What is a metronome?

First, for the sake of completeness, I will explain what a metronome is. A metronome is a mechanical tool that makes repeated clicking sounds at an adjustable pace. You use a metronome to sound the “beats” of a piece of music so that you can play along with its “pulse” and check if you are inadvertently rushing or slowing down. You can set a metronome to click as quickly or slowly as you want, and you then mentally treat each click as a half note, quarter note, eighth note, etc. You can also set the metronome to match the “beats” of a piece of music by accenting the downbeat of every measure. For example, if you set a metronome to 4/4 time, the first downbeat will sound differently than the other three beats that follow.

Before you use a metronome…

I believe that you need to have pretty solid beginner guitar skills before you can seriously begin to add a metronome to your guitar studies. Now, I don’t mean that you should first be able to play Recuerdos De La Alhambra before you can use a metronome, but you should at least have good control over your fingers, be able to play some scales and chords, and have decent music reading skills/understanding. I believe this because adding a metronome to any music studies will cause your brain to have to devide its attention between the metronome clicking and your actual playing, and if you don’t possess some decent playing skills you will have a big train wreck in your hands.

Adjustment period

When you first begin to slowly work a metronome into your music studying, it will be very hard and extremely annoying. The ticking will become very distracting and throw your tempo off, which ironically is what a metronome is supposed to help you with! I would begin using a metronome with a relatively slow and simple piece so that you don’t fry your brain thinking about too many things at once. It is of course always adviced to study a new piece in a slow tempo to begin with, and if you add a metronome into the equation I would slow things down even further. Very few people end up becoming accustomed playing along with a metronome precisely because of this adjustment period, and the problem seems to be even more prominent amongst guitarists. All I can say is that, although it may be tough at first, the metronome is an excellent study tool that you want in your arsenal.

Developing your own personal metronome

Frequent, if not daily use of a metronome in your guitar studies will strengthen your ability to keep a steady beat on your own over time. It is an ability that takes a long time to grow, so begin by taking the first step and adding a metronome the next time you play the guitar.

Sheet Music

Using Powertab, I write sheet music for every piece. On these documents, you will see regular music staff with the music written out, and below a tab version. I do not take any liberties when I write out these documents; they are exactly the same as the sheet music I got them from, except that I simply added a tab of the music below. On these documents I include right-hand fingerings and bars. I DO NOT talk about right-hand fingerings on the lesson videos, so these documents will help fill some gaps left off from the videos. I also write whether certain parts of a song should be played in freestroke or reststroke. Bars are also included in these documents, and are written out in roman numerals above the tab. Look in the “Editorial” section of this site for the article “Reading my tabs/sheet music” for a more in-depth explanation of many of the markings that appear on these documents.

“Powertab files”

Every piece of music will have a Powertab file you can download. I have personally written out these files, and thus correspond with the video lessons and the sheet music/tabs I write out for each piece. Clicking on these links will produce a pop-up asking to download the powertab file, which are very small in size. Once you download the file, assuming you already have the Powertab software installed, you will be able to open the file immediately.

Using Powertab

Once you download a powertab file from this site, click “Open” and the software will open up. You will see a normal music staff with notes, and below a tab version of what is written. Click on the green “Play from beginning” button on the top left and the music will begin to play. As it plays, notes on the tab will light up in red, signifying that those are the notes you are currently hearing being played. Click on a specific measure and click the green “Play” button and the music will begin to play from that measure. Pull-offs and hammer-ons appear on the tab, as well as harmonics. Repeat sighs and other musical directions appear, and as you hear the music being played the program will follow these directions, so pay close attention and keep up.

WARNING! The powertab files are sometimes written a little differently than the sheet music/tab documents of the same piece of music. Why? Simply put, there are things on the sheet music that the program has difficulty understanding, and thus I must find a compromise somehow. However, the differences are very small, and the music as a whole does not suffer much. Remember, the powertab files are a STUDY TOOL ONLY! It is not a %100 official exact recreaton of the music.

Powertab as a study tool

Although you will most likely get the most direction from my video lessons, using the powertab files will help you a lot as well. Following along with the music as it’s being played on the Powertab program will show you how a piece of music is suppossed to flow. Also, if you are having a hard time following the tempo of a piece, hearing it out on Powertab can be a big help. The more you use Powertab and become familiar with the program, the more you will be able to benefit from my Powertab files. Enjoy!

