Preliminaries
Notation
The two main elements of music notation are pitch and rhythm. Pitch refers to how high or low a note is and rhythm refers to how long a note lasts. In standard music notation both are shown for each note. Many players feel that they don't need to know how to read music, they "just want to play" Imagine Shakespeare if he did not know how to write down his plays and poems. Others prefer to learn a system called tablature or Tab for short. Tab shows players what string and fret to play, but usually doesn't show the rhythm. Not showing the rhythm means a player must listen to a recording to find out for themselves. The problem with Tab is that the player doesn't have the whole picture. They don't know how long notes are supposed to last and they don't know the names of the notes they are playing.
Pitches
Pitches (think high notes like flutes and low notes like tubas) are given letter names in music. They include: a b c d e f g. After "g" the letter names repeat, for example: e f g a b c. Notes of the same letter name (ex: a b c d e f g a), are described as being an octave apart (eight places on the music alphabet). Any note that is an octave apart sounds similar. So an "a" and the next higher "a" sound like brothers. One is higher than the other, but we recognize them as having more or less the same color. For instance when a man and a woman sing the same song usually the woman sings an octave higher than the man since the range of her voice is higher. This will seem less confusing when you begin playing the guitar.
In music notation pitches are shown by placement on a staff (like a grid) of five lines. This staff tells the letter name of the notes, but does not tell us where they on the guitar (more on this in later chapters). On each staff there is a clef on the left hand side. Think of the staff like a ruler, showing precise distances. If the lines are like the ticks of a ruler than the clef is like the numbers that give one their bearings. The guitar uses a clef known as the treble clef, which was originally the letter ‚"g" that become so stylized that eventually became its own symbol. Notice that the treble clef makes a crosshair with the second staff line from the bottom. This is the note "g". With that information a player can deduce all the other note names. How? Remember that we are dealing with an alphabet here. Any time a note moves up one spot on the grid (one spot means from a line to the next space between the lines or from a space up to a line) it is one step higher in the musical alphabet. So the space right above the "g" is an ‚"a" and the line above that "a" is a "b". This is not rocket science. Always remember that the staff is alphabetical and you will be able to figure out the name of any note.
Another way to learn the names of the notes and recall them quickly is by pneumonic devices. They used to teach every elementary school kid this in music class, so it might be familiar to many readers. It works as follows. The names of the notes on the lines of the staff are: e g b d f. These can be remembered with the following sentence: Every good boy does fine. The spaces contain the notes: f a c e. Which spells out the word “face.” The staff is fairly small, being only five lines and four spaces. So quite often it needs to be extended. There simply are more notes on the guitar than can be squeezed into the staff. The staff is extended by means of ledger lines. Remember everything is alphabetical, so if the staff is extended upward keep going up the musical alphabet and there is the note name. If the staff is extended downward go down the musical alphabet.
Rhythm
The basic unit of rhythm is the beat. Think of seconds on a clock. The time between tick and tock is one second. In music a beat is the period of time between the tick and tock. Now in music we don't usually play along with a clock (sometimes we do, its called a metronome) instead the clock can come from many sources. We might play with a drummer who provides the beat. We might tap our foot and provide our own beat. Also in music the speed of the clock varies. For a fast song the clock would go faster and for a slow song it would go slower. Thus the length of a note depends on two factors: how many beats it lasts (ex. Three beats long), and how fast the beat is moving.
In standard music notation the length of the note is determined by what the note looks like. Is the head solid or hollow? Does it have a stem? Does the stem have a little flag or beam coming out of it? The answer to these questions determines precisely how long the note lasts. For example a quarter note has a stem and the head is hollow, it gets one beat (You would think a quartet note gets a quarter of a beat, no such luck) The following chart shows the length of time for the basic note values
The other element of rhythm is the time signature. Beats are put into groups, most often of four, occasionally three or two, and very rarely into other numbers. These groups are called measures. Often you will hear a count off at the beginning of a song. “One, two, three, four”, and every one starts. This is an indication of the time signature. Most music (rock, nuevo flamenco, Bossa Nova) usually uses four beats. Others, like waltzes, get their character from being in three. In standard notation the meter is shown by the time signature. The time signature is placed just to the right of the treble clef and contains two numbers. The top number indicates the number of beats in the measure (usually 4 or 3). The bottom number indicates what is the standard for the beat. It is almost always 4 indicating that a quarter note (the 4) gets one beat. 
