The Element Of Practice: What To Practice.
Hi, how are you all doing? This mini "lesson" is for those of you wanting to start out in classical guitar. Before I begin, I just want to say that classical guitar (or guitar in general) is a discipline. If you want to get good, you must discipline yourself to practice. So I'll start off. First you should read two artcles that talk about practicing. If you want them just e-mail me and I'll happily send them to you. What they basically tell you is that you are your own teacher. That's right, you are your own teacher. I have a guitar teacher but I spend about 30 minutes with him in alesson once a week. The other 30 something hours that I practice, I'm alone by myself in my room practicing. So I'm basically teaching myself. Anyway you'll learn that in the articles if you read them. You should buy some books. For you extreme begginers I that have no knowledge of music at all you should get:
Julio Sagrera's First Lessons for Guitar. Even if you have more experience in guitar, the later studies in the book are very useful.
Also get Mauro Guiliani's 120 Studes for the Right Hand. The titel explains it. There are alternate fingerings for the right hand picking, I advise that you do those. PRactice these at 60bpm slower if it's too hard but never go above 60. LEarn one or two new ones a week until until you larn all 120 of them.
You should practice your basic stuff such as Chromative octaves which is more of a left hand study. Check out my guitar trick which talks about Chromatic Octaves.
Scales. Scales are utterly important! They help your fingers build strenght and coordination. I'll be posting up some scales for practcing soon. Oh yeah that reminds me, buy Andres Segovia's Diatonic Major and Minor Scales. I'll only be posting up two of them just to give you a taste of them. Practice them with accuracy.
That's all I can tell you right now. I advise that you get a good teacher who's in you're area to help you out. I said that you are your own teacher but it's good to get someone with experience to guide in your technique. Teachers will help you refine your technique and make sure you're doing everything right. Remember, Practice doesn't make perfect, Perfect PRactice makes perfect (I got this qoute from some one the message forums but I can't remeber who it is). You have to be rpacticing everything right in order to get good.
All the stuff I listed might seem like a little bit to practice, and yes it is a little bt to practice. THey are basically the basics of classical guitar. Once ou learn the basics, you'll get pieces down (Pieces are just a combination of different things such as arpeggios and scale rusn and such). Learning studies such as Fernado's Sor's Estudio No. 1 (which helps the left hand movement) and Carcassi' Allegro Brillante (I can't remember the study name but it helps out with Arpeggios) will also help you with individual things which will later come out in pieces. I' might add more later so see ya!
These examples cover the Lateral Inversions of 4 very common arpeggio forms. Tip/Note: These types are not actually lateral patterns but, they move laterally. Also learning these will help you remember all the positions of any given arpeggio of the same type, and how you can connect them, as well as learning the differences between their sound, shape, and feeling.
Key =
|A Maj|
E |-------0-5/9-5-------------------9-12/17-12-------------|
B |------2-------5----------------10----------14-----------|
G |-----2---------6--------------9--------------14---------|
D |----2-----------7-----------11-----------------14-------|
A |---4-------------7--------12---------------------16-12~-|
E |0-5---------------9-5/9-12------------------------------|
|A min|
E |-------0-5/8-5-------------------8-12/17-12-------------|
B |------1-------5----------------10----------13-----------|
G |-----2---------5--------------9--------------14---------|
D |----2-----------7-----------10-----------------14-------|
A |---3-------------7--------12---------------------15-12~-|
E |0-5---------------8-5/8-12------------------------------|
|A sus2|
E |-------0-5/7-5------------------7-12/17-12-------------|
B |------0-------5---------------10----------12-----------|
G |-----2---------4-------------9--------------14---------|
D |----2-----------7-----------9-----------------14-------|
A |---2-------------7--------12--------------------14-12~-|
E |0-5---------------7-5/7-12-----------------------------|
|Asus4|
E |-------0-5/10-5--------------------10-12/17-12-------------|
B |------3--------5-----------------10-----------15-----------|
G |-----2----------7---------------9---------------14---------|
D |----2------------7------------12------------------14-------|
A |---5--------------7-5-------12----------------------17-12~-|
E |0-5------------------5/10-12-------------------------------|
I don't know about you guys but I love lush chords I. e. min9, 11, 13 chords. With alterations as well (#'s, And b's). So now I am going to give you some "big" arpeggios to mess with the, first are 3 13th arpeggios. I'm throwing in an Ab augmented arpeggio, because it's a cool one.
Key =
E |-------------------------------|----------------------------------|
B |------3-7-3--------------------|----------5-----------------------|
G |-----4-----4-------------------|-------2-5-5-2--------------------|
D |--2-5-------5-2----------------|----3-5-------5-3-----------------|
A |-3-------------3---------------|-2-5-------------5-2--------------|
E |5---------------5--------------|3-------------------3-------------|
E |----------8-12-8---------------|--------8-12-8--------------------|
B |--------10------10-------------|-------9------9-------------------|
G |------10----------10-----------|------9--------9------------------|
D |--9-12--------------12-9-------|----10----------10----------------|
A |10----------------------10-----|7-11--------------11-7------------|
E |-------------------------------|----------------------------------|
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