(Part 2) Best products from r/classicalguitar

You're not going to get a lot of people in r/classicalGuitar that are going to answer this without some kind of recommendation that you just improve your regular score reading skills instead. Tab can be a great tool at times, but more often it seems to be used as crutch.

My advice is to start sight reading as much as you can whenever you find tab-free scores because it is skill that you can only develop with dedicated and focused practice. Whenever you go to the effort to transcribe a score to Tab, you are still leaning on a crutch because when you start playing, you aren't using the music, you're using your Tab instead and not actually getting any score reading practice in. In your mind, you are probably translating your scores to Tab instead of actually reading the score. Tab and score notation are similar in that respect. In fact, I suspect that if you just force yourself to give up tab you'll see an amazing and very rapid increase in your ability to process standard scores.

Here is a personal example: When I read Spanish I am not actually reading Spanish... I'm translating it into something I am familiar with. I still have to learn to transform my thought process into Spanish before I am truly reading Spanish. Once I stop communicating by saying buenos noches to mean "good afternoon/night" and I just start saying buenos noches when I mean "buenos noches", I am actually speaking Spanish. Until then, I am just translating words. That won't change until I immerse myself in Spanish without clinging to English as my crutch. The same thing applies to changing from Tab notation to score notation.

http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333574358&sr=8-1

I have this book and it is great practice in sight reading and you may want to check it out. It is nothing more than a bunch of short sight reading exercises. Teach yourself one or two of them a day without transcribing them to tab first and I am absolutely confident that your reading skills will improve noticeably.

If you are really insistent on using Tab though, classtab.org is decent.

This book has some decent stuff in it as well: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Spanish-Guitar-Solos-Book/dp/1603780599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333575720&sr=1-1

There are a ton of free resources available, but in my experience videos are extremely helpful if you are trying to learn on your own.

I can't vouch for it myself, but you may want to consider a method book that comes with a DVD with video examples. The only one I know of that seems to get fairly good reviews is Scott Tennant's Basic Classical Guitar Method.
http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Tennants-Classical-Guitar-Method/dp/073901983X

If you really need something completely free, this is a good place to start. His free guitar method vol. 1 is pretty nice.
http://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/sheet-music-for-classical-guitar/

I would also highly recommend checking out the Delcamp forums (linked in sidebar). He has put together a very nice progressive collection of music and lessons. If you choose, you can participate in the lessons, but this requires submitting videos of your own playing and providing feedback to others with may be difficult if you have limited internet bandwidth. Either way, it is definitely worth checking out.

Also available on Delcamp is an extensive list of free method books.
http://www.guitareclassiquedelcamp.com/partitions/methodeguitare.html

Why, yes.. yes I do.

Same, tons of broken nails and time spent trying a million different nails / glues / ideas.

Know that I never ever tried "crazy glue" .. I didn't want to damage my nails with that stuff.

So, I opted for "glue-dot" like removable nail glue tabs. Some are garbage, some or OK, a few are GREAT. Here is great:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GD6J12S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They will usually stay on for 2 or 3 days, and they are cheap enough they are super easy to replace. Plus, these roll right off your nails and the fake nail, so PERFECT. (some don't and are a pain to remove, forcing you to "remake" the nail every time.)

Nails:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DH2Q3WM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lots of different kinds, these are the easiest to shape.

Get a good nail clipper like
https://www.amazon.com/Toenail-Clipper-Professional-Heavy-Duty-International/dp/B00QLZAZT4/ref=sr_1_40_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1482465746&sr=1-40&keywords=nail+clipper

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY.. 400 grit sandpaper. Use that to shape the nail, then rub the sandpaper on itself to make it more like 1200 grit (smoother yet) and use that to "buff" the nail. (use the sandpaper on your real nails as well to be sure they are perfectly smooth.)

Use your thumb nail to rub on the real nails and fake nails to make sure you don't have any chippy spots, it should feel perfectly smooth.

Questions? ask. I'm the king of fake nails.. don't tell my wife. :)

I personally don't like high-tension strings one bit, but low tension strings have too much bend to them. Mediums for me all the way.

