Learning Classical Guitar

Welcome to the Classical Guitar Essentials, the beautiful instrument that has enchanted millions of people with its sound. I designed a method to help you learning classical guitar fast, and I mean fast like in two months or less!

You have decided to move from the category of listeners to the category of players, you want to play these tunes yourself and hear them live near you.

Whatever I write, the feeling that you are playing your favorite tunes on the guitar cannot be described in words, all I can say is that it is a magical feeling.

In my teaching experience of over 15 years, I encountered all kinds of enthusiasts. Unfortunately, most of them never make the journey.

I am not telling you this to discourage you, but this is the truth. Learning classical guitar is like a sport. Has everyone who went to the gym become a champion in bodybuilding? Of course not, it depends on two main factors: commitment and ambition.

Some go to the gym to lose weight, others go to make friends, and few go to have an athletic body. You will determine the extent of your commitment to the guitar, whether you will learn or not, how many hours you will practice per week, will you stop at the first obstacle or will you continue the path.

The same is true of ambition, as there are those who aspire to be skilled player who plays whatever they hear, and some want to play or hum simple pieces, and there are those who want the guitar just to be seen as a means of acquaintance with girls!

You will start a very interesting journey in learning classical guitar, but most if not everything you will read or hear on this journey will be new to you.

I don’t think you remember what you were told in unnecessary music classes at school! Even if you remember a little of it we won’t use it here in this course.

I hated music classes and all the music teachers over the years, because they didn’t teach us anything concrete, or heighten our sense of music. The important thing is, I will give you the information that will enable you to play the instrument in a practical way.

How do you speed up the learning process?

Time frame

There are 5 sections, each of which is written under the length of time required to learn it. There is a section that will take you a week to learn, and there is a section that will take you 3 weeks to learn.

This period is hypothetical or based on guesswork. If you are busy with studies or work, you can finish the section in more than the specified period.

There is no need to hurry, but on the contrary, I want you to take your time to learn and review the sections that you finished more than once until it’s concrete.

Practice

The other thing is practicing, if you don’t set aside a certain time in the day to sit with the guitar and practice, your level will not progress and this will reflect on your performance, and after a while, you will get frustrated because you are playing the same exercises, and then you will leave the guitar or make it a decorative piece at home!

Allocate a fixed time, and let it be 15 minutes a day to play the classical guitar, and choose a time when you are not tired, that is, it is not the end of the day when you are about to sleep. I’m not telling you to make it your top priority, but don’t make it your last.

It is better to practice 15 minutes each day, rather than an hour and a half in one day and leave the guitar for the rest of the week. You are building a relationship between your fingers, your eyes, and your brain, and the best way to build this relationship is to exercise daily or at least 3 times a week if you are busy, and every time you practice you will find yourself getting better.

When they asked Pablo Casals, who was 80, why he practiced the cello for five hours a day – he is considered one of the greatest players of this instrument – he answered: “I think I see improvement.”

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I’ll start with you from scratch but I won’t dwell on the details, just what you need to start playing right away.

I have explained from the first string until the fourth only, and I left the fifth and sixth strings for the second part of the article. If you played all the exercises and pieces, I advise you to continue because you have come a good way, and most beginners do not reach this point.

So, here we go.

Section one: The right start

(Expected learning period: one week)

There are 3 main types of guitars: Classical Guitar, Electric Guitar, and Acoustic Guitar. The difference between them is in the quality of the strings and the sound that comes out of them, but the similarity between them is great in the names of the parts and the technique.

Here are the most important parts of a guitar and their names:

Names of the Strings

It is very important that you know the names of the strings, so the next step will be to tune them using the Tuner, starting from the sixth string (the thick string) to the first string (the thin string).

The names of the strings are as follows:

Yes, there are two strings called E, but one of them is thick and the other is thin.

Now it’s time to tune the strings, without this step your guitar will always sound bad and you will think the fault is in you and not the guitar!