Above is what a guitar tab looks like. Notice that unlike the normal music staff, there are six lines in tab. Each line represents a string on the guitar. The top line represents the lightest string, high E, while the lowest line represents the thickest string on the guitar, the low E string. This order is difficult for players new to tab to grasp. Although the upper lines on tab represent the lighter strings, nevertheless the lighter strings are actually “lower” on the neck of the guitar in relation to our bodies. With a little practice, however, it will become second nature.

Above we have a normal music staff with the C major scale written out, with it’s tab equivalent underneath. In tabs we use numbers to represent the frets we press on and pluck on a specific string to get the notes we want. A zero (0) on a line means to play that string open. Now, it takes a lot of prior knowledge to know how to read the music staff, while someone reading tab can theoretically read all the same notes as long as they know how to read tab, which can be learned in minutes. But there are definite setbacks to tabs. TABS CAN’T GIVE NOTE LENGTHS! Althought the tab version of the C major scale represents the correct left hand fingerings, there are no indications on the tab itself telling us to play the notes as quarter notes. Just from reading the tabs, for all we know we should be playing the notes as sixteenths! Thus, it is crucial that we have heard the piece of music beforehand so we know what values to assign each note. Usually even the measure lines are way off as well, so don’t just accept a tab you are unfamiliar with at face value.

Above is the same C major scale, but played differently on the tab. There are also many different “tricks” that can be written out on tabs. There is usually a legend on top of the tab detailing how these tricks are written. Here are some common ones:

h = hammer on
p = pull off
/ = slide

Take things slow
Before you even begin to learn anything, you need to get into a relaxed mentality and know that going slow and learning something right the first time will, in the end, save you more time than quickly and haphazardly going through a piece. Now this doesn’t mean that you have to go at a snail’s pace either, but pace things out.

Sightread or memorize
Depending on the level of difficulty of the piece you are learning, and your playing/reading skills, it may be wise to decide beforehand if you plan on memorizing a piece or sight reading it. In a way, this is a trick question because with both ways there is a lot of memorization and familiarity being developed as you learn a new piece of music. Even for pieces I sightread, I have memorized a great chunk of the music simply from playing and studying it so many times. But still, there is a lot more concious effort needed to memorize a piece of music PERFECTLY than to just become famiiar enough to be able to sight read it. Why not just memorize eveything? Well, that’s definitely something many guitarists, and musicians in general, try to do. I personally try to memorize all the more difficult pieces of my repertoire. But in the time it may take to memorize a 4 page piece of music, you could be able to sight read 2-3 other ones of similar length and difficulty. Plus, as we move on to our next project, and the next, etc, we are prone to forget older pieces we may have memorized. Perhaps you can start with the intention of sight reading a piece and then decide to fully memorize it as well.

One measure at a time
I personally try to solidly learn a measure before I seriously look at what’s ahead. This is especially true with more difficult pieces with a lot of information in them. Really examine all the hand movements you do, and work out the timing slowly at first to help become familiar with each measure, and then speed it up to tempo. Basically, you should be able to play a measure almost flawlessly 3-5 times in a row with all the same fingerings before you advance to the next measure. Isn’t this a bit extreme? Remember, if you learn something right the first time, you won’t have to go back to it again to fix things. Also, it is wise to examine the first couple of beats of the next measure to see that your fingerings of the measure you are doing won’t conflict with the new measure. If you find that some of the fingerings you worked out don’t work with the next measure’s fingerings, it’s best to know that now while you still have the old measure fresh in your mind and fix things right from the get-go. Don’t forget, what makes fixing mistakes tough is that we usually discover them long after the fact. Correcting mistakes that just happenned isn’t much of an issue at all.

Don’t change fingerings
When we learn a piece of music, the hand we pay most attention to is the left hand. Obviously, that hand is the one that presses on the frets and thus moves the piece along. But it is wise to pay close attention to your right hand just as much. Try to ALWAYS play each part the same every time with both your left and right hand fingers. If you are constantly changing your fingerings, it will take you longer to memorize a part or it will just make you more prone to making a mistake. Carefully study each part of the music, choose the best fingerings for both hands, and stick with them. Mark down fingerings on the sheet of music so you don’t forget.

