How to Read Classical

Guitar Music

by Christopher Davis

Like any other instrument, classical guitar

music is written on a staff. There are great

resources all over the web that teach and

train reading on the staff. Notation reading

should be fluent and effortless.

Starting from the bottom line of the staff, a

sentence can be used to figure out each of

the notes on the lines. ―Every Good Boy

Does Fine‖ is the most common sentence.

―Even George Bush Drives Fast‖ is another.

A young student came to me and he had

made up his own sentence, ―Elmo Gave

Barny Dead Fish‖

The spaces spell a word from bottom space

to top: FACE.

Stop Guessing

With these tools a beginning player

SHOULD NEVER GUESS the note which

they are going to play. It’s not about putting

your fingers down and hoping, it’s about

knowing. That means at the beginning stage

of reading music, one should talk through the

sentences or words if need be and know the

notes. Often time students have a

disassociation between the actual note names

and where to put their fingers. Their

intellectual concept of the staff is well

developed but their muscle memory is not.

The key is to train both at once. This can be

accomplished very simply by saying the note

names aloud while playing them. This works

well playing melodies but fails with

polyphonic music. Practice reading

individual melodies, in multiple positions on

the guitar, first.

Numbers, Letters and Strange

Markings…

In addition to all the standard notation stuff,

classical guitar music has some very specific

things that go on in it. To notate left hand

(LH) fingering, we use numbers:

1=LH index

2=LH middle

3=LH ring

4=LH pinky

To those former pianists (recovering

pianists?) this can be a bit confusing as the

thumb is normally considered 1. For the right

hand (RH) we use letters:

p=RH thumb

i=RH index

m=RH middle

a=RH ring

c=RH pinky

Most times the pinky is not used on the right

hand, but sometimes a ―c‖ pops up.

The other strange markings or words are

going to be musical instructions on things

such as tempo, articulation and dynamics.

It’s also possible that some markings or

words are indications of special or extended

techniques, but most pieces of music will

have a legend or key for those markings.

Here is an online dictionary of music terms

for your reference. It can also be helpful to

have a reference around like The Harvard

Dictionary of Music. If you’re still a college

or graduate student check out your school

library website. Most schools will have

online access to the Grove Dictionary of

Music and Musicians which is a tremendous

resource.

The key to getting better at reading is doing

more of it. Which sucks. A lot. But there’s

no way around it. With all the free music

(check out the links page for some websites)

floating around on the web, there should be

no shortage of music to read. A book of jazz

licks can also be a great way to practice

reading: just play the lick in multiple

positions. Good luck! and happy reading!

Goal Oriented

Guitar Practice

by Christopher Davis

See a more updated version of this theory:

Goal Oriented Guitar Practice (revisited)

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m not a

huge fan of practice schedules. A lot of folks

out there think they need absolute structure

to their practice time:

10 minutes arpeggios

20 minutes scales

30 minutes etudes

5 minutes checking cell phone

20 minutes repertoire

There’s only question to ask yourself: are

you improving? If yes, continue with current

practice routine. If no, why? Lack of

improvement could be any number of things,

but that’s another blog entirely.

I believe that musicians should have a time

only schedule. That is, “practice X

hours/day.” This leaves a lot up in the

air. Some time should certainly allocated to

technique. I like to do that right away in the

morning, for about a half hour–this is more

to prepare my hands for the rest of the day

than anything. After that I have a series of

small goals to accomplish throughout my

practice.

We often have the difficult sections of a given

piece marked, or the parts that give us

trouble blocked off in our minds. So work on

them! Make it a goal for a unit of practice to

perfect a small portion and reinsert it back

into the context of the piece. I tried writing

these goals down in a sort of practice

journal, but I work better with the mental list

instead. However, a practice journal can be

a useful tool.

This allows a lot more flexibility than a strict

schedule, and keeps practice

interesting. And it works!

What’s your practice routine look like?

