What is Classical Guitar Style? Its the style of old Pieces of Music like Bouree and Air on G and so on. There is music today produced that fits in with the Classical Music so its just not all Bach, and Bradenburg!
How do we start Classical Guitar? Most Classical Guitarist like Myself use a Nylon string Spanish Guitar. You can get them almost anywhere, Check Musiciansfriend or Ebay! I'm not saying you cant pick up your favorite Les Paul or Axe or maybe that lovely Steel String acoustic but generally Classical Music is played on a Nylon String Guitar!
Another Thing Guitarist Use is a Foot Stool! Yes the Foot Stool, A little Stool not to big, just a couple inches that elevates the guitar from the standard postion to the Classical Postion. You don't need it But I myself find it very yourself when playing! They are cheap too for a good one, they are 11-20 bucks for a good one that'll last a long time, Heck I even found it usiful when I play my Les Paul or Kramer!
Now Put Down Your Pick cause Classical Music makes HEAVY use of... Wait for it... Your Fingers! Many Classical Guitarist grow their nails out and use their nails as picks when playing. Its 5 Times as hard as using a regular pick but the sound is 10 times better!
Now we Have Our Nylon Spanish Guitar at Hand, Our Foot Stool, and our Nails grown out abit, Lets get into Bouree in E Minor by Bach and break down a little bit of the song!
This is Tuned in Standard Tuning!
Okay Here is the Start of it, As you can see its not Complex..... WRONG!
As you can see we are playing a Bass Note (G on the Low E String) and a Melody with it (The Open High E String). Classical Guitar Style uses alot of Bass Notes while playing A Melody. Our next Group of notes is a F# (F Sharp) on both the Low and High E String. The Bass Notes and Melody are the Same Note just an Octave apart, Little Clever there huh? The Next part is a G on the High E String and Open Low E String. Same thing as the start but different Octaves.
Now Lets look at that, That was Chromatic (Chromatic: The Ascending or Descending of Notes Not according to a scale and By ethier Sharp or Flat. Example: A, A#(A Sharp or B Flat), B, C, C# (C Sharp or F Flat), F, etc.) That was very Clever of Bach, Ascending and Descending in Octaves at the same time.
Next the Next part is F# (F Sharp) on the High E String and Open A on the A String. Not Much to that that can be said as in intersetting, But we play an Open High E next. We went down a Whole and 1 Half Step from that Note we played before on the High E String, and We don't have a bass note, Well according to the pattern before we should have a bass note right? Nope! What you can ethier do here is let that A Ring as you play the High E or mute it after u play it and Play your High E. He left you to deicde there, Clever Bach always keeping it mixed up.
Next is our B Note on the A String and the D# (D Sharp) on the B String. Again nothing intersetting but Note Naming, But we gotta have our Notes Names, Right!?
Next is an open High E and A String playing, High E being the Melody as you know and A being the Bass line. Then that F# (F Sharp) Again! That Tricky F# always in there lol.
Now we repeat a group of notes! Now lets see the next part here, Classical Music has a Melody, One Melody played over and over but varied or changed alittle so its not repeptitive like the note naming here! Basically we are playing a Melody and making a Bassline, now you may say, Why bother to play a Bassline, the melody is what you remember mostly!
True But Bass lines can determine the "Theme" or "Mood" of the song, If I played a Happy bass line the Melody will generally sound happier. and vice versa with different moods. The Bass Line Creates ALOT of Dynamics in Classical Music as much as the Melody. Its a VERY impressive thing, the Harmony of the Bassline and Melody affect the Mood or Theme Alot. Another thing Composers did of this time was use ALOT of Chords. They know A Chord has a Root, A 3rd, a 5th. Now they most likely added a 7th or 9th and repeated notes octaves higher to add effect. An Orchestra for example playing a C Chord, The Bass Playing the C, The Cello playing the E, The Violias playing the G and Violins repeating the C but an Ocatve higher sounds very good. Because Its a chord and every note fits nice and good with the others!
Impressive Yes? Look at all the Magic we uncovered here with this Short little Lesson on Classical Music! So much in so little, How did these guys do this all? Theory, A Good Ear, and hours and hours of composing!
I Hope this helped you a little in starting your Journeys into Classical Music and Classical Guitar with the basic Gear and Basic break down and Some Theory and Some Note Recongizing and break downs!
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