Guitar Study
Rick Graham's Classical Guitar Classics
Instructor: Rick Graham
Total lessons in study:
In this study, Rick walks us through multiple beautiful classical guitar pieces that have stood the test of time.
1. "Romanza"
Hey there and welcome to another lesson with me here at the web's coolest guitar instructional site!
We will be looking at a very popular piece for classical guitar entitled 'Romanza'. There seems to be a variety of titles for this piece but in order to avoid any confusion let's stick with the most frequently used title an...Read More
OK, what I think would be a great way of approaching this study would be to play each triplet pattern as a block chord, homophonically just to get those chord shapes under your belt. What I tend to do once I have those is to play each block chord but bring out the melody note. The way we can do that is(once we have prepared...Read More
Exactly the same practice technique can be employed for this section too. It will be a little more challenging however as some of the stretches required by the left hand may need specific practice.
What you must remember is to maintain a nice steady flow throughout the piece and be sure to experiment with rubato and dynami...Read More
2. "Study in E minor" by Francisco Tárrega
In today's lesson, we will be looking at a study written by Spanish composer/guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909).
Tárrega is considered by many to have been responsible for the revival of interest in the guitar as a concert instrument during the 19th century. His relationship with the guitar builder, A. T...Read More
This study is very simplistic harmonically, offering the briefest of excursions to the relative major in bars 11-12, while the remainder stays within the confines of E minor. From a technical standpoint, it is well within the reach of a beginner/intermediate guitarist, but as is often the case with this composer's work, the...Read More
3. "Lagrima" by Francisco Tárrega
Welcome!
In today's lesson we will be studying the classical guitar solo written by Spanish composer/guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852 - 1909).
Tárrega is considered by many to have been responsible for the revival of interest in the guitar as a concert instrument during the 19th century. His relationship wi...Read More
OK, let's take a look at the opening bars.
The first thing that you should be aware of throughout the piece is to balance the bass movement, accompaniment, and melody. The use of rest strokes for the melody can be a very useful way to bring the melody out, but a lot of players fall foul of over accenting using this techniq...Read More
For section 2, we have changed key from E major to E minor. I feel that this parallel key change lends itself to emotive composition and can be extremely effective.
Again, make sure you balance each individual part and be sure to achieve a clear, singing melody.
I'd like you to experiment as much as you can with your righ...Read More
4. "Gran Vals (Nokia Waltz)" by Francisco Tárrega
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9. Classical Guitar Solo - Gran Vals(Nokia Waltz) by F.Tarrega
Technique
Classical
Intermediate
Hey there and welcome back to my continuing series of classical guitar pieces penned by Francisco Tarrega.
In this lesson we will be looking at perhaps Tarrega's most recognised piece 'Gran Vals' due to a phrase from the piece being used by Nokia, the mobile phone company, as their main ringtone.
OK, watch the performance...Read More
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10. Classical Guitar Solo - Gran Vals(Nokia Waltz) Part 1
Technique
Classical
Intermediate
Alrighty then, lets get started with part one.
This piece is significantly more difficult to play in comparison with the pieces that we have studied thus far. In actual fact, 'Gran Vals' has been included as an examination piece for the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music 2009 syllabus Grade 8 exams.
As this is ...Read More
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11. Classical Guitar Solo - Gran Vals(Nokia Waltz) Part 2
Technique
Classical
Intermediate
We have now modulated to the dominant of the original key which is E.
The parts which will require the most practice will be the slurs with the left hand. As always, slow methodical practice will yield the best results. Be very careful with bars 36 and 37 as it may require you to put some practice overtime in with those se...Read More
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12. Classical Guitar Solo - Gran Vals(Nokia Waltz) Part 3
Technique
Classical
Intermediate
In this section we have modulated once more in the dominant direction to the V of E which is B major.
The melody now shifts from being in the upper register to being in underneath the chords on the lower strings. You may need to isolate the melody again to really get an understanding of how the melody line moves within tha...Read More
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13. Classical Guitar Solo - Gran Vals(Nokia Waltz) Part 4
Technique
Classical
Intermediate
We have now made another modulation, this time moving from B major back to E major - the Dominant of the original key of A major.
This last section has a certain humour to it I find and I feel it works very well if one can manipulate the dynamics and phrasing somewhat to give it a kind of 'cheeky' feel. I felt that at bar ...Read More
5. Mauro Giuliani's "op48 - No19"
Hey there, Thanks for joining me! In this lesson we are going to be taking a look at one of Mauro Giuliani's well known op49 studies. No19 is my choice today. Lets take a look at the study in its entirety on video and then we'll break it down into manageable chunks for you to digest. Sound good? OK, lets do it!Read More
The same principals apply to the second section as we discussed in the first section. During the rising and descending octaves section, it would be worth really emphasizing the dynamic element to achieve a positive effect. A simple rule of thumb for this kind of piece is to increase volume as you ascend and decrease the vol...Read More
Let's kick off with the first part of the study.
Giuliani presents us with a variety of techniques within the piece so make sure you subdivide this section into smaller subsections so that you can really hone in on every technique and achieve complete control. Make sure that you observe the rests in the score as we don't w...Read More
6. "Pavane" by Francisco Tárrega
A very warm welcome to you for this continuation of pieces by the Spanish master Francisco Tarrega.
For today's installment, we will be taking a look at Tarrega's 'Pavane', which is one of many charming 'miniatures' penned by this prolific composer.
In the instance, the Pavane follows an A-B-C structure with rhythmic puls...Read More
With this type of composition, I really feel that you must try and approach it in a very classy kind of way. Hmmm, what exactly do I mean by that? Well, Tarrega wrote quite a few of these short but very charming pieces of music and they are all full of techniques which Tarrega wanted to make use of, such as glissandos and g...Read More
As we have modulated to the dominant key, B major, you may want to think about adding some subtleties in dynamics or tone to heighten the tension a little. No need to go overboard with it, just a little sprinkling here and there will be enough to bring out the flavor of the music. I like to think of this as maybe a Chef wou...Read More
OK, final section now.
For the C section, Tarrega creates some nice tension by outlining the Dominant of the original key with ascending lines played with pizzicato, which I feel really adds to the tension somewhat. It also adds a little color for the listener as it is somewhat unexpected.
The best approach for a good piz...Read More