Does Classical Guitar Require Lessons?

Posted in guitar lessons on 27. Jul, 2011

Keep the guitar lessons questions coming! I liked this one:

Question: Hi everyone, Okay so here the deal. I’m 15, and after playing The drums for 5 years i decided i wanted to learn another instrument. I started learning basic chords on acoustic. Then I heard one of my family friends play Classical/Finger style guitar. It sounded amazing. I know it takes lots of hard work and practice. But i would like to learn. I’m just wondering what it requires. I know i need long nails. and a special guitar ( nylon string ). But whats been on my minds lately is how hard it seems it would be to learn it. I know lessons make learning significantly easier. But i cant afford it due to my family’s current financial situation. I just want to know if its possible to teach yourself. Or all the technique and stuff is something that someone else really should teach you?
Answer: RK: Learning to play Classic Guitar without a teacher is not going to be easy, and is fraught with technique imperfections. Reading classic guitar music from the staff is not the issue, it is starting out with the best finger-style technique….not easily learned from a book alone.

Do not confuse strumming a few chords on an acoustic guitar with learning to play classical music on the classic guitar. The fingering technicalities on the guitar far exceed that of the piano. The piano has more than thirty pieces of hardware between the players fingers and the actual striking of the strings….much subtlety is lost in the action. The guitar is a chromatically tuned instrument, and the fretted fingerboard makes learning the intricacies of harmonic construction much more visual.

The guitarist is in constant touch with the strings, like a harpist, and all of the special effects (chromatic glissando, portamente, pull-offs, hammer-ons, mordents, single-string tremolo, etc) are freely available and make the music come alive. There is no complicated mechanism between his fingers and the beautiful sound production. Transcriptions of the music of Bach, for example, take on a clarity not possible even with the keyboard. But make no mistake, all of these techniques take many years of study and a well-qualified teacher is the best route.

Having said all of the above, and seeing how eager you are to forge ahead, I can at least recommend a self-study book to get you started:

"You Can Teach Yourself Classic Guitar" by Will Bay (a Mel Bay publication for about $12.)

Cliff E. (classic guitarist)

4 Responses to “Does Classical Guitar Require Lessons?”

  1. Sam Bagusky says:
    July 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    you can teach urself

  2. mick says:
    July 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Teach yourself or have lessons. There’s some good classical guitar lessons here http://www.guitarlessonsguide.org and some links to tablature books here http://www.proguitarstore.net

  3. pianolin says:
    July 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    Technique in general shouldn’t be too hard. people teach themselves amazing guitar technique all the time. However, you are playing classical music. There’s certain subtleties that can’t be learned on you’re own, they must be learned from a teacher.

    I actually don’t know much about guitar, but for piano, you would expect it to be easy to teach yourself yes? However, any serious pianist knows, there’s more to piano than just pressing notes. There’s phrasing, dynamics, articulation, pedaling, voicing, balance, interpretation, and I’m pretty sure I’m missing something… Anyway, you need to combine all of these to legitimately play classical piano (I dare anyone to tell me otherwise).

    Now obviously guitar is different, but I can tell you phrasing, dynamics, articulation, and interpretation will still be valid for the guitar. And then there’s probably other subtleties that I don’t know enough about guitar to be aware of.

  4. Live Forever says:
    July 27, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    I’d recommend getting a teacher – I was naive enough to think that even after working at the piano for seven years, I would be able to "teach myself the basics", and THEN call in a teacher. Ha! WRONG. I didn’t think my technique was all that great, but even worse, I learned that I had been doing it COMPLETELY WRONG. So, back to the beginning. Not fun. I "unlearned" my bad habits and now have been *officially* playing for about a year – it’s great fun! Of course, this is just me – just one example. I do have friends who have tried and failed to teach themselves instruments – admittedly, most didn’t have a musical background like you! IMHO, the basics are EXTREMELY important, and something only a good teacher should guide you through.

    I’m very sorry to hear you may not be able to get lessons. Why not ask the family friend (if they have enough experience) to teach you, if you did some form of work in return? If they can’t teach, then ask around for a teacher who you think would be willing to "exchange." I know two people who do this – they receive lessons in exchange for odd jobs etc. Everyone is happy.

    Note: You don’t necessarily need long nails. A former teacher of mine kept his cut short. Also, I believe they make a kind of "nail clip-on" that you can kind of attach to your nails. This apparently helps professional classical guitarists, especially the ones who tour frequently, to keep their nails from breaking/chipping (I read this in a book about the history of the classical guitar.)

    I hope this helps, and that it all works out for you!

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