I have found the following two strings to be pretty good at creating an all around good tone for my two guitars. The Augustines actually were amazingly quick to stabilize and quit slipping out of tune, so they might be my favorite. I'm not sure yet.

http://www.amazon.com/DAddario-EJ45C-Pro-Arte-Composite-Classical/dp/B0002H07FY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1324589475&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Albert-Augustine-Classical-Guitar-Strings/dp/B0002DXQH4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1324589536&sr=8-4

As for when to change strings, I figure about every 100 hours of play time or so. I've seen some people suggest cleaning your strings by removing them and soaking them in an ammonia solution, but that looks like way too much work when I can buy a decent pair for $10.

I'd love to see other people's string preferences as well.

So what I did was angled it up towards the ceiling and covered it with a bit of diffuser cloth:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/m7izi/nylon_or_muslin_for_diffusion_material/c2ys94j?context=3

Don't use just any cloth, it has to be that special type of fiberglass cloth (heat resistant to 1000'F) b/c those lights get hot. If you can't get that type of cloth, you can look into shooting it through some frosted glass or bouncing it off the walls / ceilings so it is "diffused" / reflected evenly around the room (and angle everything so it's not hitting you directly in the face as well! :-)

Other option is to get some nice bright sunlight but that cuts down on the locations where you can shoot the video.

With regards to the camera NO CAMERA EVER is going to do well indoors. Doesn't matter if you spend $100, $1000, $10k ... indoor == crappy grainy quality, unless you have those eye-melting lights. So... again, if you are planning on a fancy phone anyway, then the iPhone (and 4s especially) has some of the nicest camera quality. But don't throw away your audio recorder b/c you'll still need it.

I would steer you towards the Panasonic Lumix with AVCHD support which you can get a really good one on sale for less than $200. It has (let me count the ways):

• 10+ megapixels, which is good
  
• 1080p video, which is good
  
• 10x+ OPTICAL zoom (which is awesome)
  
• tripod mount
  
• small size
  
• optical image stabilization (real physical gyroscopes / lenses / etc correcting for your shaky hands instead of digital processing which will ~lose~ you pixels)
  
  ...it does a great job taking pictures and great job taking video especially if you're usually doing just these shorter takes of a few songs. Camcorders are ~better~ if you'll be plugging them in, setting them up, recording off a tripod for a few hours, etc. but for 90% of everything a good "vacation camera" that also does the HD video will probably do you better.
  
  www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-ZS8-Digital-Stabilized-3-0-Inch/dp/B004KKZ0H4/ref=sr_1_6 - $150, 16x zoom, 14mp
  
  www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-ZS10-Digital-Stabilized-Function/dp/B004KKZ0HY/ref=sr_1_7 - $225, same as above but with auto-GPS tagging of photos (very cool!)
  
  http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_TZ20_ZS10/ - review of the ZS10 (gps)
  
  --Robert

As music education major, here are a few tips that I have found useful.

• Modeling - Ask your students to repeat after you. Show, don't tell.
  
• Feels like, Sounds like, Looks like (sound before sight) - Start with the rhythm (clap the rhythm if necessary), next add the notes with the rhythm, then go to the notation on the page. (If you're interested in learning more about this method/concept it is called the Gordon/Froseth method)
  
• You do not need to reinvent the wheel - Find a good beginning method book (or more advanced method depending on what level your student is at). Personally I use this one for beginning classical guitar. For the most part any method book will be fine in the beginning since they will mostly be learning notes and chords.
  
• Sight read in every lesson - Start off with very simple and short phrases that use quarter notes and simple rhythms and note combinations. Doing this in every lesson will aide in the development of their music reading skills.
  
• Have fun with it! - create little games based on notes on the fretboard, chord shapes, rhythm patterns, etc. if you don't have fun with it neither will they.
  
  Well that's about all I can think of at the moment, feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions, or if you need some music I have plenty of music/etudes/warm-ups for beginners that I can send you if your are interested.
  
  Edit: grammar

I bought my copy through Amazon, but from a different seller.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0934009090/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

Any of the sellers under "New" (6 copies available from $34.95 at the time I write this) should be good. I don't remember specifically which seller I bought it from, unfortunately, but as long as the ratings are good you'll be fine. It's a great book.

