Guitarra!

Ren MerryMPM 80-025$24.95

© 2014 Mountain Peak Music

2700 Woodlands Village Blvd. #300-124Flagstaff, Arizona 86001www.mountainpeakmusic.com

This publication is protected by Copyright Law.Do not photocopy. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-935510-62-8

Contents

Foreword..........................................................................................................................i

Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ii

Note to the Teacher.......................................................................................................iii

Purpose and Organization of this Book.........................................................................iv

Part One

1. Introduction.................................................................................................................1

2. The Evolution of Guitar Technique............................................................................4

3. Components of Effective Classical Guitar Teaching..................................................6

Part Two

4. Practicing....................................................................................................................9

5. Principles of Good Tone Production........................................................................11

6. Parts of the Guitar and the Guitar's Fretboard..........................................................12

7. Body Alignment and Hand Position.........................................................................14

8. Tuning, Technique and Terms..................................................................................19

Part Three

9. Reading Music for Guitarists....................................................................................21

10. Basic Chords...........................................................................................................28

11. Introducing Notes on Each String...........................................................................32

12. Playing Arpeggios and Playing Music on Two Lines............................................47

13. Key Signatures........................................................................................................53

14. Technical Exercises................................................................................................64

15. Solo Repertoire.......................................................................................................75

16. Ensemble Repertoire.............................................................................................103

17. Resources for Further Reading.............................................................................116

About the Author........................................................................................................118

ForewordRenMerry has many years of experience teaching guitar at the college level, in the K-12school environment, and in private lessons. He has taught in India aswell as in theUnitedStates. In this book, he draws from his own experience and from his research on some ofthe most successful K-12 and Suzuki guitar programs in the United States.

Through this book, the student can gain experience in chord playing, learning music byear, and improvising. This experience encourages versatility and prepares the student toplayavarietyofpopularmusic styles. The foundationalvaluesofguitar positioning, handpositioning, note reading, and tone production are emphasized. High levels of skill canmost effectivelybedevelopedonce these fundamental elements are inplace. Through thisbook, the student learns a variety of techniques such as scales, arpeggios, hammer-ons,pull-offs, and tremolo. Covering this range of techniques facilitates the development ofmastery of the instrument. Ensemble playing is introduced so that each student canexperience the joy of collaborating with other musicians.

This book is a portal to exploring the world’s most popular musical instrument. Thisexploration can lead to a lifetime of enjoyment of the guitar.

Dr. Sean Beavers

Chair, Department of Applied Music Studies

School of Music

Liberty University

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Throughout the last twenty years of teaching the classical guitar,my students have contin-ued to inspire and challengeme to be a teacher of excellence. The primary impetus for thisbook arose from the need to teach more effectively. I am thankful to my students inNagaland, India as well as those that are here in the United States. The many years ofwatchingandobservingbeginners andadvanced students learning toplay inproper sittingposition, left-hand and right-hand finger movements in executing arpeggios, chords,scales, and watching them perform in the annual recitals have given me deeper insightsas to how to teach more effectively. My sincere thanks to the instructors at the variousprivate studios and schools that workedwithme during the course ofwritingmy disserta-tion and for giving me the permission to observe their programs as well as for the inter-views and numerous follow-up conversations by e-mail.

My wife Tammie has been my best critic and strongest supporter of my musical aspira-tions and pursuits. I am very thankful to her and I dedicate this book to her. I also thankmy three children for their support and patience.

Acknowledgements

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Note to the TeacherFirst of all, thank you for considering this book to be used in your private lessons as wellas in the classroom. Please feel free to ad lib as necessary on the parts written for theteacher. I would strongly suggest focusing a considerable amount of time on good toneproduction, especially during the stageswhere the student is playing singlemelodic lines.Playing with nails can be kept as an option. As students gain more experience as players,they will gradually see the benefits of playing with nails.

Creating music and learning improvisational skills are areas that I strongly emphasize.This provides the opportunity for makingmusic to become a richer andmoremeaningfullifetime experience. I strongly encourage students to create their own musical composi-tions or arrange music that they like. Theoretical analysis and harmonic sensibility mustbe an important part of the learning process, and teaching improvisational skills providesopportunities for that.

One piece that I have used effectively for teaching improvisation and learning “by ear”is Malaguena. Students like learning this piece because of its musical simplicity andaesthetic qualities. The piece is included in the book, but I have consistently taught itsimply by means of hearing and imitation first. A Minor Improv is a fun piece wherestudents are given the opportunity to learn improvisational skills using theAminor scale.The entire ensemble plays the theme (head) in two/three parts. In the section where thegroup plays soft background chords, students may venture and take up the challenge toimprovise individually.

