5+1 Things That Will Improve Your Classical Guitar Practising
In the first part of Things That Will Improve Your Classical Guitar Practising, I touched upon adopting new habits that can boost your efficiency. The second part elaborates on the importance of being mindful in your routine.
Time is of the essence.
Music is organised sound in time. As audiences, we experience a musical performance as it unfolds linearly; one moment leads to the next. We give meaning to the notes not only by what surrounds them and is heard concurrently but also what precedes and follows.
Listening to music is a highly complicated process. Although we are intuitively tuned to understand shifting emotional states conveyed by pitches and rhythms, a well-defined sense of beat is necessary as it seems to be conformity between musicians and listeners amongst all different cultures.
In other words, no matter how diligent was the composer when choosing the right notes and rhythms if the performer doesn't support them boldly; in that case, the music suffers.
When it comes to keeping time, the metronome is the best friend you ever had; it will never lie to you and will make sure that you respect time.
Use the metronome in your daily practice. Make sure that you understand the rhythms that the score presents to you. The key word here is understanding; solo performances don't always need to be metronomically precise. Perfect executions, metronomically speaking, depending on the style, can be uninteresting. But, if you don't learn to perceive rhythms accurately your audience will be left confused.
So, remember to keep a balance of practising with and without the metronome. Eventually, you'll need to learn how to let the phrases breath as well.
Stand on the shoulders of giants.
Sir Isaac Newton famously wrote in 1676 "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants". Music might not be astronomy or mathematics, but the tradition is a well established one.
Through the aeons, teachers play the role of passing wisdom from generation to generation. And, in the age of information, books, forums, videos and blogs can give us additional insights into the music we pursue to master.
While we can take advantage of all those options simultaneously, with the danger of being overwhelmed, I would argue that nothing has more value than claiming the information ourselves. A century of recorded music gives us access the judgement, observations and vision of the great masters.
It is imperative to listen to music carefully, lots of it, various performers and interpretations. Analyse and criticise it; ask questions. Try to understand why they make the choices they do; what works, what doesn't and why. Make notes, then try to apply some of your findings to your playing.
Know thyself. Or at least try.
Psychological research suggests that we are not very good at evaluating ourselves accurately; we frequently overestimate our abilities. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. The less we know, the more we think we understand; and musicians are no exception.
No matter how many times your teacher points out that your rhythm is way off, it's extremely hard to evaluate yourself objectively in real-time. Additionally, it is impossible to fix performance issues before you understand what these issues are. It is a process.
Thankfully, in our technological world, it is possible to shorten the gap between how well we think we play and how we do sound. To stare directly in the mirror and observe all our faults. We achieve that by recording our performances regularly and then listening critically. The emotional distance that is granted by becoming the audience allows us to review our playing slightly more objectively. And as we keep exercising this muscle of critical listening, we eventually learn to do it in real-time, at least to some extend.
And no, you don't need to set up a home studio, even a simple audio and video capture with your phone can have a similar effect. Admittingly, investing in some recording gear won't hurt; a pair of decent microphones and a good headphone.
A chat with the composer.
Most of the classical guitar repertoire was composed long before we were born, by composers that are not around anymore. But even for our contemporaries, we rarely have the chance to have a one on one chat about their works and intentions. In either case, they have grand us with something almost as good; the music score.
When you study a new piece of music, don't just read the notes. Study the harmonic implications, the motives, the rhythms. Break down the composition to its elements, see how they connect, ask what their purpose is. Try to understand what is their function in the micro and macro context.
Additionally, read the biography of the composer, learn about major influences, life and period. Be interested and get personal. This in-depth research is utterly inspiring and may lead to musical revelations.
Understand the notes.
"Music is a language", how many times you have heard or repeat that phrase? Well, I believe that most people don't truly understand what it means.
The most common reading of that phrase is that music can affect our feelings universally across all cultures, meaning that we can detect happiness and sadness even in unfamiliar music idioms. While that is not wrong, it doesn't even touch the surface of what makes music a fully grown language.
Pitch, tempo, rhythm, and dynamics convey shifting emotional states. In Western music, harmony gives us information about the hierarchy of pitches, their tendencies and their meanings. Even if we don't formally study music, we learn to intuitively understand these nuances by an early age with nursery rhymes, cartoon music, songs in family gatherings, etc. But, every culture has its music, and each has a language.
