Studying a new guitar genre is almost like learning a new language, or at least a new dialect. By guitar genre I mean a type of music: Blues or Jazz, Folk, Rock, Gypsy Jazz, or Classical. Those genres all make use of the same notes and chords and even often use the same music and songs – what changes from one genre to another is technique, how you play the instrument, including how the player sits or stands, holds the instrument, plucks the strings with fingernails or plectrum. The difference in genre is not limited to the music played, but the type of guitar used and how you play it, which is known as technique. Over time, the changing build of guitars has enhanced an emphasis on genre specialization, so it’s hard if not impossible, for example, to transfer a screaming metal solo played on a Flying V over a huge amplifier to a nylon string Classical instrument played without amplification. I’ve little to say about which genre is “better.” They are simply different and call for different approaches, for both playing and listening, and at the same time share similarities.
A studied focus on the Classical guitar will reveal the history of the guitar and guitar music in a way the other genres might miss. As an example, I’ll share an online resource for learning and enjoying the Classical guitar. You don’t have to be a guitarist to enjoy this: The resource is This is Classical Guitar, by Bradford Werner, guitarist, guitar instructor, and music publisher. There are free lessons available, linked to the This is Classical Guitar YouTube channel, including performance and discussion notes and sheet music. But the site is full of resources and information and designed for all levels and interests. One feature I’ve enjoyed via Bradford’s newsletter is the featured artist selection, which amounts to a curated listening experience – in other words, rather than randomly searching around for vital links, the listener benefits from Bradford’s expertise in selecting and presenting what’s usually of special interest.
My first Classical guitar instructor was a mild mannered player named James. You had to take your shoes off to enter his house. To this day I prefer playing with my shoes on. But James taught me some good stuff. At the first lesson he asked why I wanted to study Classical guitar, and I said I wanted to learn to read music and understand theory and to play beautifully. He said you won’t learn much about theory; theory is what the composer is responsible for. As for playing beautifully, you can do that now. He also advised I get a better guitar. One day, out of character, he chided me for playing too quietly. We used the Aaron Shearer Book One and the Frederick Noad books and also the Leo Brouwer etudes (1972, Estudios Sencillos Nos. 1–10), which were my favorite pieces to study and play. I learned the positioning and fingering of the Diatonic Major and Minor Scales by Andres Segovia (1953, Columbia Music). And we also practiced the fingering exercises of Manuel Lopez Ramos, the idea there to avoid having the fingers default to any kind of set pattern, each finger independent of the others. One day, I told James I enjoyed playing the exercises more than working on the music, to which he voiced disapproval. James moved away and passed me on to another instructor, Marshall, who used to say when I played a new piece, “Well, you found all the notes.” I was on my third instructor, Brian, when I got a new job and could no longer afford the time for lessons and practice. I still have the “better” guitar James encouraged, found for me by Marshall, which I purchased used, a Takemine C132S, built in 1977.
Of course the best guitar is the one that gets played. You need to leave it out where you can pick it up anytime you walk by, and not worry about nicks and dings and such. Not leave it cased up in the closet or under a bed.
Classical style guitar might require the most exacting technique. The music written for Classical guitar is often technically difficult. In other words, it’s hard to play. But when James said I could play beautifully now, he meant the music doesn’t have to be complex to be beautiful, it can be simple, and if I paid attention to what I was doing, I could express the music with beautiful tone and grace. A few notes is all you need. An example of a simple piece is found in the Noad book “Solo Guitar Playing I” (my copy is 1976, Schirmer Books). The piece is titled “Lagrima,” and is by Francisco Tarrega. Everyone plays it these days. It’s sort of the “Stairway to Heaven” for beginning Classical players. But it’s the first piece that I could play that I could also hear an expert play. It was on a Julian Bream vinyl record I had at the time. Julian Bream did as much as Andres Segovia to popularize the Classical guitar and its music. When Julian went to music school, guitar was not taught, indeed was frowned upon. One of the problems with Classical guitar is it’s quiet compared to other instruments and difficult to hear in an ensemble.
I picked up a used copy of Studi Per Chitarra by Dionisio Aguado (1972, Suvini Zerboni, Intro. by Ruggero Chiesa) and showed it to James. He picked out just five of the 51 pieces and said to work on those. I memorized Number 1 and still play it almost daily, straight or improvising freely. It’s a very simple piece and easy to play. James recommended a book on the history of the guitar. I checked it out from the library. Alas, I forget now its title. But I remember reading in it a passage on a typical day for Andres Segovia. He was said to begin his day reading manuscripts and notating works. Then he played and attended to business. Taught and went about his day. But what I remember most is that he was said to end every day in the evening just before bed playing a piece just for himself. At one, I imagined, with his guitar, an at-one-ness most of us never quiet attain with our guitars, wrestling as we do with our chairs and footstools and strings and cracked fingernails and music too difficult for our technical abilities. And it’s then we might remind ourselves the guitar is a folk instrument.
The Coming of the Toads 