Hey thank you for saying so :)

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Well I used to play from this book when I was getting to grips with that style https://www.amazon.co.uk/Venezuelan-Pieces-Guitar-Rodrigo-Riera/dp/B000BC5FS4 and I still really like it, I think the pieces are beautiful and fun. It's probably a similar level to the Sor stuff you've been playing too.

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Aside from that, I know Alirio Díaz and Antonio Lauro both arranged a tonne of Venezuelan walzes for guitar ( I can't remember all of them now) but some are a little simpler I think. I just can't remember which ones!

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I was actually looking for this piece in order to suggest it for the recent Carulli jam, but I can't find it online anywhere. It's in The Classic Guitar Collection edited by Leonid Bolotine. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

My half-ass web searching suggests that what Bolotine calls "Tempest" may have been excerpted (and possibly expanded) from part of Carulli's Op 2, "L'orage, sonate sentimentale". However, in this video I don't see anything labelled Tempest or hear anything exactly like it (although the Thunderstorm section has the same general idea). That Op 2 is a nice, little piece though (and tells a story, which is a novelty in classical guitar music), so I'm glad my searching lead me to it.

First, follow the advice of everyone here and grab yourself a good teacher.

I would also recommend this book. Great starter book especially if you need help reading sheet music.

The Frank Koonce arrangements of the lute suites are generally well respected. You can get it on amazon. I'm a big fan of this one.

The other recommendation you'll generally hear a lot is to look at the original and arrange it your self. This definitely has its merits, but it really depends on what you want to get out of it.

Pick up some string conditioner: https://www.amazon.com/GHS-Fast-Fret-String-Cleaner-2-Pack/dp/B00INCGKSI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fast+fret&qid=1563247851&s=gateway&sr=8-1

​

Learn to succumb to the dark side, and your fingertips and strings will love you.

​

P.S. You use the conditioner while playing, and then wipe it off when done.

I've used these since I can remember http://www.amazon.com/DAddario-EJ45C-Pro-Arte-Composite-Classical/dp/B0002H07FY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1324589475&sr=8-5 ... Regarding string care, use a stripe of denim (from old pants or something) and just surround each string with it, and hardly run the denim along all of them. Doing this whenever you feel like it will make your strings last at least two times what they would otherwise.

You just gave me an idea! This is a hook driver: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F1ZJG8G It's meant to drive hooks like https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UNg0W4D4L._SX425_.jpg

I wonder if my tuning peg will fit in it!

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Approach-Classical-Guitar-HL00695114/dp/0793570654/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411670652&sr=1-1&keywords=duncan+guitar

The link above is to Charles Duncan's A Modern Approach to Classical Guitar: Book 1. The rep is very accessible to beginners without any sissy tunes. On the other hand, you will not be so frustrated with tunes such as Romanza or advanced studies of Sor's or Giuliani's.

You can use the Royal Conservatory of Music books to help guide yourself.


Syllabus: https://files.rcmusic.com//sites/default/files/S47_GuitarSyllabus_ONLINE_2018_F.pdf

Repertoire & Etude Books: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rcm+repertoire+guitar&crid=98H04VFQJGXR&sprefix=rcm+repe%2Caps%2C163&ref=nb_sb_noss

Technique Book: https://www.amazon.com/G5T09-Classical-Guitar-Technique-Conservatory/dp/155440861X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=rcm+technique+guitar&qid=1567015093&s=gateway&sr=8-1

There's a fair amount of standard rep in the latter volumes of the Parkening and Noad books. My professor had me pick up this collection of Villa Lobos works. No complaints there. He also had me pick up this collection. I was a little skeptical about the title, but it definitely delivered. I've used both quite a bit in picking out rep for my junior and senior recital. For anything else, I went to the Icelandic guitar school website.

edit: formatting

If you can get your hands on Frederick Noad's Solo Guitar Playing 1, or Christopher Parkening's Guitar Method 1, you could go a long way. If money is an issue, I know my local library has the Parkening book, so that might be a resource to check into.

https://www.amazon.com/ErgoPlay-Tappert-Classical-Guitar-Support/dp/B005QKNUOW/ref=asc_df_B005QKNUOW/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312150857943&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10006830517743188180&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009976&hvtargid=pla-521765762820&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=65054436154&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312150857943&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10006830517743188180&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009976&hvtargid=pla-521765762820

Started learning 3 months ago. Working on anything/everything in this book.