Study common practice harmony, study contemporary composition techniques, learn the peculiarities of different periods, learn the specifics of the culture that you come from, be interested in other traditions, and diverse musical genres. After you learn the basics, dive deep into things that got your attention, then study wide and repeat.
Be interested in the tradition; in consequence, your playing will become more engaging and individual.
Destination.
Guitar playing is one of those things that you cannot stay still; if you stop pushing forward, you roll backwards. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline only to keep one's technique, let alone advance. Although you can set goals for yourself, there is no real destination. The journey is the reward; Music is a lifetime pursuit after all. So, don't be anxious, don't rush, enjoy every step of the way.
6+1 Things That Will Improve Your Classical Guitar Practising
Playing the classical guitar can be utterly gratifying for professionals and amateurs alike; moulding unique sounds with our fingers and expressing our inner selves. Even more so, playing an instrument is a way to escape some of our everyday problems.
On the other hand, practising the classical guitar can often be frustrating; progress sometimes feels impossibly slow, and there are way too many things that need our full attention.
Adopting a new habit, or slightly shifting our mental state, can transform our practice sessions and boost our efficiency. Besides, a more enjoyable time with our instruments could only make us want to play more.
Here are a few of the things you can do to get the most out of your practice session.
Schedule your Practice Sessions
If you often postpone practising, finding yourself not having enough time for a full session. Try to organise your day better, instead of picking up your guitar every time you feel like it. Just like many other activities, set a specific time for practising, and make sure to show up on time. No excuses.
Don't Skip Days
If you can dedicate a couple of hours every day for your passion, it's excellent. But, don't skip practising for a day because you only have half an hour, thinking that it won't be enough. Decide on one thing, be it a difficult phrase or technique, you wish to conquer; gather all your concentration and dedicate your limited time on taming it.
Practice What you Can't Do - but Don't Reach Out for the Stars, yet.
I often see people with very little experience try to tackle a difficult concert piece. Usually, they try on their own for a couple of years, then frustration kicks in because they don't see any improvement, and they either quit or (hopefully) search for a teacher.
You should always practice material that is on the edge of what you can do, but not totally out of reach. Not too hard, not too easy. By building a well-balanced repertoire when the time is right, even difficult pieces will seem effortless.
Keep an Organised Space
There is no better way to lose time and kill concentration than having to search for that Bach score you wanted to work on, a metronome, a file for your nails, etc. Keep a tight and organised practice space with everything you need for the routine available at hands reach.
Do Not Disturb!
Speaking of concentration, put your phone in silent mode! You can achieve more in 30 minutes of full concentration, than in three hours full of distractions. Unless you are a surgeon, or your wife is pregnant, you can manage to stay off-line for an hour.
Don't Practice Through the Mistakes!
A common mistake that beginner guitarists do is to keep practising the same things, and usually by repeating the same mistakes, over and over again hoping that they might eventually improve.
What happens is that mistakes are being reinforced through repetition. Our muscles don't care if it sounds correct or not; if you repeat a movement a hundred times, that's what they'll learn. So, every time you make a mistake, stop right there and start again from the top.
If the mistake persists, work out the specific measures that need attention. Find out why your fingers want to play something different, practice slowly and correctly until you have it all down.
Slow. Down.
Playing classical guitar requires fine finger movements and coordination. Guess what, you cannot control those if you play at a relatively fast tempo. Work on your technique at a very slow tempo, one at which you can control all these fine movements to a great degree. Once you have the correct movement down, it's easy to increase speed.
Repeat - repeat - repeat
You managed to play that difficult Villa-Lobos part correct... once. You should celebrate!? Well, not so fast! If you cannot play it correct at least five times in a row, you probably haven't nailed that part yet, and chances are the when you'll have to perform the full score, the "wrong" version will creep into your performance. So, don't be satisfied with one correct repetition, and move on to the next part. Repeat as many times necessary until you can play it correctly every time!
Don't neglect to enjoy your sessions
I hope that some of these ideas will help you play this difficult piece you have been trying for some months, and hopefully make your practice a touch more satisfying.
Don't forget, no matter your level or your goals, be thankful for what you have achieved so far. Being able to play the classical guitar is a reward in itself.
Voice Leading for Classical Guitar
An Intensive Journey to Demystifying the Fretboard - Part 5
If you haven’t read yet, make sure to check the previous segment of the series:
Part 4 - Learning the Open Triads
Voice leading is the linear movement of individual melodic lines or parts, their interaction leads to expressed harmonies. In other words, voice leading allows us to understand where voices want to go, by considering where they come from and what everybody else around is concurrently doing.
