Classical Guitar Course for Adults
This course series is a comprehensive guide for classical guitar beginners. The online video courses are designed to help you learn how to play the guitar and get started with the basics. The series will teach you everything from, understanding the parts of a guitar, how to tune and care for your instrument, reading music notation, chords, and scales, to playing complex classical guitar pieces.
Level 1“Classical Guitar Course for Adults”
This course is designed to give you a solid base in your development as a classical guitarist. I will teach you from scratch how to play classical guitar. There are two lines that will be going simultaneously:
Guitar Playing
It includes the mechanical level of the performing and the implementation of the gained knowledge and skills by exercises etudes and pieces, which are developed and selected in a way that introduces to you the new things gradually and smoothly.
Music theory
I will teach you how to read music notation. The music theory presented in this course is strongly related to your classical guitar playing the materials are designed to help you understand and to support the music you perform with theoretical knowledge as much as possible, The theory that you will learn is in sync with your guitar playing.
This course is not for:
advanced players, also it is not for strumming chords and playing songs although this is covered in the course to some extent.
Level 2 “Classical Guitar Course for Adults”
In this course, you will build on what you learned in Level 1.
Learn and implement arpeggio patterns.
The arpeggio technique is an important asset for the classical guitar player. With the foundation that you have from Level 1- plucking chords in a variety of ways, you will find that it will be just natural for you to learn and implement this new technique.
New ways of eliciting chords
different plucking and strumming techniques, introduced to you in an explicit way, following the ones that you learned earlier.
Music theory
is closely related to the music that is presented in the course. I will not teach you things that you don’t need now. But on contrary, the theory is restricted to the terms and symbols which you see in the score that you play.
Ensemble playing- Duet, Trio.
Playing in an ensemble is an essential part of music education, along with the fun that this activity gives you, it helps you understand better your instrument. With the ensemble pieces provided in this course, you get a first-hand experience of two or three melodies that are played simultaneously. You have a chance to experience different layers of the music texture. You see and follow the other part or parts while playing yours. This itself is of great value when it comes to playing classical guitar music as the guitar is a multi-voice instrument.
Practice sessions – with me,
will help you learn better and don’t feel lonely while practicing. once you have learned your part, we will be practicing ensemble pieces together.
Pieces by Matteo Carcassi and Antonio Cano.
With everything that you have learned in level 1 and level 2, You will find that you are fully prepared to play those classical guitar tunes. I present them to you with separate technical exercises extracted from the pieces themselves. Those exercises will help you to play the actual pieces effortlessly.
Supplementary pieces
I have included a few pieces by Fernando Sor and Joseph Kuffner, that you can play using the skills and knowledge that you acquired from the course.
Level 3 Classical Guitar Course for Adults
Learn and implement notes on position 2.
New techniques
will be related mostly with your right hand- golpe, playing finger (index or middle) –apoyando and thumb –tirando simultaneously
Music theory
closely related to the music that is presented in the course. I will not teach you things that you don’t need now. But on contrary, the theory is restricted to the terms and symbols which you see in the score that you play.
Ensemble playing
There will be a piece called Amelia which you will learn how to do accompaniment to it using the new chords and new strumming technique.
New pieces:
Valentin Spasov Etude no. 3
Jose Ferrer (1835-1916) – Ejercicio
Valentin Spasov – Habanera
Valentin Spasov – El Tocador.
With everything that you have learned in level 1 and level 2, You will find that you are fully prepared to play those classical guitar pieces.
Supplementary pieces
I have included a few pieces by Fernando Carulli, Joseph Kuffner, and Valentin Spasov, that you can play using the skills and knowledge that you acquired from the course.
View Level 3 Classical Guitar Course for Adults
Level 4 Classical Guitar Course for Adults
Level 4 is a natural continuation of the previous courses levels 1-2 and 3.
This course can be divided virtually into three parts:
Take those three parts as virtual subdivisions of the course structure rather than in a sequence.
Technical part
There are included a set of scales and arpeggios. We have been playing scales in the previous levels but not to such an extent.
In this course, we have 5 scales and three arpeggios:
Scales:
C major – 2 octaves
A minor harmonic – 2 octaves
A minor melodic – 2 octaves
F major – 2 octaves
Chromatic scale starting on G – 1 octave
Arpeggios:
C major – 2 octaves
A minor – 2 octaves
F major – 2 octaves.
The technical part includes also a few exercises distributed throughout the course to help you to understand and practice different rhythm models such as Swing. Triplets, Syncopation etc.
Music theory,
The theory presented in the course is minimized and restricted as much as possible to what you will be needing in the course.
The new things that we will come across within this course are:
· Double-dotted Quarter note
· Triplet
· Syncopation
· Swing Rhythm
· Tone Colors
· Melodic Minor Scale
· Campanella
· Muting
During the course, there will be provided specific exercises for some of those concepts.
Implementation
The pieces that are included in the course are:
Etude No. 4 – Valentin Spasov
Melancholia -Valentin Spasov
Romanze Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806 – 1856)
Tempo di marcia -Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806 – 1856)
Blue Pearl – Valentin Spasov
Supplementary Pieces
in the last section of the course, there are several supplementary pieces to implement the skills and knowledge that you have acquired during level 4. If you do everything properly you shouldn’t have problems playing those pieces and many others that are of a similar technical level, just by yourself.
What you’ll learn
Five new pieces
A set of scales and arpeggios
Swing Rhythm
Tone Colors
Muting
Music Theory
Supplementary pieces
Moving to different positions
Are there any course requirements or prerequisites?
Completion of levels 1,2, and 3 is a must.
Who this course is for:
This course is for students who have completed my previous courses Levels 1,2 and 3, and are willing to move forward
Alternatively you should be familiar with classical guitar basics, positions I, II, V, able to play arpeggios, free and rest stroke etc.
Motivate Yourself to Practice Guitar
“If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.” Jan Paderewski(1860–1941) Polish pianist The importance of practicing the instrument is well understood by most students and parents. This course is not about what exercises or scales to practice, it is rather to provoke you to think in a bit different direction.
What will you learn in this course?
- how to motivate yourself and bring back your enthusiasm,
- how to organize yourself and how to establish your practice routine,
- how to make your practice time more efficient more productive and the most important,
- how to make your practice time more enjoyable.
The course is designed in three virtual parts:
In the first one you will understand:
- more about the music as an activity,
- about yourself as an aficionado and music lover,
- about the components of the guitar lesson.
All that will help you understand, how you got here and why are you struggling. In other words, we will try to locate and explain the complications that you may have.
In the second part you will learn:
- what you should work on,
- what aspects of your assumptions about the music will need to be reconciled and cleared?
- You will learn about the necessity of defining your musical goals.
Finally, in the third part you will learn step by step:
- How are you going to solve your problems and what things do you need to do in order to benefit from your guitar activities?
- How to establish your daily routine and how to stick to it.
- What to do with your routine once you establish it.
- How to improve and keep your motivation and enthusiasm.
- How to make your everyday practice time feel enjoyable.
- How to prepare yourself for upcoming concerts or performances.
- How to behave on stage, in general, or in an informal setting while performing your music.
- When and how to refuse to perform