Arrangements of worship songs for two classical guitars have made Britain's ROB AND GILLY BENNETT big Christian retail sellers. Alison Pooley investigates.



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Their classical guitar sound lends itself particularly to many of the Vineyard choruses which they love, in addition to a lot of Graham Kendrick songs. Robs sees their different guitar styles as a plus. Both trained as soloists. Gilly's involvement in music began at an early age; she studied with Prof. Gordon Crosskey at the Royal Northern College of Music and in 1984 graduated from Sheffield University with a B.Mus. Hons. Degree. Not wanting to follow through a career as a performer she went into teaching.

Rob on the other hand was largely self-taught. "I came through Chuck Berry, Roll 'n" Roll, folk groups - goodness knows what! I changed away from electric and steel strings to a more finger style after seeing Peter, Paul and Mary play nylon string guitars."

Rob has more recently studied also with Prof. Crosskey and Brunon Baron, he's produced a guitar tutor and does most of their arrangements.

"The simplest are the most beautiful. You can make the melody lines very flashy and showy but loose the line of words. Thousands of notes tend note to communicate." Gilly was quick to put in "It's a simple sound, but not simple to play! We have people wanting the music. The arrangements themselves are quite sparse but in terms of playing they are not easy. Normally I play a melody line at the same time as playing chords while Rob plays a counter melody."

1 noted a classical Spanish "Tango" included on " The Touch", linking two worship songs. "It's one of the most requested things we do - people come up and say 'we really enjoyed that praise song'!" she informed me "but I have to explain that of all the pieces that one is straight classical!"

So far backing, if any, has been a combination of cello and synth. they are experimenting using voice as another "instrumental" line. Lorna Washington, who has sung with Welsh National Opera has worked with them. "We were wondering how voice would go, but it's quite a revelation that she could do what we wanted," said Rob.

Their third album is projected to be a collection of Christmas Carols arranged for two guitars and aimed at the more traditional market. I asked them whether they felt that they would be going full time in their music career. Together they agreed "We've not heard from God on that one! We're praying about it; taking our time and letting things develop. We're a little bit in awe of what's happening at the moment and need to step back and reflect on what's been done." CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.