If it is not a four it messes everything up! It shifts the values of all the notes. For example if the bottom number of a time signature is a 2 than the half note is the standard for the beat. Thus a half note now gets one beat, a whole note gets two, and the quarter gets half a beat. Confused? Don't worry we won't be dealing with this for some time, just stick to the note values given in the chart above. Often times instead of two numbers you will see a big letter “C”. This stands for common time which is 4/4 the most common time signature used.
The thin lines that run vertically across the staff are called barlines. Barlines serve to divide up the music so that it is easy to see the beats. The space between two barlines is called a measure, which contains the number of beats specified by the time signature, no more and no less. The barlines have no effect on the sound of the music, they are merely there to help the player. Measures are counted and a little number is placed above the clef to tell the player which measure number they are playing (useful when a teacher is instructing a student). Sometimes two barlines are placed next to each other, this is a called a "double bar"It is used to show major sections in the music, it also has no effect on the sound. Other special barlines include the final bar sign and the repeat sign. The final bar sign consists of two lines one thick and one thin, it indicates that the piece has come to an end. The repeat sign looks identical to a final bar sign except that it also has two dots. There are two types of repeat signs, some have dots facing toward upcoming music (dots on the right hand side) and some face towards music that has already been played ( dots on the left hand side). If both are present they serve as brackets and any material within the repeat signs is repeated. If only one is present (always the sign facing music already played) than all the music to that point is repeated.
Sitting
Sitting correctly will help one avoid more problems than perhaps any other section on this website. If the guitar is not placed correctly the hands are forced to do an enormous amount of extra work. The sitting position should allow a player's hands to have no role in holding the guitar in place. The great guitar masters of the 19th century describe the hands as being like ballerinas dancing across the string, weightless, and without extra tension. In order to achieve this, we need to support the guitar by means of correct placement.
The first thing one notices about a classical guitarist is that they have their leg propped up on a little stool. No, this is not some musical yoga posture, the footstool is one key in placing the guitar in optimum position. The footstool is placed under the guitarist's left leg raising it usually six to nine inches. The exact height will be determined by several other factors including personal preference and comfort (more on this later). The guitarist's right leg goes straight down to the floor or slightly back. Sit up straight, feel as if your head is being pulled up towards the sky thus straightening out one's spine (Kind of like a puppet on a string). The guitarists shoulder's should be relaxed and free from excess tension.
The guitar should come in contact with the player in four points. The curve of the guitar fits onto the guitarists left leg. The other side of the guitar body hits the right leg. In other words the guitar should be more or less between your legs and centered not off to one side or the other. One of the most common mistakes guitarists make is to but the guitar on the right leg, with the neck pointed toward the ground and too far for the left hand to reach. The back of the guitar comes to rest on the players chest. 
There should be a pocket of air between the back of the guitar and the player's body. For many of us the pocket is not as large as we would like (Hey it happens to us all, we start to look more and more like Santa Claus each year.) Notice that the guitar is at a slight angle slightly up towards the ceiling. The final point of contact is the right hand forearm. With just a little weight by this arm the guitar should stay in place. Notice that the left hand has no role in holding the guitar in place. Thus the can concentrate on flying across the fretboard in feets of acrobatic splendor ( Or more importantly reach for a cold drink during those long hours of practicing)
There are two other important considerations in the placement of the guitar: the height of the head stock, and the angle the guitar creates with the player's body. The headstock should be about the height of your mouth (that way you can stick your tongue out at it when you can't get the blasted thing in tune!) To get it that height adjust your footstool so that it naturally rests at the right height. The guitar should tilt in towards the left side of your body. It should not be straight with your shoulders. This will facilitate left hand positioning, not to mention seeing what you are doing.