Metronome
Working with a metronome as you are learning a new piece can really help in the learning process. For newer players especially, I recommend using one regularly. It takes some time getting used to using one, but it can really help you to develop your own personal metronome over time. Look for the article “Using a metronome” in the “Editorial” section of this site for more info on using a metronome.

Don’t forget your pencil
If the piece of music you are currently studying doesn’t have ANY pencil markings on it, then you are making things harder on yourself. Make it a habit to mark down important things on your music sheets, like when to play a certain note pressing down a fret instead of open string; where bars are; right hand fingerings; and pretty much anything that you think might help you the next time you sit down to play the same piece. Always use a pencil because you can fix mistakes easier, or you may have just changed your opinion on a marking you had done before and wish to change it to something else.

Chair
Find a sturdy flat chair. The height of the chair you sit on will have a big effect on how you may posture yourself. If you find a chair you feel very comfortable playing on, then try to use that chair exclusively when you are playing. Never play on a couch or other “soft” forms of seats; never play on chairs with armrests; never rest your back on the backrests of chairs.

Feet/legs
Your feet should be making a slight “V” formation. They should not be totally straight forward. Both feet should be fairly apart, at least matching your shoulders. The butt end of the guitar will go in between your legs in a 45 degree angle, or a little more/less depending on your body. It should not, however, be totally horizontal on your lap. Your left leg may need to be elevated higher so that the guitar can tilt in a 45 degree angle more easily. You can use a footstool to rest your left foot on and raise up that leg. The height of the chair will affect how high you will need to raise your leg up. You may not need to raise your leg at all sometimes or just need to “tip-toe” your left foot a bit to achieve the result you want. Experiment to see what suits you best. (If you are playing a lefty guitar, then your right foot would need to be elevated.)

Body
I hope your parents taught you not to slouch! Your back should be straight, but not necessarily in a 90 degree angle. You may want to tilt down a bit to a 80 degree angle or more/less depending on your body and comfort. Sit towards the edge of the seat, don’t rest your back all the way in the seat. Your body should be in a natural position to your feet. By this I mean you should not be leaning towards the left or right. I find that beginners tend to lean their bodies towards the neck of the guitar to be able to reach the notes easier. This is a natural thing that happens as we begin to “feel out” the guitar and see what works and what doesn’t work. However, don’t make this into a habit. You need to “outgrow” this crutch fairly quickly.

Arms
Your arms should be loose and your shoulders relaxed. If you are right-handed, your right hand should be in an “L” shape. The right forearm should be resting on the butt end of the guitar, keeping it from slipping off your lap. Depending on your body type, you may go up to your right bicep to do this as well. Your left arm should be in a “V” shape. You can poke out your left elbow a bit to make it easier to reach notes, but don’t overdo it. Your left arm should not be needed at all to hold up the guitar. If you see you are using your left hand/arm to keep the guitar from slipping off, then you need to re-read this article and improve your posture. Your left thumb should be behind the neck of the guitar, towards the middle. It usually should not be visible to your audience.

Guitar
The butt end of the guitar fits in between your legs, tilting to around a 45 degree angle. The body of the guitar should “tilt” towards your body a bit usually, around your chest area. The neck of the guitar should be somewhat close to your face. If it’s not, then you probably have the guitar too horizontally on your lap and need to tilt it up more.

Head
The head of the guitar is used to hold one end of the strings.

Tuners
On the head are plastic/metal knobs. The strings are attached to them at one end. When you turn them, they wrap the string either tighter or looser, thus tuning the string, hence the name tuners.

Nut
The nut is a plastic strip at the end of the head. The nut has six slits where the strings go, and is used to lift the strings higher than the neck.

Neck
The neck of the guitar is the entire lenght of wood where the strings run through.

Frets
Frets are metal strips attached to the neck and used to divide the neck. Frets are also the spaces of wood above the metal fret strip.

Fingerboard
On top of the neck there is an additional piece of flat wood that is meant to be pressed on with our fingers. The fingerboard extends farther than the neck, into the body of the guitar.

Body
The body of the guitar is the entire lower part of the guitar. It has many different parts on it.

Sound Hole
The sound hole is the circular hole cut out from the body of the guitar. When a string is plucked, the sound is built up inside the body of the guitar and released through the sound hole.

Strings
Although technically not a part of the guitar itself, it is an essential component. The strings are used to produce sounds. They are housed on the guitar through the tuners at the head of the guitar and the bridge at the end of the body.