Practice Perfect

by Christopher Davis

I’m writing about this because I’m terrible at

it. Sometimes it’s really easy to get caught

up in the flow a piece and just keep going

every time it’s practiced. The reality is that if

mistakes are practiced each time, mistakes

will happen in performance. The goal of

practice time should be to play something

perfect each and every time. If that means

that something has to played slow or you

have to use stop and go practicing, do it!

Above it all it’s about simplifying and

breaking down. If you have an arpeggio

passage with a rough chord change, don’t

attempt to work on the chord change with the

RH pattern. Just work the chord change first

until it’s very secure, do the same with the

right hand pattern, then put them together.

Practice perfectly, and make less mistakes in

performance!

Self Teaching for the

Classical Guitar

by Christopher Davis

Sometimes it’s hard to find a teacher and

sometimes it’s not financially possible to

take a lesson every week. Many people

choose the path of self instruction, relying on

the various resources out there to help them

progress. Here’s a few tips that might help.

Talk to Other Classical Guitarists

While lessons are the best bet for developing

a sound technique and sense of musicality,

just informally chatting with other classical

guitarists can help. A lot. There’s many

avenues available to do this. One of them is a

guitar or classical guitar forum. Ask

questions! Listen to and watch other people

of your same level.

Repertoire Choice is King

One of the best things a teacher can do is

give you repertoire that’s at your level of

ability. If you’re self teaching, you have no

guidance in repertoire choices. However,

asking on a forum or asking a friend is a

great way to get some advice on where to

start. The Royal College Music guitar series

books are another great way to have access

to a bunch of carefully graded repertoire.

Working from a method book (see below) is

another great way to have graded repertoire.

Many free sheet music sites (including the

ones on the links page) have some grading

system available. Start with the lowest level!

While it’s tempting to jump in feet first,

learning the guitar requires a lot of brain

power be devoted to how the hands are

moving. If a piece is too hard, chances are all

your time will be spent simply trying to get

the notes.

Slow Down

It’s exciting to play the guitar! but please,

slow down. I tell my students this all the

time. Play it perfectly slow rather than screw

it up all the time.

Honest Self Evaluation

Teaching yourself requires some very honest

self evaluation. Does the piece sound like

you want it to? Why? How can you make it

sound that way. Other than the musical

aspects, there’s the technique. Keeping your

wrist generally straight is the foundation of

guitar technique. Other than that, LH on the

fingertips–fingers 1 and 4 will be slightly on

their outside edges, fingers 2 and 3 are more

straight on–and RH is mostly about just

keeping at the knuckles moving in the same

direction. You can see a bit about RH

technique on my youtube page. The thing

that will take you furthest, however, is not

any set of rules about either hand. It’s the

ability to think critically about what your

hands have to do. What does that LH do

when I move to this chord? Is it working?

Try different things! Choose the thing that

works the best! And be sure to keep that

observation for the next time a similar

situation comes up.

Listen!

With out a teacher guiding you on the

musical aspects of a piece, it become

increasingly important to do more listening.

Specifically, try to listen to piece that you

are playing. Mimic the performers, then

decided if you like what they did. If yes,

keep it. If no, throw it out.

Read

Read a lot of stuff about classical guitar.

Method books are a great place to start.

Pumping Nylon is another good one. It’s also

possible to work out of a method book for

repertoire choices and technique advice.

Below is an amazon store with some of the

available methods. Also, this book has some

great stuff in it.

Methods are strange creatures. Some move

fast and some move slow. The Aaron

Shearer method as been around a long time,

and is full of very precise technical

instructions in part one. The music is in part

two. The Christopher Parkening method

contains some good music, but at a certain

point gets too hard for most beginners. Mel

Bay’s Classical Guitar Method by Stanley

Yates is the method I use with my students.

Generally it moves pretty slow, but in such a

way that is just about right for beginners.

Note reading is not emphasized as much in

the Yates’ method, so some supplementary

materials may be needed. The Frederic Noad

―Solo Guitar Playing‖ method is long and

slow moving. A lot of people like this

method! I have this method but don’t use it

with students; I do think that it’s popular for

a reason: it’s pretty good. Tons of music, and

a lot of supplementary pieces at the end of

the book. There are many more methods out

there, but almost any will work at the

beginning.

