Every student that enters my studio has some idea of where they are trying to go in their guitar playing. However, many of them have a very vague idea. Many will state, “I just want to be able to play better” or “I want to play more confidently.” Though these are goals, they are very vague.
You have to make it a liitle bit more concrete than that if you want to really achieve something. You need to write it out or put it down on paper. “What to write?” you say. Put down what pieces you want to play the most, what speed you want to play your scales, or when you’d like to give your first public performance. No matter if you think they are too hard or you will never be able to achieve them, write down your goals.
You have to have something to shoot for. Whether you are a rocker or a classical nut, you know the pieces and players that inspire you to play. You need to look at this list on a daily or weekly basis. It will help you to remain focused on why you are doing what you are doing. Let’s face it, sometimes practice seems like torture. We want to get straight to the playing part. Well, having a list of where you want to eventually end up will help you maintain a focus throughout the daily work we call practice.
The mental attitude of a student of the classical guuitar during practice is very directed. One must be obsessive about every aspect of playing. Every movement must be questioned at all times. If the result is not as one wants, then the question must always be why? And then why? And then, why again? Your first answer is not always correct or the best. In one sense, the student of the guitar must also be the teacher of the guitar during a practice session.
This analytical obsession is why there has to be a distinction between practicing and practicing perfromances. There is a direct relation between the right and left brain during practice and performance. Practice usually uses the left and logical side of the brain, while performance uses the right and abstract/artistic side of the brain. When one plays through a piece and calls it practice, then one is mistaken in the definition of practice.
True practicing takes much mental focus. As a matter of fact, practicing is more about how one thinks about what one is playing rather than the amount of playing one does. Practicing should cause your brain to exhaust before your hands.
Previously we mentioned our thoughts on Carlevaro’s Cuaderno 1. Therefore, it only seems appropriate to talk about the other three books in the series. As mentioned before, the series is not a method, but rather an addendum to any method being studied. It is a real crime that these books are no longer being published. I will probably state that a few more times by the end of these blogs on Carlevaro.
Cuaderno 2 is strictly a right hand development book. It takes an approach similar to Giuliani’s 120 Studies and mutates through many different arpeggios. However, Carlevaro’s method exceeds Giuliani’s. Carlevaro is extremely methodical in his approach and hits every possible movement the right hand is capable of doing with the technique that is being used in current guitar playing. Giuliani’s were quite outdated and needed to be revamped anyway.
This book is relatively easy to understand and can be used by a student at an intermediate level. A beginner could use it with the proper instruction. Again, this is not a method but a way to clean up every area of playing in your right hand technique.
If you don’t have a copy, then I think you should make a beeline for whatever source you can get it from and use it for the rest of your playing life.
Scott Tennant’s Pumping Nylon is a very useful book filled with exercises and brief explanations. It is marked for “beginning to intermediate” players. However, I disagree with the beginning part of this.
The book will do well for the student that already has an established technique and habitual movement with the right and left hands. I feel it is a disservice to suggest this book for beginning players. However, the problem might be in the definitions of beginning or intermediate. There is a definate lack of objectiveness for a beginning to intermediate to advanced player levels. This needs to be addressed by the guitar community at large. This thought would have to be continued in another discussion.
Scott’s book gives good insight and exercises to work on specific trouble spots. The accompanying books also give specific works to master specific skills. All-in-all, one must either already have considerable skill or a teacher that can point to specific exercises and explain the short descriptions of movement and technique. I would not consider this a method book but rather an addendum to the skill set being worked on by a specific student.
We all know that practice makes permanent. But really what is practicing? I will attempt to put into words a few ideas about practicing over the next few blogs beginning with isolations.
Many times we think that just playing through a piece is practicing. However, that is actually practicing your performance of the piece. Isolations break down the piece into areas that need to be worked on. This includes but is not limited to:
- Sections
- Phrases
- Notes
- Measures
All of which must be played over and over again to gain musical and technical mastery. Each part must be taken out of the context of the piece to be mastered, then it must be re-inserted to build execution in context. Also, an often overlooked part of isolations is the right hand. It must be mastered just as technically and musically as the left. Without such isolation, the pieces will never reach the level at which we want to perform them. Playing a piece straight through repeatedly will never train the hand in the habitual movement that is needed for effortless performance.
There are many scale books out there to help you with your scale development. One over-looked series is the four Cuadernos by Abel Carlevaro. His insight into the guitar and its technique are amazing. As a matter of fact, it is a shame that these books are no longer in print. They are such a resource for the aspiring guitarist.
Cuaderno No. 1 deals with the major and melodic minor scales. I find his fingerings very effective. Most of the scales ascend and descend for three octaves. Many of them move in the higher registers above where the body meets the neck of the guitar. This gives the advanced student great practice getting to these registers. The fingerings are different from the Segovia and Sagreras scales. I find that practicing from multiple groups of scale fingerings helps with my understanding of the guitar.
This book is not meant for the beginning student. It is useful for the intermediate but the high register may cause some to wait until their technique is a bit more advanced. If you find this series, then buy them. I don’t recommend downloading them due to copyright laws but if they are out of print then make your own decision. Either way find a way to get your hands on these jewels of composition and pedegogy.
There are many approaches to memorization. I have worked from playing over and over until I think I have it memorized to visualizing before I even play a note to see it clearly on the fretboard. Bottom line, you have to do either way correctly the first time.
If you are using a visualization method with solfege, like Aaron Shearer and Tom Kikta taught me, then you understand that to have confusion when playing causes errors. Therefore, you visualize in order to play and see the correct notes every time, even when the guitar is not in your hands. If you memorize from a more traditional way, then you should still be aiming for the same effect. You must make sure that every repitition you make is a correct repitition from the right hand to the left. And whether you use the solfege method of Shearer or a traditional method, you will ultimately rely on muscle memory and visualization to see clearly where you are going during a performance.
You have to do your best to not make any mistakes during the learning process. This creates bad habits in your memory which leads to bad habits in performance. Establish your fingering for the right and left hand as soon as possible and clarify anything that could cause confusion in the future. Without this type of clarity, your performances will suffer.
What else needs to be said. Magnificent!
