Harry Knight has been strumming away since he was four and a half. Soon, he’ll travel to Spain to study under several master flamenco players. From the original CBC article:
Harry Knight, an 8-year-old from Calgary, practises flamenco guitar 2.5 hours or more a day. ‘I started when I was 4½ and I’m never going to stop.’
The young guitarist comes from a musical bloodline. His father, Peter Knight — himself a flamenco guitarist — has recorded with the likes of Grammy winner Dave Pierce. Under his father’s instruction, Harry spends up to 2.5 hours rehearsing on schooldays and up to four hours per day on weekends.
According to his father, Harry was drawn to the guitar at a very early age.
“I would have my guitars over on a bench [in the living room)] and he would be six months old and crawling. He would hear the latches [of my guitar case] open, and come crawling over and try to pull himself up to the guitar case. So I knew at that time it was pretty interesting,” Peter Knight said.
“It was his choice to play the guitar, and there were no expectations. He’s at the point now where I’m teaching him material that I used to play.”
He will spend time in Madrid under the tutelage of renowned guitarist Victor (El Tomate) Marquez, and will also travel to Cordoba to study with the guitarist Paco Serrano.
“I’ll be learning on the guitar things that my dad can’t teach me. Things that are more advanced.”