Guitar Practice Tips

For some guitar practice is a time to de-stress

and unwind. For others, it’s like a job — part

of their professional music career or a

serious hobby. Whether you’re in either boat

or somewhere in the middle, chances are you

don’t have enough practicing time. That’s

where the Classical Guitar Blog can help.

Most of the articles you’ll find here are about

practicing more efficiently and practicing

better.

Goal Oriented Guitar Practice

Goal Oriented Guitar Practice is about

setting long term performance goals. Then

taking those goals and breaking them up into

actionable steps: what piece should have you

learned by when? Then we get into the daily

goals — what should you practice every day

to accomplish your long term goals?

Daily goals come from your practice log in

which you write down both what you did

during a given practice session and your

ideas about practicing and how to improve a

given passage.

This is the overarching philosophy behind all

guitar practice posts here on the Classical

Guitar Blog.

Dealing with Practice Inconsistency

If you haven’t been playing long, chances

are you notice some inconsistency during

your practice time. Some days things work;

others they don’t. The good news is the

longer you play guitar, and the better you get

a practicing, there will be less bad days and

you will get more consistent.

Remember: focus on the the long term

trends. Practicing is really an act of faith.

You have to believe that what you’re doing

is going to work in the long term. So be

consistent and stick with it.

That said, try to evaluate and cut out stuff

that isn’t working.

Taking Practice Breaks

One of the most underrated aspects of

practicing is the time when you aren’t

practicing at all. That’s why it’s really

important to take one day off from practicing

each week.

Sometimes those days off are the most

important. You can take a break to improve.

That said you can still be productive during

your practice break.

Fixing Mistakes

A mistake in performance is one of two

things: (1) a complete fluke that just

happened or (2) a real error that you built

into your playing by faulty practicing.

Hard things, places where you make

mistakes, are called practice events. They are

places where you should utilize guitar

practice techniques and try to practice

perfect.

Practice Schedules and Finding

Time to Practice

One of the easiest ways to find guitar

practice time is to set aside a certain time

every day. Enlist your family and friends,

and make sure that they know that you have

this sacred practice time. The rule: turn off

your phone and computer, then go practice

during that time 6 out of every 7 days. No

exceptions.

Once you have that time, you can start

thinking about practice schedules and how

much time you spend working on individual

aspects of your playing: technique,

repertoire, etudes, etc.

Part of being an efficient practicer is

knowing when to stop.

If you’re short on time, trying using a task

oriented practice schedule. Also, remember

that you can still be very effective with short

practice sessions.

This is only a small sampling of some of the

best posts. To see all posts about practicing,

check out the practice category.

Books about Practicing

On Practicing by Ricardo Iznaola

On Practicing is Ricardo

Iznaola’s very successful attempt at

producing a quick guide for undergraduate

guitar performance majors. Iznaola covers

what sorts of things should make up your

practice time and how to problem solve. It’s

a really solid collection of information for

not a ton of money. My only critique is that

Iznaola does have a very formal writing

style, which can make some sections a bit

unclear.

The Arts of Practicing by Madeline Bruser

Madeline Bruser is a

pianist, but The Art of Practicing is not piano

specific. The book delves more into the

spiritual and intellectual side of practicing

and connecting with music. That said, there

are some very practice tidbits: thoughts on

posture and sitting and a breathing exercise

to prepare yourself for a practice session are

two examples. This may not be a book that

you want to buy, but it’s worth checking out

from the library.

The Musician’s Way by Gerald Klickstein

The Musician’s Way is

probably one of the most complete books

about being a musician ever published. It

includes all sorts of advice, but practice

advice makes up a significant portion of the

book. If you’d like to learn more, check out

my review of the book.

