Category: Classical Guitar

June 26, 2008

How To Play Classical Guitar Music

Filed under: Classical Guitar - 26 Jun 2008

If you are interested in learning about the classical guitar and are wondering how to play it, you might enjoy this post on the ways the classical guitar is different from other acoustic guitars and the techniques employed in playing classical guitar music. I have found some YouTube videos to illustrate the various classical guitar techniques.

Electric guitars and steel string acoustic guitars usually have a cutaway neck to allow the guitar player to fret notes at the top end of the scale. This type of neck is actually a modern innovation. Even though classical guitar players and composers have always made use of the uppermost notes on the guitar fretboard, classical guitars stuck with the original guitar shape. On the steel string acoustic guitar the neck is slightly narrower than the original design retained by the classical guitar. If you try to play a classical guitar for the first time you will probably find this difference a little hard to get used to.

The classical guitar uses nylon strings. They give you a very warm, mellow sound. The use of nylon strings is due partly to tradition and partly to the fact that steel strings are alot harder on the guitar player’s fingernails. The basic difference between classical guitar and other kinds of fingerstyle guitar playing is that plectrums and fingerpicks are not used by classical guitarists. The sound produced is a product of the guitar player’s fingertips or fingernails plucking or striking the nylon strings. It is the guitar player’s choice whether to use nails or just the flesh of the fingertips. Many people think that it is more difficult to play the guitar without nails, but players who just use their fingertips say it is no more difficult to learn to play that way. If you have your right hand close to the bridge of the guitar you will produce a sharp, dry tone. If you pluck the strings with your right hand nearer the neck you will get a deeper, more mellow sound.

The plucking of the classical guitar strings can be done in two ways. The “rest” stroke is where the thumb or the fingers pluck the string and come to rest on the next string.

The “free” stroke is where the thumb and fingers attack the string in such a way as to avoid the adjacent strings.

When you try to use these techniques you will notice the marked difference in sound. Another technique used in classical guitar playing is the tremelo technique where the right hand thumb plays a bass note followed by the index, middle and ring fingers playing melody notes in quick succession.

A famous piece employing the tremelo is Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega.

Finally a rather tricky technique is used for playing solos using the sound of harmonics. This involves the right hand index finger damping the string while the ring finger plucks.

When you play chords by scraping the right hand fingers or thumb across the strings it is called a rasgueado. You can strum chords with the thumb using a down stroke, the index finger using up or down strokes or, less commonly, by using the flamenco rasgueado which entails the little finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger following each other in a down stroke across the strings.

If you are interested in playing classical guitar or using classical techniques to play modern music, sheet music and tabs for classical guitar are readily available on the internet.

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May 28, 2008

Classical Gas free guitar tab

Filed under: Free Lessons, Classical Guitar - 28 May 2008

If you are into fingerstyle acoustic guitar you really should take a look at the free guitar tab for Classical Gas. Classical Gas is one of the most requested and most familiar instrumental pieces of all time. Classical Gas is always asked for whenever a bunch of people and a nylon string acoustic guitar are in the same room. It is not really a great technical showcase for finger style guitarists but it is a great vehicle to show off the sound of the classical guitar.

The composer, Mason Williams, states on his website, “I didn’t really have any big plans for it, other than maybe to have a piece to play at parties when they passed the guitar around. I envisioned it as simply repertoire or “fuel” for the classical guitar, so I called it Classical Gasoline.” Mason Williams’ day job was as a comedy writer and stand-up comedian who had lots of other projects besides writing a classical guitar instrumental.

It was Mason Williams’ work on the Smothers Brothers’ “Comedy Hour” which gave him the opportunity to have his pet composition heard by the American public. The original score of the piece shows only chords and a few notes. Mason Williams had a twenty-three year old composer named Mike Post finish off the arrangement.

At the Grammys it won Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Performance for Mason Williams and Best Instrumental Arrangement for Mike Post who has had a career full of triumphs in the field of TV theme music. His latest victory is the theme(s) for the “Law And Order” series.

Classical Gas has been employed as the theme music for several news programs, the background music for the Apollo 4 movie, and featured in a number of other movies and TV shows. Many people have mistakenly attributed Mason Williams’ solo version of the tune for a cover by Eric Clapton.

Despite the way it sounds, Classical Gas is not a difficult piece to play. Just take your time to go through the guitar tab, until you are sure you can hear the piece in your head as you go.
Here is a link to Classical Gas Tab at www.Ultimate-Guitar.Com
The YouTube video of Mason Williams playing Classical Gas was made in 2006.

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April 13, 2008

Learn classical guitar

Filed under: Classical Guitar - 13 Apr 2008

Trevor Maurice has been playing classical guitar since before he was born, and he is determined to share his love of classical guitar with the world. His website, learnclassicalguitar.com is home to all kinds of information and inspiration on the classical guitar. Trevor’s monthly e-zine contains:
“Information-Packed Articles - Tips on good classical guitar technique and practice…
Composer & Player Highlights - The background, the drama, their life and times. Just what made them “tick”?
Guitar Reviews - Guitars and classical guitar makers.
Other Guitar-Related Product Reviews - What’s the best equipment to use? How do you record the guitar properly? etc etc.
FREE Music - From the masters of classical guitar in both music notation and tablature. Just take your pick!”
You will find pages devoted to the use of the metronome, the difference between tab and music notation, how to play barre chords, basic flamenco technique and a boatload of other stuff. If you spend half an hour perusing Trevor’s site you will come away with a thirst to learn more about this wonderful instrument.
Visit the list of classical guitar related subjects on learnclassicalguitar.com!

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