Taking classical guitar lessons not only means that you'll be learning a specific kind of music but also that you'll be learning to play guitar with a well structured and unique approach to guitar technique. Some guitarists find that this is quite a rigid way to learn guitar while others enjoy the fact that every aspect from how to hold a classical guitar to the angle at which your right hand should be to the strings when plucking and so forth is clearly laid out in a system to follow. Learning to play classical guitar quite different from learning blues, rock, jazz or folk guitar.
Classical guitar lessons have a long history and stick closely to tradition. When you think about it, the classical guitar repertoire goes back hundreds of years and should you wish to be able to play works by the classical composers you'll have to learn classical guitar to do the harmonic movement within the music justice. There are many advantages to learning classical music regardless of your primary style on guitar, in fact, many famous rock players including Randy Rhodes spent much of their practice time playing classical guitar pieces in private guitar lessons while on the road touring. There's a wealth of information to be gained from learning how to play classical guitar including arpeggio patterns, broken chords, harmony and voice leading, melodic lines, control of tone and so forth. All of this knowledge can improve and influence your main guitar style no matter the genre.
Other players to incorporate classical guitar influences into their playing include Chet Atkins, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Hedges and Steve Howe. It can be tough to find a classical guitar instructor living locally to you so most students take on the task of teaching themselves to play the style.
How To Play Classical Guitar
In order to learn to how to play classical guitar properly you'll need to take serious note of your posture when playing guitar. This may include using such extra items as a foot stool so that the guitar can be held at the correct angle to your body. You'll also be learning much about guitar chords, counterpoint harmony, rest strokes and free strokes as well as arpeggio patterns and chordal voice leading.
Classical guitar is played on nylon string guitars which can go from being very economical to buy to costing tens of thousands of dollars for a concert classical guitar. It all depends on the brand, the woods used in its construction, where it was made and the hours devoted to its building.
To hold a classical guitar correctly you need to keep your posture straight and use a foot stool to help you angle the guitar correctly to your body. This angle also allows you to achieve the correct left hand position against the neck of the guitar and position your fingers correctly. The foot stool elevates your left leg about 6 inches above the ground and the back of the guitar rests against your right leg. It's a kind of technical balancing act but many renowned teachers refuse to give lessons to students until they have mastered how to hold the guitar correctly. The advantages it gives you is that your body and legs stabilize and take the bulk of the responsibility for holding the instrument leaving your hands free to play it. It also gives your left hand the correct playing angle against the strings which makes it much easier to play in higher positions, the 7th fret and beyond.
This kind of structure and tuition however is only followed by students interested in doing a full career as a concert classical guitarist. Most people just wanting to learn some classical guitar songs will not bother with it. It all depends on how serious you are about the style.
Classical Guitar TAB - Classical Guitar Tutorials
Much like learning piano it's essential that you are able to read traditional music notation as the majority of the classical guitar repertoire and sheet music is written in this format. You will find classical guitar tabs but they are not usually the 'real thing'. All serious students are expected to know or being willing to learn how to read music. It can be tough going at first especially if you are older and just getting started but in the long run you'll find the ability to read music tremendously empowering.
Since classical guitar is played with your fingers and does not use a pick or plectrum, much attention is given to the fingernails - their care and length. Your nails will affect the tone of your guitar playing, shorter nails will allow only for the flesh of your fingers to pick or pluck the strings and the resulting tone is mellow and soft. When only your nails hit the strings the tone becomes much louder and defined, even metallic. The ideal is to achieve a balance, most classical guitarists will grown their nails so the exact length whereby whenever they pick a string both the nail and flesh of the fingers is used. As you can imagine this is rather a fine balance and classical guitar players are therefore quite excessive in the the attention they give to fingernails and length. Get it right though and your classical guitar tone will be very pleasing and well rounded.
Only the nails on your right hand are grown, the left hand nails must be kept short so that you are able to fret notes cleanly. People learning flamenco guitar or Spanish guitar are also quite obsessive about their nails but there isn't the same kinds of restrictions regarding posture and how to position your fingers. Flamenco guitar lessons are more about the passion and delivery.
Classical Guitar Tone
Once you achieve the correct angle of your right hand to the strings at the sound hole you can easily alter your tone by changing your hand to pluck at different positions along the string. Playing directly over the sound-hole will produce a tone which is full of sustain, playing toward the back of the bridge will increase the brightness - reduce the sustain and make the sound more metallic. Playing more towards the neck will make things more mellow. Tone color is referred to as 'timbre'. When you are playing a classical piece with repeated sections it's nice to be able to vary your tone during the repetitions and the printed manuscripts will often give you indications of where to place your hand to achieve these different tones.
You'll be studying classical guitar lessons for many years to master the style, if it's even something which is possible to master. Very few people are able to get to that level. So long as it's your passion and the music you adore you'll enjoy the art and pleasure which comes from learning to play classical guitar. There aren't that many online guitar lessons for classical guitar so you're best bet is to teach yourself from books or attend a music school which offers courses of classical music lessons on different instruments. Good quality classical guitar teachers are probably thin on the ground as it's a specialized style of guitar playing. To get started straight away your best bet would be to find free guitar lessons on YouTube.