Sympathetic Motion

by Christopher Davis

This stuff is definitely not my idea. Aaron

Shearer talks about it in Mel Bay Learning

the Classic Guitar: Part 1, and Christopher

Berg also talks about it in Mastering Guitar

Technique: Process & Essence.

Cliff Notes:

Sympathetic motion is the idea that as one RH finger moves, it pulls the others along with.

The best way to get a sense of what that’s like is to just roll a chord: it feels like one big movement

We use m a together as a compound or composite stroke

o play m a together. o Put a little tension on a, play, a

hangs behind a bit and separates. Two separate sounds, one motion.

o same thing works if you put a bit of tension on m

You can use sympathetic motion on arpeggios as well

Arpeggios like p i m i or p i a i use sympathetic motion followed by a return by another finger (opposing motion).

Sympathetic motion is easy at fast tempos, harder at moderate tempos, and doesn’t really work so great at slower tempos.

For another explanation, check out this video from Lutemann

Here are some common arpeggios from the

view of using sympathetic motion. Really

using this is just like sequential planting on

steroids. I did not practice sympathetic

motion specifically to develop it, but found

that it developed on its own from practicing

all arpeggios with sequential planting. The

key is to extend the fingers, i m a as one unit.

p i m: p plays; i and m extend, i plants; i

plays, pulls m onto the string; m plays, p

extends and plants.

p m i: p plays; i and m extend, m plants; m

plays, pulls i onto the string; i plays, p plants.

p i a: p plays, i and a extend, i plants; i

plants, pulls a onto the string; a plays, p

plants.

p a i: p plays, i and ma extend, a plants; a

plays, pulls i onto the string; i plays, p plants.

p m a: p plays, m and a extend, both plant; m

plays, put a little tension in a; a plays, p

plants (this is the compound stroke motion).

p a m: p plays, m and a extend, both plant; a

plays, put a little tension in m; m plays, p

plants (compound stroke).

You can then develop the compound stroke

into sequentially planting by letting the

second finger sit out from the string a bit,

and gets pull in by the motion of the first

finger–just like p i m works!

A Right Hand

Arpeggio Routine

by Christopher Davis

When I wrote Fun with p i m, it was

something I was experimenting with. My

arpeggio technique practice is usually the

arpeggios from the first three groups of

studies in Giuliani 120+ done using

Slow/Fast Alternation. (Yes, I do the things I

write about!)

The past few weeks, however, I’ve been

changing it up; I’ve been starting with

different finger on each arpeggio (still using

slow/fast alternation). This is an effort to

challenge my fingers a bit more and keep

things interesting.

The Schedule

Day 1:

p i m, p m i, p i a, p a i, p m a, p a m

i m p, m p i

m i p, i p m

i a p, a p i

a i p, i p a

m a p, a p m

a m p, m p a

Day 2:

p i m i, p m i m, p i a i, p m a m, p a m a

i m i p, m i p i, i p i m

m i m p, i m p m, m p m i

i a i p, a i p i, i p i a

a i a p, i a p a, a p a i

m a m p, a m p m, m p m a

a m a p, m a p a, a p a m

Day 3:

p i m a, p m a i, p i a m, p a m i, p a i m, p m

i a

i m a p, m a p i, a p i m

m a i p, a i p m, i p m a

i a m p, a m p i, m p i a

a m i p, m i p a, i p a m

a i m p, i m p a, m p a i (cross string trill

patterns)

m i a p, i a p m, a p m i

Day 4: repeat day 1

Day 5: repeat day 2

Day 6: repeat day 3

Day 7: OFF

The function of reordering the fingers is to

shift the accent around. The challenge,

really, is to keep the accent on the first

finger, but still use the Sympathetic Motion

developed by doing arpeggios starting with

the thumb.

A Note About Time

At first it takes a while to do these exercises.

The first week, for me, it took about thirty

minutes for each day. After the patterns are

better assimilated it will take less time. If it

takes you a while to get right hand patterns

down, consider working on just a few of the

patterns at first. Build up to doing the entire

routine.

The other side of time is tempo. I do not use

a metronome in technique practice often.