At first when a new player is presented with all the details of how to sit they often feel like a greek statue. It does take some getting used to, but the results are worth the effort. Better sound and easier playing along with reduced risk of injury seem worth the trouble of feeling like a chunk of marble. Speaking of marble, try not to be too stiff about it all. The player's body should fell poised ready for action, but not rigid. Just enough tension, not too much or too little is the rule for most of guitar technique.
Positioning the RH Hand
As with sitting position, correct placement of the hands will make learning the guitar easier. The key word in all guitar technique is efficiency. We want to place the hands in such a way that their job is as easy as possible. Many people comment that when they see a great guitar player they make it look so easy. That is because they are ultra-efficient. The great classical guitar player Pepe Romero once said that it is very easy to play the guitar well and very difficult to play it badly. (What's that? You disagree!) What he means is that to play the guitar well one must be very efficient and that people who play it poorly are being very inefficient. With that in mind here are a few exercises to help us determine the correct placement of the RH. We want to find the point in our fingers were they are at total relaxation, so that no effort is required to keep them in good position.
Placement I
- Stick your right hand straight out.
- Keep your wrist straight and ball up your RH fingers very tightly.
- Still keep the wrist straight and relax the fingers
- Did you keep the wrist straight? If so this should show you the correct curvature for the RH fingers.
Placement II (Alternate Method)
- Stick your right hand straight out.
- Keep your wrist straight and ball up your RH fingers very tightly.
- Start to slowly uncurl your fingers, keeping all the tips of the index, middle, and ring finger together.
- Notice that the curvature of these fingers is the same
- When any one of these fingers is straighter than the others stop, and repeat the above steps. This time try to stop before any one of the fingers has a different curve.
- When you can open the fingers so that they are as open as possible while maintaing the same curve you have found the correct curvature.
Now that you have determined the correct curvature of your fingers, we need to place this curve on the strings. First of all get in the correct sitting position. Get your fingers into their curve. Place them on the strings so that the index finger is on string three (third from the bottom), middle on string two, and ring on string one (the string closest to the ground). Place the thumb on the sixth string (the biggest string, closest to you). The thumb should be at about a forty-five degree angle and props up the hand like a tent . The right hand wrist should make a gentle arch (Avoid any extreme angling of the wrist). Double-check that your fingers are still in the correct curvature. The palm of the hand should be more or less flat, don't have either side tilting don into the guitar. Look at the knuckles on the top of your right hand. Imagine a line connecting them (like connect-the-dots, fun!) We will use this line to determine the angle of the wrist 
. To position the wrist, have this line be more or less parallel to the strings (Does this remind you of ninth grade Geometry?) Look at your wrist, does it look and feel uncomfortable? If so straighten in out a little but no more than ten degrees from being parallel to the strings. To sum up:
- Fingers in relaxed curved position
- Thumb propping up hand like a tent
- Line of knuckles parallel to the strings
- Wrist slightly arched to give fingers space to move.
Finger Numbers and Names
The fingers have numbers and names. The left hand fingers are referred to by number. The index finger is number 1 and the pinky is number 4, the thumb doesn't get a number. In the right hand letter names are used. The thumb is p (from the Spanish for thumb pulgar), i for index, m for middle, and a for ring (from the spanish for ring anillo). See the following chart:
Recomendations
Don't own a classical guitar yet? In order to get the most out of classical guitar training it is recommended that you use a nylon string classical guitar. Why? Other guitars (most steel strings and electrics) are set up to be placed over the right leg, Classicals are set up to be played over the left. Classical Guitar Latin Style recommends Yamaha as a great begineer brand. For the money they can't be beat.
We also recommend having a metronome, tuner, and music stand. A short music stand that doesn't block the sound or view of the guitar is highly recommended (see below).
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Short Guitar Music Stand Visit Our Store... |
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