The sight-reading exercises and solo pieces cover only up to four sharps and three flatsjust to serve as an introduction to playing music in various keys. Please feel free to usesupplementary materials as necessary.

Once again, thankyou for using this bookandmay it comeas ahelpful tool inmakingyourteaching experience richly rewarding.

Sincerely,

Ren Merry

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Purpose and Organization of this BookFor a number of years since I started teaching the classical guitar, I have pondered overthe question of how to teach the instrument in such away as to produce themost effectiveresults. My questions have revolved around areas of teaching methodology, appropriaterepertoire, size of instrument, the teaching and learning setting, and components thatinvolve non-musical elements such as teacher effectiveness and student evaluation. Overthe years, I have created my own teaching materials, which include exercises and solo/ensemble pieces, partly due to the fact that there seemed to be a lack ofmaterials thatweresystematically prepared to adequatelymeet the needs of beginning guitar students in sucha way as to lay firm technical and musical foundations.

Many prominent classical guitar teachers and pedagogues of the past and present haveaddressed the pertinent need for rethinking and re-evaluating teaching methods and ap-propriate musical materials. The general consensus has been that there is a lack of asystematicmethod of teaching young beginners how to progress from the initial stages tolevels of maturity. Andres Segovia, the legendary guitarist from Spain, recognized theneed for educational literature that was systematic and progressive, able to “guide theattentive student of the guitar from steps of apprenticeship to the heights of perfection.”The absence of appropriate repertoire for the beginner has also been addressed.

The last twenty years have seen the steady growth and expansion of classical guitareducation. Various factors have contributed to this, including new and innovative meth-odsof teaching, theconstructionofbetter andappropriately sizedguitars, theproliferationof new music written specifically for the classical guitar, and the growth of guitar pro-grams in middle school and secondary levels of instruction. Despite these encouragingdevelopments, the need to make improvements is still a pertinent issue.

The purpose of this book is to provide the basic and vital foundations necessary to theyoung beginner for establishing strong technical skills andmusical understanding. I haveattempted to accomplish this through new and fresh musical examples and my owncompositions for solo and ensemble students laid out systematically and sequentially. Ihave also attempted to introduce improvisational skills applicable in the classroom situa-tion or in private lessons.

This book is specifically designed for beginners starting from age ten to adults who arejust starting to learn the art of playing the classical guitar. A substantial amount of ideasfor this book were derived during the process of writing my doctoral dissertation on pre-college methodology titled, A Paradigm for Effective Pre-College Classical Guitar

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Methodology:ACaseStudyofTwoModelsofEffective Instruction (2010).ThestudentsI have taught over the past twenty years have also been instrumental in refining myteaching skills as well as in providing practical ideas about what musical materials workbest and which do not.

The following seven fundamentals are emphasized in this book for effective learning:

1. Good body alignment and sitting posture2. Knowledge of harmony through chordal exercises3. Good tone production4. Audio and visual learning5. Improvisational skills6. A systematic, sequential means of learning to read music7. Ensemble Participation

Organization

Part one is written for the teacher andmore advanced player and includes an introductionto the classical guitar, historical perspectives on technique and the growth of the classicalguitar in higher education and public schools.

Part two is directed toward the student and includes information about practicing, guitartechnique and basic knowledge of the guitar such as the names of the six strings, parts ofthe guitar, hand positions and sitting position.

Part three contains all the musical exercises and solo and ensemble works which areintroduced progressively. For example, once students are used to the concept of alterna-tion and the use of rest strokes, reading music on the first string is introduced followedbyplaying singlemelodic lines accompaniedby the teacher.Various exercises areprovid-ed as they sequentially progress from the first to the sixth string. When all the six stringsare covered, students are introduced to reading and playing music on two lines.

A note about the fingerings:

There is more than one way to finger the notes with the left hand and I have left it to thediscretion of the discerning teacher to give proper guidance. However, I am also con-

v

vinced that in some cases certain fingerings are more logical and produce better musicalresults than others, and with that in mind I have exercised the liberty to give specificfingerings where applicable.

The importance of learning chords:

Before the students are introduced toplaying arpeggios, single noteplaying technique andsolo repertoire, I have felt the need to introduce them to the mastery of basic chords andchordal knowledge for three reasons:

1. The guitar is primarily a chordal instrument and one of its strengths includes its abilityto accompany singing and provide harmonic and rhythmic background.

2.Learningchords teaches students the importanceofharmonyand its function inmusicalunderstanding.

3. Learning chordal progressions provides an opportunity for creativity andimprovisation. Page 28 serves as an introduction to learning basic chords. Additionalsupplementary books may be used to cover the extensive study of chords.

vi

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26. Blue Skies

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