Smoothness and Indepenence
The primary interest in voice leading is to maximise smoothness and promote the independence of voices. These virtues of part-writing are satisfied when the voices move as little as possible and in different directions.
Considering these goals, we derive the following straight forward rules:
Common Note Principle; If two chords have a note in common, try to keep it in the same voice.
Contrary Motion; If not or for some reason you don’t want to keep it there, make sure that some of the voices move in different directions.
Make sure that you don’t cross voices - avoiding large jumps helps.
Three Baisc Voice Leading Rules
Agustin Barrios' Preludio Saudade from La Catedral is a perfect example of voice leading, by studying just a couple of measures, it completely demonstrates the application of these rules.
La Catedral - Preludio Saudade; Measures 10-11 and 19-20.
Diatonic Progressions
Let's examine the possible diatonic root progressions and their voice-leading options:
Chords that their roots are a fourth or a fifth apart have one common tone. Try to keep it in the same voice but if you don’t want, make sure that some of the voices move in different directions.
Chords that their roots are a third or a sixth apart have two tones in common. You can keep one or both at the same voices, or make voices move in opposite directions.
Chords with roots a second or seventh apart don’t have any notes in common, so your only option is to move all voices in different directions.
Voice Leading in Diatonic Progressions
These rules are mere guidelines and should never obstruct musical expression. Most great composers historically operate on the frontier of what is considered acceptable at any given time. It is the responsibility of the thoughtful composer though to understand, internalise and analyse the voice leading principles in part-writing in addition to important musical works.
Play and listen carefuly the following voice leading example, analyse the linear movement of the voices. Finaly, apply these simple rules to other progressions.
Voice Leading Example in a Diatonic Progression
Parallel Movement in Instrumental Writing
Parallel movement is generally avoided as it takes away the individuality of the voices, but in instrumental writing, it can be an effective device for underlining a melody with a greater sense of cohesiveness and density. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, architects of the contemporary music, used parallel melodic harmonies extensively; but there are examples of parallel movement even in Bach.
In a contrapuntal context, parallel harmonies may provide contrast but should be only used sparingly.
An example of paraller movement can be found again in Agustin Barrios' La Catedral, in the second movement this time.
La Catedral - Andante religioso; Measures 3-4.
An Intensive Journey to Demystifying the Fretboard - Quick Access
Part 1 - Practising Scales with Creativity
Part 2 - Understanding Double Stops
Part 3 - Practising Triads & Inversions
Part 4 - Learning the Open Triads
Part 5 - Voice Leading for Classical Guitar
Part 6 - Connecting Harmonies with Melodic Lines
30-minute Classical Guitar Warm-up Routine
The main reason for setting up and following a regular warming-up routine before each practice session is to you avoid muscle and tendon related injuries. A successful one will also assist in your technique development and allow you to increase your playing consistency.
Be careful not to overdo it though, you don't want to wear down your fingers before your session even begins. A common mistake among guitar students is to spend most of the practice time with technical exercises, neglecting polishing up repertoire.
By focusing on each exercise for only about 3-4 minutes, alternating hands and focus area, you can manage to tire your fingers just a little, while maintaining physical and mental stamina for the basic work-out.
Additionally, you want to work your fingers on a variety of techniques and movements, to ensure a balanced outcome, with the additional benefit of having worked and polished the basic - and most important - techniques that the classical guitar repertoire requires.
Before you begin, keep in your mind that, accuracy is extremely important. Therefore, practice at a slow and comfortable tempo, stay focused and pay attention to your tone production quality, and efficiency of movement.
ABS: Always Begin Slowly
Start with some of the basic Right-Hand attack techniques on a single string.
Although "im" is mostly used for scales and melodies, a fit “a” (RH) finger, as well as an agile “4” finger (LH), gives overall balance and control to the hand - therefore don’t skip on practising the “ma” variations.
Also, try different strings.
After a few minutes, it is time to let the RH hand rest and concentrate on the LH, slur exercises are very helpful. Pick a scale practice hammer-ons.
Keep all the fingers as close together to the fretboard as possible, and aim for a quick and accurate attack. Slurs are all about accuracy, strength is over-rated.
More RH picking exercises on a single string, this time triplets will guide us to practice sequential attacks with three fingers.
Triplet accenting slurs for the left hand. Make sure that the tone of all three notes is similar - pay attention especially to the pinky as it usually the weakest one.