These exercises can be practice with or with

out a metronome, but I do recommend

slow/fast alternation as soon as the patterns

are assimilated.

A Few Notes

If you’re a beginning guitarist, this routine is

not for you. See Technical Exercises for the

Absolute Beginner, or work with simpler

arpeggio forms like p i m, p i m i, p m i, and

p m i m.

Sympathetic Motion

by Christopher Davis

This stuff is definitely not my idea. Aaron

Shearer talks about it in Mel Bay Learning

the Classic Guitar: Part 1, and Christopher

Berg also talks about it in Mastering Guitar

Technique: Process & Essence.

Cliff Notes:

Sympathetic motion is the idea that

as one RH finger moves, it pulls the

others along with.

The best way to get a sense of what

that’s like is to just roll a chord: it

feels like one big movement

We use m a together as a compound

or composite stroke

o play m a together.

o Put a little tension on a, play,

a hangs behind a bit and

separates. Two separate

sounds, one motion.

o same thing works if you put a

bit of tension on m

You can use sympathetic motion on

arpeggios as well

Arpeggios like p i m i or p i a i use

sympathetic motion followed by a

return by another finger (opposing

motion).

Sympathetic motion is easy at fast

tempos, harder at moderate tempos,

and doesn’t really work so great at

slower tempos.

For another explanation, check out

this video from Lutemann

Here are some common arpeggios from the

view of using sympathetic motion. Really

using this is just like sequential planting on

steroids. I did not practice sympathetic

motion specifically to develop it, but found

that it developed on its own from practicing

all arpeggios with sequential planting. The

key is to extend the fingers, i m a as one unit.

p i m: p plays; i and m extend, i plants; i

plays, pulls m onto the string; m plays, p

extends and plants.

p m i: p plays; i and m extend, m plants; m

plays, pulls i onto the string; i plays, p plants.

p i a: p plays, i and a extend, i plants; i

plants, pulls a onto the string; a plays, p

plants.

p a i: p plays, i and ma extend, a plants; a

plays, pulls i onto the string; i plays, p plants.

p m a: p plays, m and a extend, both plant; m

plays, put a little tension in a; a plays, p

plants (this is the compound stroke motion).

p a m: p plays, m and a extend, both plant; a

plays, put a little tension in m; m plays, p

plants (compound stroke).

You can then develop the compound stroke

into sequentially planting by letting the

second finger sit out from the string a bit,

and gets pull in by the motion of the first

finger–just like p i m works!

Cross-String

Ornaments

by Christopher Davis

I suggest you read a few articles on cross

string ornamentation by two people way

smarter than I:

David Russell: Two String Trills

Stanley Yates: Everything You Wanted to

Know about Cross String Ornaments

Russell and Yates give two different

fingerings to use for cross-string ornaments.

Russell’s method is to use aimp:

Yates uses imam, which is a bit harder to get

down. However, he offers practice advice

that works very well in the article linked

above.

There’s also the option of raking a finger

across two strings, which can work really

well, but it’s hard to get in time and

rhythmic.

The advantage of miam and mimm is that the

thumb is free to do it’s thing. This can be a

big advantage in more complex pieces.

Personal Preference

Your personal preference and strengths are

going to determine which fingering pattern

works best. My go-to cross string trill is

aimp. However, I’m working on nailing

miam because it frees up the thumb.

Right Hand

Fingering Guide

by Christopher Davis

Getting a great set of fingerings for a piece is

not easy. The goal of this post is to provide

some things to think about when putting

together your right hand fingerings for a

piece.

“Good” vs. “Bad” string crossings

This can be extremely helpfully in scalar

passages. A ―good‖ string crossing looks like

this:

A ―bad‖ crossing is like this:

Good and bad are in quotation marks

because it doesn’t really matter. Whenever

there’s a string crossing the arm carries a

finger to the next string. It’s very apparent

when doing a ―bad‖ crossing. Most times the

easiest way to is to use a ―good‖ string

crossing. This is especially true for

beginners.