Bridge
The bridge is the other end of the guitar that holds the strings.

Pieces for videos are worked on for 1-2 weeks on average before I am satisfied with my playing of the piece and my fingerings. As I learn a piece, I start working on making a tablature version of the sheet music manually. After I learn the piece entirely and have decided on fingerings, I make a Powertab file for the piece and do the sheet music/tab document also using Powertab.

Doing the videos is tough work! My family is in the fashion biz, and thus I luckily have access to cameras, lighting equipment, and a quiet locale when not in use. I set up the things I need, dress up a bit, and start shooting. I am very picky about my playing and what I put up on my blog. Although I am not a robot, and know that there are usually a few minute “blips” in the videos that do end up on the site, nevertheless I try to keep anything somewhat major off of here. I tend to do well over 20 videos in total for just one piece (with the video lessons)! If I play an obvious wrong note, I start over. If I say something incorrectly during the video lesson tapings (I don’t write scripts), I start again. If I get really tounge-tied, I do it over again. And this is just dealing with myself! I get the occational car alarm siren from outside, telephone call, firetruck/policecar/ambulance noise, uninvited walk-ins, etc, which have ruined many great takes! I save some of the real funny ones sometimes, and hope to do a “Blooper’s” page sometime soon.

After shooting the videos, the next step is editing and filing. I run the raw videos through a few editing programs. First I crop the videos to cut the unwanted excess. Then I play with the colors to help make my videos more clear. Finally I compress the files I keep down to manageable levels. I file all these videos, as well as all the documents I create for each piece, into an archive I keep of everything that has been put up on classicalguitarblogger.com.

Finally, I upload the videos one by one onto Youtube, which is a very daunting task in itself. Putting up a video of mine can take 20-30 minutes plus per video. But still, it is pretty rewarding seeing all my hard work added as a new post one at a time on my blog. But all my hard work is in vain unless there are people getting genuine value from my videos and writings, so please feel free to check out all that this site has to offer. Enjoy!

Tablature

My text tabs are pretty standard. On the top I write the name of the piece, the author, and below a legend of the special “tricks” used on the piece. Of course, if you are unfamiliar with tab or any of these terms, you will need to find out what they mean. I talk about these terms in the video lessons, so just by watching them you should see what these terms mean. I write my tabs in a way that follows the way the sheet music for the piece is written.

||
||
||.
||.
||
||

This, believe it or not, is supposed to be a “repeat” symbol from the sheet music. I actually don’t write repeated parts all out again. I do this so that both the tab and sheet music I provide will be congruent with one another. Again, following along with the videos will let you know that a certain part is meant to be repeated, so listen closely.

|——————–
|——————–
|–Q—————–
|–R—————–
|——————–
|——————–

This is supposed to be a “quarter rest”, hence the letters “QR”. This is explained in the legend at the top of the tab. There is also a “HR” half rest, “WR” whole rest, and so on. I include rests in the videos.

Sheet Music

The sheet music documents I provide have the normal sheet music of the piece on top, and below it the tablature version. I write up these files using the Powertab software, which looks great. You can open these files as pictures. These documents have many things written on them, which I will explain:

PIMA

On the tablature part, I write the letters P I M A. They represent the fingers of the right hand.

P = Thumb
I = Index finger
M = Middle finger
A = Ring finger

These letters are for those who are using fingerpicking to play the piece, which is the classical way of playing the guitar. If you don’t use fingerpicking to play, then these markings don’t apply to you. However, you will have a hard time playing these pieces with just a pick. Unfortunately, I DO NOT TALK ABOUT RIGHT-HAND FINGERINGS ON MY VIDEOS. It would make the videos much longer and complex. However, just following the sheet music markings should be more than enough. Look in the “Technique” section for videos explaining these terms.

Bars

My bars are pretty standard, nothing too complex. Bars are written in ROMAN NUMERALS. The roman numeral represents on what frets to place the bar.

I = one, II = two, III = three, IV = four, V = five, VI = six
VII = seven, VIII = eight, IX = nine, X = ten, XI = eleven, XII= twelve

On the video lessons, I will tell you when these bars occur as well. However, on the video lessons I mention how many strings to press down with these bars. Usually, not all the strings need to be pressed when doing a bar, and many times pressing down all six strings may interfere with what follows. Follow the instructions on the videos at all times.

