Classical Guitar

[ckledzepplin]

Does anyone else play classical guitar, or at least attempt it?

right now im learning a pretty easy song, Study in Am by Matteo Carcassi

[Duende]

yep another Classical Guitarist here!

 

Matt

[milod]

I've picked a little Bach...

 

And everything else I do for personal enjoyment is pretty much figuring fingerings for swing, blues and classic rock in a classical sort of style...

 

It's great fun.

 

m

[rocketman]

I tried it here and there. I'm actually a classically trained pianist who moved heavily into jazz. When I picked up the guitar I had nothing but rock in my eyes. Been trying a lot of blues and a bit a jazz these days on the guitar. But I'll pick up a classical tune here and there for fun.

 

BTW, listen to Sear play. He's phenomenal...

[ksdaddy]

I love classical guitars. My main one is a '58 Gibson C-6. I can't play classical music though, I'm more of a Willie player.

[djroge1]

I started learning to play classical guitar about 17 years ago but I didn't stick with it. I still have 2 classical guitars though.

[Homz]

For 30 years that's all I ever did. When I play electric it's like an entirely new instrument. That's why I pretty much suck. When I sit around the house I am usually playing classical stuff. The rhythms are like dreams.

[tuckomf]

When "The Purge" took place, very few acoustics remained on the island. One of the few was my Takamine classical. Like KSDaddy, I don't play classical music, but I love the tone and feel of nylon strings. When I'm camping or at the beach, I usually bring a classical along for impromptu jam sessions - especially the beach. You can bust out a Jack Johnson song and watch the ladies swoon.

[heymisterk]

I took lessons for years, and the techniques - slightly adapted - helped me greatly for what I play now, which is a lot of finger-picking folk music. I maintain that the best classical players are the BEST guitar players, over, done, pack 'em up and go home.

[Duende]

I think it is the ultimate style; because, it is just so damn helpful with so many other styles.

 

It has helped my electric playing loads!

People talk about 'tone' on electric guitar and the debate of does it come from fingers or amp etc but with Classical guitar it really does come from fingers!!

 

my favourite pieces at the moment for the Classical Guitar

 

Nocturnal-Benjamin Britten

El Decameron Negro- leo Brouwer

BWV 997-J.S Bach

Etude 5-Villa Lobos

 

Matt

[L5Larry]

I have a classical guitar (mid-grade Alvarez), but I don't play really classical music.

 

I mostly use it as a learning tool to improve both my left hand AND right hand techniques. A classical guitar is very unforgiving, and sloppy playing (either left or right hand) will sound like a pile of garbage. Playing this guitar has helped me improve my precision with left hand finger placement, and helped me improve my right hand fingerstyle (and of course the corelation between the two hands).

 

I'm all the way up to using THREE fingers on my right hand (well OK, two fingers and a thumb), but I'm not dead yet so there's still hope. I do think playing fingerstyle on a classical, whatever music genre, can be a great learning experience.

[milod]

Rocketman...

 

I just hit Sear's web references and you're right, the guy is awesome. Whew.

 

(Matt, Wow!)

 

m

[Flight959]

I dont have enough time to scratch my arse at the moment!

 

Classical is a true art form!!

[saturn]

When I took lessons back in the day, my teacher taught me classical fingerpicking and it helped me a lot. I learned a few songs from him like The Spanish Ballad, Minuet in B minor, Bach's bouree, Classical Gas and some others that I can't remember the names of. Except for trying to read the sheet music, I actually find playing classical style easier than rock, blues or jazz.

[milod]

I was always interested more in a "fingerpicking" style than flatpicking, although I've done the latter in rock, bluegrass and "old time" bands or with old time fiddlers.

 

Listening to an old Youtube interview with Roy Buchanan, whom I consider one of the finest "mostly flat pick" players around and yet one who used fingers as well to get double stops, etc., I was intrigued by his preference for the Tele neck width.

 

Here's how I see it: If you're really into single string type work - including double stops - you may be quite happy with a more curved fingerboard and use of the thumb to fret lower notes; if you "think" in terms more of barre chords, you'll be happier with a flatter and perhaps somewhat wider neck.

 

I think a lot has to do with how you think.

 

I personally "think" chords, more like a piano bar player. On the other hand there are times I'm doing some sorts of stuff that likes the thumb on bass strings better than a full barre. (Which is why in my only two official classical guitar lessons, Parkening told me I'd played too much bluegrass which was, at the time, only too true.)

 

Since I'm entirely self-taught in an isolated part of the country with very few other finger style guitarists to emulate, I guess you might suggest I do a semi-classical sort of style - but that on much of what I play, I'm really playing piano on a guitar. I wish I were as good as, for example, Chet Atkins who sounds more like he's playing guitar, or Joe Pass who seemed to know every possible 3-string inversion of every possible chord.

 

OTOH, I also listen to some of the old bluesmen - or whatever you might call Mississippi John Hurt and Gary Davis - who did some really neat stuff fingerstyle and unschooled at "music."

 

Why don't I do more flatpick stuff beyond basic bluegrass or Carter Family picking?

 

I think it's because that's not where my head is. I've actually tried but things sound better to me, at least, if even in a more or less single string blues lead, I use fingers and "think" barre chords. I just don't "work" at that. Maybe it's because I'm more of a solo guy conceptually than a "group" guy.

 

I dunno... I do think a lot has to do overall with how your head works. I listen and watch good single/double string flatpickers and I'm in awe. Kessel and Ellis come to mind as much as Buchanan or whomever.

 

Then I think, "Well, what kinda music do you like to play," and it comes down to heavy "piano chord" type things on a guitar whether I'm doing a jazz thing or a cowboy song.

 

I think what you hear is what you do. You can learn technique and play exceptionally well if it's not part of your vision, but you will do best and feel most expressive if you do what's more natural in your head. That's why exposure conceptually to different styles of guitar playing likely is the best thing to do if you have the opportunity.

 

Given that I "grew up" as a guitar player during the folk music heyday and had a year or two of watching a lot of that stuff in college or on vacation at the Club 47 in Cambridge, Mass., I think it was kinda natural to do fingerpicking for me - at least as natural as Carter Family style or "folk-country" flatpicking. (And look at old videos of Mother Maybelle - she's using a thumb pick and fingerpicks, guitar and autoharp. That fits, as does 5-string banjo playing.)

 

Also, an early influence in ways was why Leadbelly said he liked the 12-string, and it was to get the heavy alternating bass of piano players of his youth.

 

Again... it's what you wanna "hear" yourself play. I always heard a solo guitar heavy on chords and a kinda piano style even for backing up vocals. I think the single string folks tend more to think of "group" music making and I'm perhaps too much of a lobo.

 

So .... I dunno. I wish I could do it all... <grin>

 

BTW, L5Larry... Merle Travis mostly just used his thumb and one finger, so don't feel bad.

 

m