I, like alot of boys around my age [18 on 20th], can play a bit of guitar. I always prefered folk music to rock so I play a steel string acoustic, I also finger pick [never bother to learn a plectrum why restrict yourself to one picking instrument when you have 4/3 usable fingers]. I wouldn't mind Trying to learn classical guitar and while I realise the two are linked I know that being able to play some chords/finger pick a few simple patterns is probably worlds away from what I've heard classical guitar playing to consist of so far.

How easy is it to go from one to the other? I really don't want to bother doing Grade 1, how difficult is something like Grade 5? How big an undertaking would it be to get myself to that standard.

Has it affected the way anyone would play 'conventional' guitar? Is it a worthy thing to do, I mean I could devote the effort to learning another instrument.

Also how much money should I spend on a classical guitar, I really don't see this as my principal instrument, I would just like a go.

Thanks, Martin.

Devote yourself to electric guitar instead Go watch Brian May live, you'll be inspired!

Is it a steel string acoustic or semi acoustic you've been playing on? And what kinds of things have you been playing? Have you been reading music, or tab?

I used to play folkstyle, but mostly on nylon strings, also fingerstyle. But I based it on my very basic classical technique (which I learned when I was quite small, but didn't really stick with).

I think there's little to beat good classical guitar music, from an experiential perspective. It's a beautiful sound, the complex harmonies are fantastic, and it has a real sense of intimacy that's often lacking in other instruments. It is of course primarily a solitary instrument, so I guess part of the answer to your question about this vs another instrument would lie in what it is that you want to play for. If you're wanting to make music in groups, you might want to consider an orchestral instrument.

If it's the classical guitar you want to play, I'd say get on with it. It's not an easy instrument, but it's very rewarding.

(And sorry, Freda, the comment about electric is just a bit daft, isn't it? I could say much the same thing about going and watching Julian Bream...)

re the instrument - if you don't want to spend a lot and want a decent playable guitar, I'd have a look at the Peres classical guitars. I bought mine for about £150, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm outgrowing it now, but it's got me fairly far.

Haha 150 is still alot more than I'd like to pay, I suppose that's a reality of wanting to learn an instrument though. I don't have alot of interest in playing in an orchestra, so I suppose it suits that. Thanks for the feeback.

Give it a go! You’ll find a lot of classical guitars at astonishingly cheap prices (it seems to me). They won’t sound brilliant but they’ll do for now. If you buy 2nd hand do the normal checks you’d do with any guitar – is the fingerboard straight, are the frets in the right place (i.e. is the note on the 12th fret the same as the harmonic) etc. You’ll know about all this from playing acoustic.

You’ll find that your knowledge of chords is useful: it’s a lot quicker to recognise that the music asks for a A7 chord with an F sharp on the 1st string than to work out where each finger goes from scratch – once you recognise it on the score.

A problem you might have in transferring (I did) is that your right wrist is too close to the soundboard which means you pull the string up rather than pushing it down into he soundboard. The result is a sort of twanging sound, or it can even slap on the fingerboard. (Nearly all the volume in a classical guitar comes from movement perpendicular to the soundboard. In an electric nearly all the movement has to be parallel to the fingerboard).

If you’re looking for a tutor (book) I like Fredrik Noad’s “Solo Guitar Playing” which you’ll get in any music shop.

Good luck with it. I hope you enjoy it.

Does anybody have a recording of a classical guitar piece that is roughly grade 5 standard they coult upload [at www.sendspace.com or something similar], so I can hear what I would have to emulate. I'd be very thankful.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

I'm sure if you look at the exam pieces of the various boards you'll find most of them on YouTube. There's an enormous amount of stuff there and a lot of the recordings are excellent.

Thanks for the advice, I should have thought of that.


Haha two completely different interpretations:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tgua3w4g6f0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SrhBx0qnWnw

Well it's certainly not easy, I'm fairly confident I could get myself to that standard within a year though.

Edit: I've been looking around, these pieces are alot of fun.

Well - certainly different speeds! I like Peo Kindgren's playing but he does go at this piece with ... gusto.

This Almain isn't as hard as it looks. It's based around a few chords (Am, G, C, E, Em, F, Dm, not necessarily in that order). At least the version I play is. Once you've learned the first eight bars the rest should fall into place.

I think I'd like to give it a go, they give lessons at my school I'll look into it. One thing that frustrates me that tab is simply a better way to notate guitar music and I'll have to devote time to learn to read score with respect to a guitar [I already can for piano; I mean relating notes on stave to notes on guitar]. Then again my friend merely wrote out his pieces in tab and then memorized them, haha.

Glad you're going for it. One point - when you get the sheet music for the Almain make sure it's in standard tuning. Lute music (which this is) is often transcribed using a different tuning with the 3rd string tuned to F sharp rather that G. It matches the intervals on the top six strings of a lute, so the fingering is sometimes easier, but you might find that it also it also turns your brain inside out.

As for tab - well it's a quicker way of reading a piece (and it's also a lot older than standard notation - Cuttinge would have written the Almain down in tab if he wrote it down at all) but it has limitations. For example - if you want to change the string the melody is played on for a certain passage because it sounds better, it's easy in standard notation but you need to completely rewrite it in tab. I also think you need to know what the music sounds like before you can learn it from tab.

Anyway - enjoy it.

I totally agree with Felix. There are generally about three ways you could play most bits of music on the guitar, and to represent that in tab requires that you rewrite each time you change the way you play a piece. That's not good really. (I really dislike tab, though, so I should probably declare my bias!)

At some point we can have a good old discussion about Sheet Music versus Tab. Just wait.

... looking forward to it!!

If you are considering taking up the study of the classical guitar seriously you should find a very good teacher who specialises in classical guitarand is not a 'jack of all trades'. The plucking hand (I won't say right hand because you might be left handed) has a very different technique than that employed by steel string 'pickers', unless they are classically trained to start with and employ a technique that works for both styles of playing. Generally steel string players pick the strings with a shallow upward pick whereas classical players project the string downwards into the fingerboard whether using rest or free stroke, this downward projection of the string excites the sound board more than a shallow horizontal or upward pick and also more flesh is applied to the string before the nail finishes the stroke so producing a sweet 'fat ' tone when desired.
To prevent injury it is also imperative you don't arch the wrist to make the knuckles parallel to the strings as used to be recommended, though in practice this position was used by few players. Nails are 'ramped' on the right hand rather than following the contour of the fingertip, though nail shape is very personal and varies a lot, there is a lot of detail you need to know that you can only get from a fully qualified teacher, I'd say allow at least two years for grade five providing you can put in about two hours focused paractice a day unless you are some sort of prodigy in which case allow five weeks I don't put my students in for exams unless I expect them to get a distinction.
I've bought reasonable beginners guitars for my students for £50.00 but unless you can get someone to pick one from a large batch I'd say £125.00-£175.00 would realistically get you a decent guitar to learn on. The most important thing for you now is playability, tone is not as important as playability. Good Luck, I've been in love with classical guitar for many years, she is a difficult mistress as Segovia used to say but very rewarding when you make progress to the higher levels.

Whoops - I don't think Cuttinge would have written the Almain down because it's by Robert Johnson!

I am actually left handed but have learnt guitar right.

If I don't notice any particular discomfort from playing it so it should be alright yes?