Welcome to Gaia! ::

If anyone's interested:

Two gorgeous classical guitar solos (both grade eight)

Cavatina by Stanley Myers. Used on the film Deer Hunter, and played by John Williams at one of the first Amnesty International concerts.

This piece is really nice and not too technically demanding. Well, it requires very good left-hand technique, but there aren't many nasty surprises.

Homenage (Le Tombeau do Claude Debussy) by Manuel de Falla. This piece, on the other hand, is very technically demanding. It uses techniques that I've never even heared of, and the timing is increadibly specific (when you hear a recording of it it sounds like the timing is free and expressive, but it's not - it's actually very rigid; just rigid in an unexpected way).

However, there are lots of nice, easy open strings, and it sounds pretty damn good (when played properly). Also, by the time you've learned to play this piece, correctly following all of the little details, you'll almost definately be a better musician.

Your best bet would be some kind of class, or a book.

Classical guitar music is written on a stave, which is five horizontal lines quite close together. The notes go on the spaces in between the lines, and on the lines themselves. The easy way to remember which notes go in the spaces is like this: the bottom space is F, the second one up is A, the one up from that is C, and the top space is E. This spells FACE.

C______________________
E______________________
C______________________
A______________________
F______________________


The way to remember the names of the notes that go on the lines is this: the bottom line is E, the second one up is G, the one up from that is B, the next one is D, and the top line is F. That gives you E, G, B, D, F - you can remember that with the sentence: Every Green Bus Drives Fast.


F-----------------------------
D-----------------------------
B-----------------------------
G-----------------------------
E-----------------------------

(Just ignore the fact that the lines on the second "stave" are dashes instead of underscores - it was the only way I could make them line up properly with the letters).



Next, you have to know what the open strings look like.

When you play string one, without fretting it, the note that you hear is an E, which is the top space (on the first diagram).

When you play string two without fretting it, the note is a B, which is the middle line (on the second diagram).

String three is a G, which is the second lowest line (2nd diagram).

String four is a D, which is just under the lowest line, as shown below:

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
D


when you have to add lines above or below the stave, they are called "ledger lines".

String 5, which is an A, is on the second ledger line below the stave, as shown below:


------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
--------------
----------A---


String 6, which is an E, is below the third ledger line below the stave:


_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
-------______
-------______
-------______
----------E


So, that's the very basics. Next week, left-hand-fingering and the scale of C major xd

If he doesn't bring in the book, then there are pleanty of "learn classical guitar" books out there if you're willing to pay a bit of money. I had lessons, but my teacher taught me through books called "The Guitarst's Way". At least, they were the books he started me on.

[ Message temporarily off-line ]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]

im probably not getting one, but im still looking.

crafter ffx550-eq.

i own one, its brilliant.

check it out, go for a test play somewhere.

[ Message temporarily off-line ]