Use a to Prevent Bad Crossings

More advanced guitarists can make very

effective use of a to prevent bad crossings.

Take a look at this scale, for example:

Strict mi alternation produces a ―bad‖

crossing (circled). Using a can avoid this:

Despite all this, bad crossings happen

sometimes. Your practice should include

both good and bad string crossings. But

when preparing a piece for performance

choose the easier and most logical finger.

Arpeggio Textures: Constructive

Cheating

When performing a piece that has an

arpeggio texture, the easiest right hand

pattern should be used. This is especially

important in faster pieces. There’s a couple

ways to ―cheat‖ that step outside the

traditional norm.

1. Move the Thumb around. Sometimes it’s easier to bring the thumb up to grab a string than trying to play it with another finger.

2. Use four fingers where three would do. A simple pimi arpeggio can be played very quickly and cleanly using piam.

The Bottom Line

When fingering a piece, make it as easy as

possible. Performing is stressful already, so

don’t make it any more difficult. There are

obvious advantages to playing studies a

harder way, some etudes have specific

purposes and fingering shouldn’t be messed

with to make them easier. However, concert

pieces are often a different story.

Classical Guitar

Technique

Tech • nique – the manner and ability with

which an artist, writer, dancer, athlete, or

the like employs the technical skills of a

particular art or field of endeavor.

Classical guitar technique is how we move to

accomplish our goals. In other words,

technique is what we do to accomplish all of

the musical things we want to accomplish.

Thus, it’s extremely important to isolate your

technical deficiencies and work on them. For

classical guitarists, that means doing (1)

arpeggios, (2) slurs, (3) guitar scales, (4)

other left hand considerations and (5) other

extended techniques such as rasgueado or

things like the snare drum effect.

The Classical Guitar Blog has a ton of

resources on technique, so let me highlight a

few for you below. Following the list of

posts on this site, there some

recommendations for books about classical

guitar technique.

Classical Guitar Arpeggios

The word arpeggio means broken chord.

Take the notes of a chord, and play them in

sequence rather than all together.

Chord vs Arpeggio

In the classical guitar world, playing

arpeggios means using a specific right hand

technique in which there is one finger per

string. Those fingers are then used to play

the notes of a chord in sequence. Sometimes

this is easy (like the example below), and

sometimes it’s very complex (like piece by

Mertz in the audio below).

Classical Guitar Arpeggio

Arpeggios don’t get a lot of love in the

technical practice world. Which is

unfortunate. Classical guitarists spend a lot

of time playing around with arpeggio

textures. Some of the most famous pieces of

the guitar repertoire include extended

sections of repeated arpeggio patterns. It

makes sense then that you should spend

some time with arpeggios in your technical

practice routine. The Giuliani right hand

studies and other similar exercises are some

of the most effective ways to practice

arpeggios.

Tremolo, repeating notes on a single string,

and cross-string trills also fit into the

arpeggios category. They are, after all,

extensions of arpeggio technique.

Resources for practicing classical guitar

arpeggios:

A Right Hand Arpeggio Routine Three Ways to Develop and Arpeggio How to Practice Cross-String Trills Cross-String Ornaments

Slurs on the Guitar

Slurs (aka Hammer Ons and Pull Offs) are

one of the most demanding left hand

techniques. And, frankly, a lot of

intermediate guitarists have trouble with

them. Even advanced guitarists have

difficulties with trills and other extensions of

left hand slur technique. Beyond the obvious

technical difficulties of them, improper slurs

can often ruin the musical flow of the pieces

or even destroy phrasing.

Here are some resources to help with your

slur practice.

Slurs with the First Finger Descending Slurs Ascending Slurs Video Lesson: Beginning Slur Exercises

Classical Guitar Scales

Ah, scales, a guitarist’s best friend, right?

Maybe not. Honestly the classical guitar

repertoire doesn’t include a lot of passages

of extended scales. And if you happen to be

playing a piece with a lot of scales, it makes

more sense to practice those scales instead of

abstracted major and minor scales. Still,

scales are an essential part of guitar

technique and should be included in your

routine.

