Jazz Music

The classical guitar is a gift to the guitarist who wants to sit down and play a “complete” piece of music – melody, bass and chordal accompaniment on one guitar. Alot like the type of freedom that piano players have. If you are thinking of taking classical guitar lessons you have a tradition of composers and guitar players who have made full use of the incredible versatility of the guitar. Quite a few classical composers played and composed for the guitar. Niccolo Paganini is a famous example even though his guitar compositions are a little on the ordinary side for modern music lovers. A lot a lot more substantial compositions had been written by Antonio Vivaldi, Dionisio Aguado and Domenico Scarlatti.

So, apart from a hefty heritage left from the Baroque, Renaissance and Classical periods we have the ongoing work of twentieth and twenty-first century classical guitar players who are devoted to making the acoustic guitar an expressive instrument endowed with a natural beauty unaided by electronic wizardry. A classical guitarist aims at training his body to bring a range of forces to bear on the guitar so that he has a range of subtle techniques at his disposal to allow him and his guitar to say whatever they want.

All guitar players who take their instrument seriously have an capacity to produce and interpret music. This musical capability is a product of the time and effort put into practicing their guitar playing and experimenting with diverse techniques of playing music. In a sense a rock or jazz guitar player is on an equal playing field with a classical guitarist as far as the capability to interpret or create music is concerned. The rock or jazz guitar player will even have an benefit over the classical player as far as improvisation goes. Classical guitar lessons will not support you to improvise.

The distinction between a classical guitar player and a plectrum player is the groups of muscles employed to play classical guitar music. Somebody like Eric Clapton works alone at copying blues artists and in a couple of years he is a professional guitarist and in about ten years he is one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time. A classical guitar student may just be discovering his voice after ten years of playing. There is a lot more blood, sweat and tears involved in classical guitar lessons.

A classical guitarist needs to cultivate his fingernails. Or his fingertips. Whatever is on the ends of his fingers is where he makes physical contact with the guitar strings. There are ways of shaping them so they sound just appropriate. There are secret potions for making them impervious to cracking. And there is a entire art to playing the classical guitar without the benefit of nails. The attack made by nails on guitar strings is similar to that of a plectrum. The flesh of the guitarist’s fingertips gives a a lot softer tone. This is achieved over time and with a lot work. Callouses will eventually form on the fingertips which will lessen the discomfort felt by the guitar player and assist him make contact with the strings.

There are books readily available for anybody who wants to teach themselves classical guitar but it is a lot far better to discover from a seasoned classical guitarist. If you insist on learning from books, Frederick Noad’s “Solo Guitar Playing” is almost certainly the greatest of them.