Its time to introduce string crossings for the right hand, these will prepare your RH fingers for more realistic - real repertoire - requirements.
Practice descending slurs with pull-offs. I like to keep working on the same scale throughout the warm-up routine.
Tremolo is an elusive technique for many guitarists, perform these sequences, and emphasise the first finger to gain more control. Remember, repetition is the key to success.
Left-hand triplet descending slurs. Focus on the pull-offs, each note should have the same volume and tone.
We are all Drummers: when practising right-hand Patterns, like these arpeggio sequences, I usually mute the strings with my left hand, to better judge the accuracy of the individual hits.
Mixed slurs can be very rewarding, these are some examples but try to experiment with different one or two strings mixed-slur sequences.
Remember, none of these exercises is fully comprehensive, I could (and do) easily spend more than 30 mins just on each topic individually, but that's not the purpose here. So, if you have trouble with a specific technique/exercise or want to elaborate more, find a place to fit it into your regular practice routine.
The Rasgueado exercises are useful even if you don't plan to play any flamenco, they give strength to your finger and flex them to the opposite direction for better balance.
Work on short bursts of speedy ascending lines, so that you can synchronise both hands and practice scale lines that might come up in your repertoire.
Four finger Rasgueados for more fun.
And lastly, short bursts of speedy descending lines. Push your tempo limits but don't forget that accuracy is the King.
Parting thoughts
As pointed earlier, tone production quality should always be a concern, as well the accuracy and efficiency of the movements. Try to stay focused throughout the warm-up and the rest of your session. Never practice without concentration, it leads to uninspiring performances. And don't practice without intention, because it leads to incoherent playing.
This routine might seem somewhat excessive, but the length of each repetition can be adjusted to realistically match your time. Some of the variations can be skipped, but try to cycle through all of them at decent intervals.
It is most essential to follow and repeat all the exercises a few days before a recording session or a concert, doing so, you will get to be at the top of your game.
Understanding Double Stops
An Intensive Journey to Demystifying the Fretboard - Part 2
If you haven’t read yet, make sure to check the previous segment of the series:
Part 1 - Practising Scales with Creativity
I always find it fascinating how much colour we can squeeze out of combining just two notes together.
Traditionally, the most common use of the double stop is to add more weight and support to melodic lines. Therefore it’s our obligation to study them exhaustively since not only they can assist us with the further demystification of the fretboard but they are also quite useful compositional elements.
Within one octave can be found the intervals of the second, third and fourth as well as their inversions fifth, sixth and the seventh. It is very useful to think of these pairs of intervals as reflections on a mirror since their effects are similar and we deal mostly with how much space you leave between the voices.
The following happens when we invert the intervals:
Seconds become Sevenths and vice versa
Thirds become Sixths and vice versa
Fourths become Fifths and vice versa
Also:
Major intervals become Minor and vice versa
Diminished intervals become Augmented and vice versa
Perfect intervals remain Perfect
Bonus Info:
When Major or Perfect intervals become a half step larger are called Augmented
When Minor or Perfect intervals become a half step smaller is called Diminished
The diverse pool of emotions and colours that different intervals convey can be by a not so subtle margin subjective and therefore their uses differ across various cultures, centuries and genres of music.
It is generally accepted though that:
Thirds and a Sixths are consonant and colourful
Perfect Fourths and Fifths are tonally ambiguous
Seconds and Sevenths are dissonant and provide plentiful tension
Music with excessive use of dissonance can sometimes be alienating but contrarily music without tension and dissonance can quickly become boring and too convenient. A way to use dissonances in a more companionable tone is to hide dissonant intervals within a consonant texture so that they become less animating and dominant features of the overall music.
Things to do:
Explore all intervals in the same diagonal manner similar to the scales practising
Pause and try to think what each interval brings out to youCreate miniature works or improvise only with the use of double stops, why not restrict yourself to only one type of double stop
Find uses of double stops in the works of the composers you like and analyse them.
When practising intervals and double stop, my goal is to be able to recall any sound without much thinking and to be able to play anything, anytime and everywhere on the guitar!
After all, double stops are 66,6% triads.
An Intensive Journey to Demystifying the Fretboard - Quick Access
Part 1 - Practising Scales with Creativity
Part 2 - Understanding Double Stops
Part 3 - Practising Triads & Inversions
Part 4 - Learning the Open Triads
Part 5 - Voice Leading for Classical Guitar
Part 6 - Connecting Harmonies with Melodic Lines