Scale practice should include long, short, and

burst practice. Not just long, 1 or 2 octave

Segovia scales (aff). Try incorporating a few

one octave scales and five-note bursts into

your technical routine.

Here are some resources about scale

practice.

Guitar Scales: The Right Hand Guitar Scales: The Left Hand Scale Practice Techniques

Left Hand Technique Considerations

One of the first thing to consider is shifting

up and down the neck of the guitar. Most

likely you’ll getting plenty of shifting

practicing during your normal repertoire

practice. So much of left hand shifting is

piece-specific that it’s hard to practice it

outside of those contexts. Should you want

to add this to your technical routine, I

suggest you extract portions from pieces and

use them.

Also read Sequencing the Left Hand and

Practice Techniques: Stop/Go.

The left hand can either be in an angled or

straight position. Both are useful depending

on the context.

Finally, do classical guitarists really play on

their fingertips? Sometimes. Again, it

depends on the piece.

Think Carefully About Guitar

Technique

The goal of the linked posts on guitar

technique is to make you think. Classical

guitar technique excellence takes careful

consideration of both technical exercises and

how technique functions in the context of

real pieces. So things like an angled vs.

straight hand position can be noticed and

practiced. These posts are some of the most

important to read, but if you want more

please check out the classical guitar

technique category.

The Classical Guitar Blog+

Over the years, I’ve created a bunch of

ebooks of technical exercises and

information. They are now all available on

The Classical Guitar Blog+. For only $19.95

you’ll get access to all of the ebooks and a

year of access to our forum where you can

get your technical questions answered.

Classical Guitar Technique Books

Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant

Pumping Nylon has

been one of the standard classical guitar

technique texts for nearly ten years. And for

good reason: it’s damn good. Author Scott

Tennant put together what is essentially a

book of some of the most effective technical

exercises for the guitar. It includes exercises

for rasgueado, slurs, arpeggios, and left hand

finger independence and coordination. The

down side to Pumping Nylon is that there is

very little in the way of text and

explanations. Scott Tennant pretty much

throws a bunch of exercises at you to

practice with no real suggestions on how to

incorporate them into a coherent whole of a

technical routine.

Kitharologus by Ricardo Iznaola

Kitharologus, like

pumping nylon, is a bit lean on text. That

said, while Kitharologus lacks text, it’s not

short of detail. This is a book of exclusively

technical exercises laid out in levels of

increasing difficulty. In addition, Iznaola

gives you metronome markings for every

exercise and an entire practice routine for

getting through the entire book. It’s an

impressively coherent, clearly laid out

technical routine that would keep any

guitarist busy for a year or more.

The Art of Classical Guitar Playing by

Charles Duncan

The Art of Classical

Guitar Playing was one of the first books I

read about guitar technique. And it’s

awesome. The advice may be a bit ―old

school‖, but it’s very solid. Pumping Nylon

and Kitharologus are books of technical

exercises; the Art of Classical Guitar Playing

is mostly text and in depth explanations

about the how and why of guitar technique.

If you want some more exercises, it does

have a companion book, Classical Guitar

2000, but I was very underwhelmed by the

exercises in it. The Natural Classical Guitar

by Lee F. Ryan

The Natural Classical

Guitar is another book of explanations and

info about the how and why of guitar

technique. Some key ideas of this book have

become common knowledge in the guitar

world: the play relax technique and ballistic

motion to name a few. Unfortunately, The

Natural Classical Guitar is out of print and

expensive to buy. That said, the local library

may have a copy, or check at a nearby

university library.Learning the Classical

Guitar by Aaron Shearer

Aaron Shearer was one of

the most well known guitar pedagogues of

the 20th century. Learning the Classic Guitar

is the first of three volumes of his guitar

method. That said, this one is all text. It’s

mean to be studied along with part two. As a

method it’s really not very good. As a book

about classical guitar technique, if you can

get past Shearer’s very formal writing style,

it’s very good.