columnist for Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine, and produced instruction books and song arrangements for Warner Bros. Publications, Alfred Publications and Mel Bay Publications.

Eight CDs bear his name, containing original compositions and arrangements. His first 10 years after graduate school were devoted to composition, inspired by his connection to nature and his Czechoslovakian heritage. "It's important to get in touch with your roots for source material," he said.

The next 10 years were spent on what he calls his American exploration. The fruit came in books of "Cowboy Classics for Acoustic Guitar," "Music of the North American Indians," "Gregorian Chant for Acoustic Guitar," and more.

Admiration for a friend's talent with the American Indian flute sparked his own guitar volume, which in turn sparked the volume of chants he heard performed by Benedictine monks.

"I thought it was wonderful that my friend could express himself and his spiritual side with the flute," he said. "But then I thought, where do I go, as a Caucasian? I went to the chants. They're the root of more than we know."

Now, after having spent the past two summers in workshops under guitar master Christopher Parkening, Eckels has a CD worth of classical master works, he said — "the greatest music ever composed for guitar." He plans on spending the next year polishing and recording that repertoire.

Then, refreshed by those endeavors, Eckels expects to return to composition "on a new, higher level."

(Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com)