Learning to Play the Classical Guitar

I've looked around, and the best option that I've found for online classical guitar lessons is the Infinite Guitar Site.

As mentioned above, I believe that if you're a complete beginner, or even someone very new to the instrument, you should benefit best from taking at least some live, personal lessons.

The feedback from a competent teacher is essential to developing proper technique.

Whereas many, probably most, players of other styles of music learn to play the guitar in whatever position 'feels' right, usually with the thumb hanging on the top of the neck, a good classical guitarist must learn proper technique from the start.

Even if you were to take some personal lessons for a short time to develop a good technique from the start, and then start Video Guitar Lessons, you'd have a good foundation to get you started.

Also, I've listed some books and CDs on this site that would be helpful in your training. A good instructional classical guitar method book or course will prove to be extremely valuable, especially for the reasonable one-time purchase price.

Also, it's always good to listen to the masters for enjoyment...and inspiration.

So, if you can get at least a few personal lessons and a good course/instructional book or course, I think you'd benefit greatly from the online video classical guitar lessons that's offered at the Infinte Guitar Website.

Remember, daily practice is a must!! Everyone has to miss a day from time to time, but you can't hope to ever achieve any decent level of playing if you practice daily for a couple of weeks, them miss a week, practice a few days, miss a few days-it just doesn't work. You're better off saving your time and money and not starting in the first place.

Of course if you're just wanting to learn to play some more basic pieces, you could get by with that type of practice, but I think most people will become frustrated when they're not able to play the music that really interests them later on.

I should also mention, if cost is a factor, and I guess it is for most of us, the online video lessons are much less expensive that private lessons.

At last look the Infinite Guitar Website had nearly one thousand lessons posted. That isn't all classical lessons however. Personally, I play some blues and country also, and their site has video lessons for every genre of guitar playing from funk to jazz, country to rock, rock, acoustic, rock, and any other style that you can think of.

The cost of the Online Video Guitar Lessons offered by the Infinite Guitar guys is much less, for one month, that even a single private lesson!!

For the unbelievably low cost, I don't see how you could get more instruction for such a low cost. The quality of the videos and instruction is excellent. It's definitely worth checking out.

So...live long, prosper, AND PLAY GUITAR!!

If you're looking for the absolute best home study guitar course, I can recommend only Learn and Master Guitar. It's easily the best that I know of presently. It would seem to be higher priced, but when you weigh the contents against the price of private lessons, it's an unbelievable buy.

Learn and Master Guitar is recognized by top instructors as the best home study course available...period. This wealth of quality training material, because of it's great production, and top-notch presentation by instructor Steve Krenz, has won two Telly Awards an AEGIS Award for Excellence in Education award, and was the Winner of the 2008 Acoustic Guitar Magazine Players' Choice Awards. I believe that speaks volumes of this piece of quality work.

The material is presented as a step-by-step video course, you actually have the course on 20 professionally produced DVDs, 5 Jam-Along CDs, and a 100+ page lesson book.

As if that wasn't enough, there is an extremely popular online student support site with instructors and other students there to offer advice and encouragement at any time. Of course it's just fun to hang out in also.

Printed material alone can never be enough for a good guitar learning course, but with Learn and Master Guitar you get a good solid video-based system that will be the last course you'll ever need to buy. This material will take you from beginner or intermediate, to the advanced levels of playing.

It should be noted that the instructor, Steve Krenz is a true professional, not a guy that taught himself to play pretty well in his Mother's basement. He has a music degree and has played with many grammy winners, and has covered the gamut of symphony orchestras to jazz bands, and studio work (he lives near, and records regularly in Nashville, Tennessee) to live performances.

To cut this short, simply go to the Learn and Master Guitar website, watch the video on the home page, and read Steve's bio and all of the other material. Note that there's always all the help available you could ever need, but if for some reason you decide the course is not for you (you won't I promise), there's a 60-day money back guarantee. There's no hassle, no red tape, you just get your all of your course money back.

Just make sure that you compare the price of this excellent guitar instructional course to, say private lessons. For the cost of maybe a dozen or so hours of lessons from the guy down at the local music store, that probably can't even read music, you can own Learn and Master Guitar. Even after you complete the material, which will take a long time if you're not very far along, you'll always have it to go back to for reference.

There's no better, more cost effective method available today for a great guitar training course.

I do try to educate myself on as many things as I can, but I also know a beginning classical guitar student should find a competent teacher early on in his or her training.

Many of the mechanics of playing the guitar can be learned by the student from a book, but there is no replacement for having a good teacher there to point out the areas in which the student might be learning incorrectly, but may not notice it.

These errors can be easily correctly early on, but if left unchecked, these 'small' problems can become major obstacles. It's much easier to learn correctly the first time instead of trying to 'unlearn' something and then having to learn it over again.

I'll offer some basic guidance for the beginner here. If you don't know how to read standard music notation as of yet, this is obviously the primary concern to the complete beginner.

Please have a look at some of the excellent resources in the next sections for the student needing to learn to read music, and also needing to purchase an instrument or accessories like an electronic tuner.

Although an in-depth biography of the man is beyond the scope of this lens, it's almost not possible to mention the classical guitar and not mention Andres Segovia.

There have been many great contributors that have helped the instrument to obtain it's present day recognition as a true world-class concert instrument, but non more important as the great Segovia.

If you've never heard a performance by Segovia, you should immediately get a CD and listen to the warmth and brilliance that he was known for.

It goes without saying (although I say it often) that in order to obtain any decent level of playing ability the student will need to practice a considerable amount.

I read on a website just earlier today, 'don't practice, just play'. Well, unfortunately it's not quite that easy. A well structured daily practice regimen should be made to be as enjoyable as possible, it's not just as easy as playing whatever you want.

In order to gain the abilities necessary to play some of the more advanced pieces of classical music, the student must train himself/herself in the technical aspects of the performance.

Practicing correctly is very important. As I mentioned earlier, a qualified instructor is a necessity, not an option. Something that the student might not notice as being a problem, the teacher surely will...and immediately.

Daily practice should include working on both left and right hand studies, arpeggios, scales, chords and all the other things that must be learned.

However, it should never get to the point that it becomes so boring or tedious that the student loses interest. The more intense, somewhat monotonous parts of the practice sessions should be balanced with playing the pieces that are well known and are enjoyable to play.

ALWAYS PRACTICE USING A METRONOME

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One thing that should not be overlooked....always! use a metronome when practicing. Classical guitar, even probably more other genres of guitar music, should always be practiced using a metronome.




Not only does using a metronome help the player achieve correct rhythm, it also aids in trying to figure out the counting of those complex time signature pieces.

There's no longer a need to have a separate metronome and tuner (or tuning fork, man I'm old). You can get a single, very reasonably priced device that that incorporates both functions in a single unit.

As you progress in your playing, you'll be wanting to buy sheet music, other books etc. One of the best online resources that I've found for sheet music online is Musicnotes.com.



Musicnotes is a great site for all your sheet music and books needs. They also have a cool (free) program called Guitar Guru. Although it is mainly for rock/pop type playing. You purchase the Guitar Guru sessions, and you get the data file that plays via the Guitar Guru player, plus the sheet music and TAB (guitar tablature).

The song is played on the visual guitar fingerboard, allowing you to easily see how it is played. All the guitar parts are included, solos too.

Please note also that the free Musicnotes player will play all downloaded digital sheet music so that you can hear exactly how the piece is to be performed.

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