Classical Guitar

hey i wanab get into playing classical guitar to see what its like, what is the difference, is ther diff chords (compared to rock) like whats the diff, besides the odvious less disotrtion nd all tht, like its very pretty, who are some pioneers? when i think classical i think motzart, chopain, shubert, brahms...ect am i right? how do u play tht on guitaar, also randy rhoads was very interested in classical guitar, any 1 know who he listend to classicly, thnx.

Here's a good site for classical songs: classtab.org

One of the harder things to get used to is that it's fingerpicked vs. flatpicked, and you have to sometimes play more than one thing at once. Like you could play a bass-line type thing on the low strings and a melody on the high strings. I suck so badly at it. :P

rock and roll is basically like kindergarten of music if you want to play classical it will take hours of study each day now if you wish to learn your theory i got books i can recommend if you want to do it yourself or get a teacher. now if you just wish to learn a song to impress people bach's bourre in e minor is nice and fairly easy to learn playing wise. i would also tell you reading dots is a must no exceptions if you can't already

finger picking really isn't that hard if you devote time to it. most people learn flat pick and when they can't get finger picking right away they quite and start playing flat pick again. only through persistence can any thing be learned or understood

get the Segovia Method. and then do it for 2 hours a day.

also, randy rhoads passion was in classical guitar. he didn't even LIKE the music he made for ozzy, much less metal in general.

don't get me wrong i like Segovia but his methods are horrible. they give him his sound but in generally i wouldn't study it. plus i love flamenco much more

i also heard his teaching was quite bad, but hey what ever works, works

am i right to think what im saying (bach, mozart, beethoven, chopain....ect are classical or is tht only piano.)

and randy did like metal, he liked whitesnake, alice cooper, led zep, he like rock nd metal, he liked what he did for ozzy, but he LOVED classical, and i do too. i grew up with it, id like to get into it again. keep mentioning begginer things for me to play, i have a teahcer and am learinging music theory, another thing is that my music theory teach said to me classical is the bassis of everything musically, rock jazz blues ect are just methods, u need to know ur classics to get really good, i said tht makes sense, i like acctually love classical music but i hide it (not the most popular thing u know) and nw i want to play it.

don't think in methods ever BAD BAD BAD. classical is by no means the basics for all music that's just dumb don't listen to that. and yes they are all classical/Baroque and i think Beethoven latter stuff is romantic could be wrong through. i cite Bach a lot for the guitar because in the Baroque period people played the lute alot and Bach liked the 6 sting lute which is where the guitar gets it's tuning from (the fours and third jump not the e a d g b e part) and wrote many comps for it ( side note Segovia loved and covered bach all the time)

o and never hide who you are if you ever want to be anybody or lie and make yourself bigger then you are and more importantly everybody else

what music was before classical? theory? undestanding? it made sense to me.

i know over the years of me not listening to classical made me go to the next best thing, rock. i have been listening to classical, my dad. when i was 3 i would stand in front of the tv conducting symphonies. i knew the timings, understood it, heard and knew every part and loved it. i became older and just well hd no way of listening to it and lost intrest. now i want to again. my biggest joy besides in my family and all that is music. isnt there tht song tht u love so much u hear it and u quake, ur body shivers, takes you somewhere else, u lose reality, then when you come back you think for a moment you were the music. i love music, hearing is one of te first senses to develop in a fetus. i do not intend to waste mine on garbage. any 1 have a song where u listen to it and you just let go? just release your body, close your eyes and listen, you cant tell some 1 to love it, it just happens, like it was always in your body just cant find it. some pieces of music are like that for me, classical, and rock. i want to learn it play it, write it, i want to do it. w//o music idk what id do. like a hole in a rowboat. music is the plug.

don't listen to RA; he is a bad influence, and is speaking foolishness.

while learning to play rock music can be approached haphazardly, because shitty rock bands have set the standard and bar for rock extremely low, classical music can not be approached in such a casual manner. Segovias is well known to have been one of the very finest teachers, and his studying material is rock solid, and held in the highest regard - and for good reason.

the classical era of music created the foundation of Western Harmony. before that, music was unrecorded, not understood, simple, instinctive. then, study into music yielded results, and we have all of the basic theory we use commonly today. innovation and study still goes on; Jazz is the biggest addition to classical theory since the original era, and there are pioneers whose work has been unpotentiated - such as schoenberg and his tonal matrices.

for playing, you will need to learn finger style. i really suggest you buy a nylon guitar; yamaha's are the best for beginners. i have a 100 dollar new yamaha, that has no projection but is fine for practicing until you deserve a nice guitar.

for learning finger style, you will need a teacher, even if it is a dead one. study segovia's teachings; do his scale methods with a metronome, slowly and then quicker as you get better.

once you are getting along well there, learn his etudes/studies. they are not 'songs' per say, since they aren't meant to be performed, but merely to give you a well rounded piece to practice that is interesting to play.

