In my defence, after Dave and I reviewed the initial draft, we doubled the length of it to a full 60 pages or songs, exercises and techniques, so it's a very comprehensive introduction to playing classical guitar!
The book, Classical Champion, mirrors our Classical Champion course that we offer to students. We often pull elements from each of our courses to create each students personalised guitar journey, so for current students, we'll get you a copy of the book if it's relevant for you (or if you are keen to explore a new genre).
If you're wondering whether or not Classical Guitar is for you, check out this guide which explains the benefits of learning beginner classical guitar.
Pitch Symbols And Their Meanings For Reading Guitar Notation
Everything in the Classical Champion course is written in standard notation, from chords to songs to exercises, so if you don't know how to read music yet, you sure as hell will by the end of the course!
Specifically, we'll get you comfortably reading songs in 4 keys with a variety of rhythms, which is enough for you to be able to work out pretty much any song in standard notation in any style (it's kinda like when you first learn to read tabs - once you have the basics down, you can
We mostly focus on open position to begin with, with a few extra challenges reading up the fretboard in the later songs.
Should I Learn How To Read Music Sheet First Or Learn All Of The Notes On The Fret Board Of The Guitar First?
Keys become a lot more restrictive in classical than they are in rock when you're first starting out, as certain keys are easier to play and read on the guitar.
All the songs and exercises are in one of these 4 keys, which happen to be the most common for the guitar, so you'll become pretty great at them.
Future books will cover other keys, but you don't necessarily need to learn the ins and outs of each key before you play a song in that key, so don't let that hold you back from trying songs outside of this book in other keys.
Ode To Joy
I hope I haven't lost you with a scary word like 'diatonic'. All it means is that we're going to teach you all of the chords within each of the 4 keys - the 'diatonic' chords, which are the chords that are made up from the notes within the original key without any alterations.
This means you'll have to work on a few augmented and diminished chords, which aren't as common outside of classical guitar, but many of the major and minor chord shapes should be more familiar.
If you can master these 3 techniques, you can pretty confidently tackle most classical pieces from a picking hand technical point of view.
Ways To Read Guitar Music
We've got arrangements of Spanish pieces, Romantic pieces, Classical pieces, Waltzes - you name it - to give you a really full repertoire of beginner songs to learn.
From there, you'll start to get a feel of what you enjoy the most, which will help you choose the next few songs to perform after this book too (chances are if you like one piece by a composer, you'll probably enjoy their other compositions too).
Note that you don't need to know how to sight read music yet, and you don't need to know any music theory either (though you will by the end).
How To Read Guitar Tablature
Now, if you're already a very proficient player in another style, or your technical skills aren't the best, there are multiple levels for many of the songs and exercises in the book, so you can always jump straight to the harder levels if the simpler levels aren't challenging enough for you or stick to the easier levels if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed.
The lower level songs still sound great on their own, so you'll be able to play some awesome songs no matter which version you attempt.
Currently, the Classical Champion book is only available for current students, so if you're not currently enrolled in lessons with us, please book yourself in for an evaluation lesson here and we can run you through what's involved.
Guitar Notation Basics
Later on, I'd love to make this course available online, but we need to create some more supporting material before that dream can become a reality (many techniques are simple to explain in person with direct feedback between teacher and student, but aren't effective to learn from a book alone).
If that's something you're keen on finding out more about, join our free Guitar Master Club below and we'll send you any updates on the online course as it's developed.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”
Improve Your Sight Reading On Guitar
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.
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:
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:
Reading Guitar Tabs For Beginners
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 free guitar music page for some sheet music and links) floating around online 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!
Christopher Davis founded in 2008. He holds a Masters degree in guitar performance and currently spends his days building web applications.
How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar: 12 Steps (with Pictures)
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