Free stroke/Rest stroke

In many pieces you will need to change from playing free stroke to rest stroke, and vise-versa. Look in the “Technique” section for videos explaining these terms. Unless written differently, all pieces tend to start with free stroke. If I want a certain part to be played in rest stroke, I will write a (reststroke) marking over the note that I want you to play in rest stroke. It will stay in rest stroke until I write a (freestroke) over a note, which means you will go back to playing in free stroke. Of course, these markings are my suggestions. You are free (no pun intended) to use these hints or not.

Powertab Files

Every piece comes with it’s own Powertab file. These files need to be openned with the Powertab software, which is free. These files are a great additional study tool. Read “Powertab Tutorial” on the “Editorial” section of the site for more information on how to use this software. Look in the “Guitarist’s tools” section on the front page of the site for a link to download the free Powertab software.

Know the brands

With so many brands out there, the first thing you need to know is which brands have a good reputation. Ask people you know who play guitar what brand guitars they have and which they would recommend. Of course, some brands are known for one type of guitar than another. If you are interested in purchasing a classical guitar, brands like Jackson or B.C. Rich do not really cater to classical guitarists, although they make fine electric guitars (I own a B.C. Rich myself and have friends that are happy with their Jacksons). Of course, price will also affect which brands you look for. Jose Ramirez classical guitars are extremely sought out with a rich history, but the prices for their lowest introductory student guitars will be well beyond the price range of most people, let alone their top-of-the-line models. Plus, if you are a complete beginner to the guitar (or classical guitar), purchasing something high-priced is not the route I would suggest. As a guitar teacher, I can’t begin to tell you how the early enthusiasm of new students is easily shattered when they realize that becoming a good guitarist is not all fun and games. There is serious work to be done to even become somewhat respectable. Now there is nothing wrong with realizing that you can’t put the time into the guitar that you would like. Hey, life happens. But if you become one of these people, you definitely do not want a $1000 guitar staring you in the face from the closet gathering dust. I suggest a good quality cheap guitar. But definitely not a $50 “toy” either. I think with $150-$250 you can buy a very nice classical guitar these days. I personally recommend Alhambra and Yamaha classical guitars to beginners. They have good quality guitars in many price ranges. I own an Alhambra. I love it.

Go with your feeling

Now you have done your homework and know what brands to look for when you get to the store. But there is another problem: you don’t know what to look in terms of quality or playability. What if you see ten guitars in your price range from well-known brands, but they all look and feel the same to you? Well, you are gonna have to play russian roulette, that’s what, although I wouldn’t recommend it if possible. If you are fortunate enough to have a friend who plays classical or acoustic guitar, ask him/her what to look for in terms of playability. By this I mean, how should a guitar feel on my fingers/hands? How should it feel on my lap? What is the best guitar for my bodytype? I always suggest 1/2 or 3/4 sized guitars to parents wanting to buy guitars for their children under ten. Buying a full-size guitar for a seven year old is not very wise (I know firsthand). A small/pettite person would perhaps benefit from a 3/4 guitar. Also, steel-string guitars tend to have thinner necks, making them more ideal for people with small hands; although the body of the guitar can be quite large depending on the brand/type. Have I scared you enough yet? Basically, get as many tips as you can from a friend about what to look for on how a guitar should “feel”. Obviously, writing about this aspect of guitarhunting is difficult because words are a poor substitute for actually having a guitar in your hands and feeling it out. If you don’t have anyone to turn to, ask the salesperson which guitars in your price range they would recommend. Finally, if all else fails, stick to the brand that you researched and, after trying them all out, pick the one your gut tells you to.

Online purchases

Do I recommend purchasing a guitar online if you are completely new to the guitar and have not really even held one in your hands? No. However, if you do the two things above, you have my blessings (although I ain’t guaranteeing that you’ll make the right decision). Basically, purchasing online should only be done by a beginner because of the lack of stores in their area or the savings they would get, and only after exhausting all other possibilities. If there arent any guitar stores in your area, then I suggest you stick to the brands you researched and pick one of those. If you researched well enough, you are likely to get something nice. If the music stores in your area are expensive and you can theoretically purchase the exact same guitar you tried and liked at the expensive shop for $100 less, then that is a pretty powerful reason to do so. Note that in both these scenarios, there is a lot of research that was done to reach the decision of buying online. Happy hunting!