once you have accomplished this, you should be able to read sheet music fast enough to slowly play through a piece while you memorize it. at this point, learn whatever songs you love best.

once you can play, if you wish to compose, you will need to study as intensely as you play. i highly suggest taking music classes in high school, and even if you can't afford college, here's a hint: you can sit in on lectures and classes if they are fairly large, and nobody notices. you can learn for free... and a arts degree is useless anyways. i've done this at my community college. finding a copy of "Elie Siegmeisters harmony and melody volume 1: the diatonic style"
and religiously studying it is highly recommended.

the modern era of music is no worse then the classical era - this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI7btzhoYY0

was writ only a century ago, and buckethead is still making 15 albums a year, and he is a genius on the level of bach or haydn - not only a composer of the most innovative, creative and genius variety, but the finest virtuoso of the modern world.

ah we seem to have a die hard Segovia fan. i'm sorry but for his time his translation were top notch now in days if you were to play his stuff note for note you would not be taken seriously. and many of his students notably John Williams have criticized his teaching, but like i said before i like Segovia and if you can learn music from him great he was a great musician. also before the classical era was the Baroque era and it is far more technical then any music up until jazz (in western music at lest, traditional Indian is far more advanced than any western form). that and the only thing that jazz shares with classical music is the diatonic scales everything else is different

@grx, caan i listen to how those pieces sound first?

RA, the baroque era was ornate and complicated, but the theory behind it is no deeper then any other common practice era. indian music is different, but amounts to no more then folk music. jazz is 75% basic music theory, the same as classical, applied in conjunction with the many additional things that is involved in jazz. and whether or not you are taken seriously by hacks and pedants is of no concern; virtuosity can not be antiquated. john Williams would not be what he was if Segovia had not been harsh with him.

you are incorrect on all accounts.

John Williams seems like he was forced to play guitar. He shows off his technical skills with guitar but he shows no emotion.

@ Baudelaire: Where could I find some free Segovia lessons?

ehh, i had to buy the book, it wasn't much - 10 bucks i think. i couldn't find free ones.

typed a post but when i hit post it didn't who knows? PCs are dumb.
to sum it up i don't think Segovia is the best teacher i too don't like john Williams but his playing is of no importance. Indian music is folk music and you will do well to not dismiss something that uses a a 19 or 14 (can't remember and too lazy to do math and sometimes a 51 to get those sweet tones you know) semitone scale and an different rhythmic form. Jazz's foundation is in the Blues and all music has the same basic theory and by no means dose that mean they are alike.

but hey even if we don't see eye to eye we both agree sg customs are sweet and that's all that matters


i had i big post that explained alot but in my summery i forgot to say that most transcribers show no emotion that is why i always favor improvisers

jazz's foundation is NOT in the blues. they both have the same heritage of western music, but they are not related as you say. just because both were started by blacks does not mean they are the same.

music isn't more complex or better just because they divide the octave differently. it's still just simple folk music that sounds strange to our ears. they have nowhere near the compilation of knowledge of musical order that we do. i'd like to hear a good reason why the indians music is of any special value.

a transcriber isn't supposed to show emotion... he's supposed to, as accurately as possible, arrange music for one instrument for another.

I think you can download sound clips for some of them (directly off of the site). You could probably search the song on Google or Youtube as well.

kool. is ther anything special i should know not in that guys program which is comfuzing me.

the only thing i can tell you EMB is to learn to read music then find the best way you can think of to learn music by any means. you say your father is a classical player ask him I'm sure he has a wealth of knowledge (no pun intended) my only recommendation to study Bach but don't get to overwhelmed by his stuff people have spent life times trying to fully understand it (he has like hundreds of chorals).

as for Baudelaire your remark about jazz shows you have no idea what your talking about just type jazz in Google it's foundation is in blues not just started by blacks (quite racist i might add) as for Indian music i don't feel i could do it Justice to explain (i admit the scale remark was quite childish but i found it interesting) just do research into to it or not do what you want with it. as for emotion i find Segovia music to be quite emotional and to my knowledge he never wrote anything or anything i have listen from him
and never hold yourself higher then others or other cultures it leads to very bad things and with that i'm done with this i hoped i helped EMB but i feel as though i just confused you

no, jazz's foundation is NOT in blues. it's simply not a fact. many people believe it, but it's not the case. and it's not racist to give credit to black community for inventing jazz around the turn of the century. the black community did, in fact, create it. to say that the foundation of jazz is in blues is utterly ridiculous; the only thing they have in common is some african influence such as complicated rhythms and certain note tendencies at times, that slaves brought over as part of their culture.

as for indian music, there ain't much to explain. it's folk music. the western culture long since reached greater heights of self expression through the study of order in music.

'holding yourself higher then others or other cultures'? i don't hold myself higher then other people, but cultures can be good/bad/better/worse. music is subjective, but with our knowledge, we have empowered the western musical artist with tools beyond the scope of indian musicians. i'm not saying their music is bad, i'm just saying it's not impressive or better by any stretch of the mind.