How To Play Classical Guitar

When you consider learning how to play classical guitar it is good to have a little understanding of where the classical guitar differs from its contemporaries within the overall guitar culture.

The modern classical guitar has evolved over a period of more than four hundred years from the family of instruments known as chordophones such as the vihuela, Renaissance and Baroque guitars.
The characteristic shape of the modern classical guitar was introduced in the nineteenth century as the work of the Spaniard, Antonio Torres Jurado. It is because of its Spanish ancestry that today it is so often referred to as the Spanish Guitar. However the classical guitar has now developed into a truly international experience.

The strings of the classical guitar are primarily nylon and are played by plucking with the fingers or fingernails as opposed to the more usual guitar playing strumming techniques. The use of a plectrum as you learn how to play classical guitar would be most unusual.                                                                                              

As you learn how to play classical guitar you will                 CLICK HERE       appreciate that it is at its best as a medium for solo performance. The natural sound of the classical guitar, which is heard unamplified, has a very intimate and personal voice to it that is quite at odds with the noisy and complex world that we live in today.

It would be good to learn to read traditional music script if you are serious about learning how to play classical guitar. Classical music is not presented in guitar tablature but rather a specifically annoted traditional script. In classical guitar notation the specific fingers of the right hand used to play each note are indicated with one of four letters marked above the note. The four fingers are represented by the letters p, i, m and a. The thumb is represented by the letter p, which is in fact the first letter of the Spanish word pulgar meaning thumb. The index finger is represented by the letter i, for indice. The middle finger by m, for media and the ring finger by a, for anular. The little finger is not normally used when playing classical guitar.

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It is important as you begin learning how to play classical guitar that you adopt a habit of sitting in the right position to play. The classical guitar is not best played in a casual style as you might play perhaps an electric guitar.

It is best when first learning how to play classical guitar to sit towards the front of an upright chair with the left foot raised slightly, about six inches or so off the ground. This is most easily achieved with the aid of a footstool placed such that your lower leg is held perpendicular to the floor. The purpose of this set up is that you can then sit upright in a good posture to support the guitar on your left leg whilst your arms and hands are relaxed and free to play the instrument. The guitar should be positioned such that its head is held level with your shoulder and with the weight of your right arm resting on the top of the body of the guitar holding it securely in position to play.

Strange though it might seem, when learning how to play classical guitar you have first to grow and manicure the finger nails on your right hand! Because you pluck each string as you play classical guitar, the length of the nail will have a significant impact on the tone of the note. If the finger nail is too short, it is the fleshy part of the finger which strikes the string, resulting in a soft and mellow tone. If the nail is, on the other hand too long, then it is the nail which strikes the string producing a relatively sharp or metallic note. To produce a well rounded and pleasing sound the nail should be trimmed to be of the same height as the top of the finger and to be rounded to follow its profile. Played thus, it is both the flesh and the nail of the finger striking the string at the same time that produces the correct and recognisable tone of the classical guitar.

With your right hand now correctly manicured it has to be held in the right position if it is to achieve the true classical guitar sound. As you are learning how to play classical guitar you will need to play the strings in the classical style. The string must be plucked not strummed and to achieve this consistently the fingers must be held at right angles to the string they are playing. So you will hold your fingers very much above the strings and relatively straight compared to how you might have them were you strumming an electric guitar.                                                      CLICK HERE

There are essentially two plucking strokes to learn as you master how to play classical guitar. They are known as Free Strokes and Rest Strokes. Whilst both strokes produce a note they are notes of two very different styles.

With the Free Stroke the string is struck in a slightly upward angle such that the finger finishes up in the air just above the neighbouring string. This style produces the less emphasised notes in a piece. For more emphasis or volume the Rest Stroke is played where the string is struck parallel to the face of the guitar, the finger coming to rest against the next string. From this stroke comes the maximum volume of sound thereby accentuating the particular note in a piece.

When a note needs to be accentuated using a Rest Stroke the standard guitar notation shows an accent, shown thus,  > , above the note to be played, telling you to play it louder.

While all this is going on of course, your left hand has to be correctly held as it plays the frets as well. Here too it is important that the fingers come into contact with the strings and fingerboard at right angles to the board. The thumb should be kept behind the neck of the guitar to counter the pressure of your playing fingers. The position thus attained should remain constant and as the fingers find the frets up and down the neck the thumb should stay in its relative position behind the fretboard.

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To enjoy the undoubted pleasure of mastering the skills necessary to learn how to play classical guitar will require a great deal of dedication and practice. But you will also need some structure to your learning process. To have that structure will necessarily need you to take some lessons from a skilled and competent teacher. How will you do that?

You can of course take lessons either privately or in a group at perhaps a local school or college. The best learning experience will come on a one to one basis, but such lessons are very expensive. There is though an alternative. You can learn how to play classical guitar at home, at your own pace and at a time to suite yourself with the aid of a high quality and comprehensive multimedia course of instruction.

Such courses offer a wealth of information, instruction and practice material for you to pick up and use as the mood takes you. You can progress toward your goal of learning how to play classical guitar starting at whatever level you feel comfortable with. You do it at your own pace and you can do each module as many times as you feel you need to eventually arrive at your own desired skill level. You are in complete control.

Just such a course and a course that many, many people have found success with is from Legacy Learning Systems. Their Learn & Master Guitar Course is a complete course. It encompasses everything you could need to have success in learning how to play classical guitar. Take a look through the link below and judge for yourself. You have absolutely nothing to lose but you have an opportunity here to make your dream of learning to play guitar a reality and a reality today.

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