Tuning the strings with a free app

When the strings are tuned correctly, the guitar is Intune, meaning that each string is tuned to the correct pitch, and vice versa, when the guitar is not tuned, it is Out of tune, meaning that one or more strings are incorrect.

In this step, you will need an application on the mobile (or you can buy a tuner from the music store), never use your ear in this step, not yet generally because you are still at the beginning and need help.

The app is called Guitar Tuna and it is free, and it is considered one of the best guitar tuning apps out there.

It will be difficult for me to explain in writing how to tune the strings, it is easier to watch it through this video:

It will take some time at first, but with practice, it will only take a few minutes.

Remember, it’s important that the guitar is tuned every time you practice otherwise, your guitar will sound different than mine.

The Playing Position

Follow all the instructions in the picture to ensure the stability of the guitar while playing the classical guitar.

It is very likely that the sitting will be uncomfortable at first, adjust the height of the footrest until you reach a comfortable position. It is preferable that the chair is without arms as in the picture, and that it be padded for more comfort, as you will sit in this position while learning classical guitar and practicing.

Fingers Names – PIMA

These names are universal, the right hand is the word PIMA, and the left-hand numbers. They must be memorized because all the lessons are based on them.

First Right Hand Technique – Rest Stroke

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Section Two: Reading Sheet Music

(Expected learning period: two week)

You chose to play the guitar, so you tacitly decided to become a musician, and all musicians read notes because it is simply the language of music.

The subject is not as difficult as you think, music is a language like any other, and I will try to make it simple and give you just what you need to play, and I will not burden you with complex theories that you will not need now.

There is another reading system called TABS, which is spread on the Internet, and many books are using it now mainly for Acoustic Guitar. It is much easier than notes and can make you play pieces in a short period of time, which may be a few hours! So why don’t we use it?

Because it tells you where to play, but not the time period for each note. It depends that you already know the melody and that you will rely on your ear to play the melody.

This is, of course, a wrong way to play, but with the notes, you can play whatever you want because you learned on the right foundations.

Also, the rest of the musicians read the notes. If you play with other musicians, you will have to communicate with them in the same language. Don’t you think that makes sense?

How the music is written?

The music is written on a stave consisting of 5 lines and 4 spaces. Music is read from left to right, never the other way around.

The note can be on a line or a space and each of them has its own independent letter. Music letters are the English letters from A to G, then repeat again, and so on.

The position of the note on the line or space gives the tone or melody, and it looks like this:

The Rhythm

The music consists of melody and rhythm, the position of the note gives the melody, and the shape of the note gives the rhythm.

There are many rhythms, but we will suffice with the following only:

Each rhythm can be on any line or space, so you know the location of the note (tone) and its rhythm (how many beats), so you can play any melody even if you have not heard it before.

The music also consists of rests, so sometimes you should not play for a certain period of time. The notes tell you when to play, and the rests tell you when not to play.

Time Signature

Treble clef means that you play a treble instrument such as guitar, violin, or right-hand in piano. As for the Time Signature, it determines the number of beats or the time in each bar. For example:

4 over 4 means (pronounced 4-4), there are 4 quarter notes per bar (or equivalent). It can be one note with a time of 4 (whole note), or 2 half notes, or 2 quarter notes and one half note.

The important thing is that the sum of the beats in the bar equals 4. The rests can also replace the notes, as they take the same time, and the following is a table that summarizes the notes and rests in a 4-4 time signature.

This is simply all you need to know to start learning classical guitar. Later, I will give you more when the need arises, but for now, we shall begin the journey of playing.

We will repeat the first exercise, but this time using the musical notes. To make it easier, I colored each string a different color.

Remember to use the i and m fingers of the right hand as if you were walking on a string.

You are now reading the notes and playing the right hand as well as playing different rhythms. Now it’s time to switch to the left hand and learn each string separately.

We will cover this in the second part of the article.

If you reach this far I would like to congratulate you, honestly. Please leave a comment or a question and I will reply to you as fast as I can.