An Interview with Philip Hii
Interviews with Classical Guitarists
Philip Hii was born in Malaysia. Before coming to the US, he won a competitions and toured throughout his home country. He has studied classical and jazz guitar and currently resides in Texas, where he teaches guitar at several colleges. Philip is the author of two ebooks: The Art of Virtuosity and Art of Virtuosity […]
Read MoreThree Ways to Get Yourself Students
Guitar Teaching
Teaching is a great source of income for professional musicians, and it can be an extremely rewarding form of employment. Marketing yourself, however, sucks. Unless you get a gig at studio or local music shop, you’ll have to do all the leg work yourself. Here’s three simple things to help. List yourself on Google Maps. […]
Read MoreForm > Harmony
Music Theory
Do we need to learn music theory? It’s helpful to know some music theory, but I think too much attention gets paid to harmony. Form is where it’s at. Being able to identify a phrase automatically implies some things about its performance: Phrases have a shape. Phrases have a bit of a ritard to finish […]
Read MoreThe Red Fantasy
Classical Guitar Tips
Almost a year ago, I attended a concert given by Odair Assad where I heard The Red Fantasy, a new guitar piece by Kevin Callahan. Both the The Red Fantasy and The Fourth Stream are now available from Doberman Editions (PDF or Print Copy). Here’s what Kevin had to say about The Red Fantasy (source): […]
Read MoreCreating Guitar String Numbers in Finale
Classical Guitar Tips
Those of you using the powerful music notation program Finale might be frustrated with the lack of guitar string numbers. Here’s how to create them. Open a new document Open the Expression Selection dialog box by selecting the tool and clicking on any measure From here we’re going to click on the “Edit Categories” button […]
Read MoreRethinking Slow Practice — A 2nd perspective
Guitar Practice Techniques
Chris made a lot of good points in his post on Rethinking Slow Practice. After reading it, and reading the comment that followed, I thought I’d give some of my own insight on the topic. I’m constantly speaking about the benefits of slow practice to my students. Many of them don’t believe the results they […]
Read MoreMonday Motivation: Schulman Edition
Monday Motivation
“We should cultivate simplicity and directness rather than fussiness and complexity.” -Reginald Smith Brindle Today we feature Andrew Schulman performing his arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. I’m going to be interviewing Andrew later this week. If you have any questions for him please leave them in the comments.
Read MoreSor’s Advice on Learning Notes
Guitar Teaching
In his method, Fernando Sor advocates a way to practice the notes along each string. In my Free eBook on learning the notes on the guitar (available on the free stuff page) I describe a way to learn the notes by memorizing the naturally occurring half steps and the notes on two strings and then […]
Read MoreOpen Thread: Feet Flat or on the Toes?
Ask the Readers
It sit with my feet on the toes: the left foot is mostly handing off the edge of the foot stool and my right is back and on its toe. (see my seating position here.) This is not uncommon: a lot of methods advocate it, and a lot of professional players sit this way. Now […]
Read MoreHappy New Year!
Classical Guitar Tips
Happy new year! and thanks for spending the past year with The Classical Guitar Blog. When I started this website in November 2008 on a whim (and with out much of a solid plan). It’s been my pleasure to write the various articles found on this website. It’s my hope that these articles have made […]
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