Around The Neck

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 Giuliani’s were quite outdated and needed to be revamped anyway.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.