Classical Guitar Lessons - Where Will They Take Me?

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 kind 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. Many 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. Much more substantial compositions were 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 enable him and his guitar to say whatever they want.

All guitar players who take their instrument seriously have an ability to create and interpret music. This musical ability is a product of the time and effort put into practicing their guitar playing and experimenting with different ways 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 ability to interpret or create music is concerned. The rock or jazz guitar player will even have an advantage over the classical player as far as improvisation goes. Classical guitar lessons will not help you to improvise.

The difference between a classical guitar player and a plectrum player is the groups of muscles used to play classical guitar music. Somebody like Eric Clapton works alone at copying blues artists and in a few 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 might just be finding his voice after ten years of playing. There is much 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 right. There are secret potions for making them impervious to cracking. And there is a whole 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 much softer tone. This is achieved over time and with much work. Callouses will eventually form on the fingertips which will lessen the discomfort felt by the guitar player and help him make contact with the strings.

There are books available for anybody who wants to teach themselves classical guitar but it is much better to learn from a seasoned classical guitarist. If you insist on learning from books, Frederick Noad's "Solo Guitar Playing" is probably the best of them.