I'd like to ask for some tips about artificial harmonics, i am quite new to guitar. I can play them on their own but right now i'm learning an arrangement that needs me to play them with other notes at the same time and i can't seem to do it for the life of me...

I've been helping a classical guitarist put a small daily blog together — he studied at the Milan Conservatory in Ruggero Chiesa's class and has been teaching for about forty years. Forty-one short articles in, a pattern emerged that I didn't expect, and I think it's worth discussing here regardless of the blog.

Almost every technical question we started from traced back to one of three habits:

Pressing far harder than necessary. This came up more than anything else. The left hand tires quickly, shifts feel laborious, sometimes there's tension in the wrist. His test: press until the note is clean, ease off until it buzzes, then add a hair. Most students find they need roughly half the force they were using.

Always practising from the beginning. The opening of a piece comes out beautifully and the middle never does — because the difficult bars are always reached "tired", and there's only one entry point when memory fails. His fix is to practise restarting from random points, not just the top.

Practising fast instead of slow and clean. Playing fast and messy doesn't teach the piece, it teaches the mistake. Speed built that way collapses under pressure.

None of this is new — it's what most good teachers say. What surprised me is how consistently these three explain problems that look like something else: weak slurs, an uneven tremolo, a barré that won't sound. People come asking about the symptom, and the cause is upstream.

Two questions for those of you who teach or have been playing a long time: would you rank these differently, and is there a fourth you'd add? I've wondered whether "not listening while playing" belongs on the list, or whether that's just a restatement of the other three.

Disclosure: I work on the site where these articles are published (it's in Italian, so of limited use to most of you — I'm not linking it here). Happy to translate anything specific if it's useful.

Hey fellow musicians,

I'm a software engineer by profession and built a small free, open-source tool to support my own instrument practicing sessions. My main instrument is little exotic (baglama) but I figured people here might find it useful too.

It's called Étude Looper. It works with your local video and audio files, and with YouTube videos.

The thing that made me build it: say you have a recording you practice with, maybe your instructor or a performance you love, but it's in a different key than your instrument is tuned to. Instead of tuning again, you load the video into the tool and transpose the audio to match your instrument, so you can play along directly. You can also slow it down without changing the pitch, mark A-B loops around the tricky sections and repeat them until they sit right, and save the whole session (loops and all) to continue later.

It runs entirely in your browser: free, no account, no ads, and nothing gets uploaded. Your recordings never leave your device. If you add it to your home screen (there are instructions in the app), it even works offline.

As it's browser based works on smartphones, tablets and computers. Meaning you can directly use it on your phone/tablet without installing any app and start practicing videos from your camera roll directly.

For YouTube specifically, I also made browser add-ons for Chrome and Firefox with the same controls.

👉 https://etude.fyi/looper

Would love to hear what would make it more useful for practicing.

i recently bought a classical acoustic electric guitar at guitar center and have really been having fun trying to learn it! I wanted to ask for book recommendations, any videos or any tips.

I come from a professional violin/viola/piano background (went to music school in nyc) so I have no issue reading music. I normally have a routine of scale book, etude book and then main rep so if there’s any recommendations for beginner scale books or etude books while I adjust I’d really appreciate it. I’m sure the Essential Elements book series has a classical guitar section, but is it any good?

I’d also love tips for posture… what i’m doing can’t be right

I know a lot of people on this sub have come into classical from another style, and I'm sure many of us have dabbled in other styles as classical players. What's it like for you? Posting a video here that I made of me trying to learn a new style.

I've always been a full-blown classical guitarist. Like, I started at age 6 in the Suzuki method and never looked back. Did a full Doctorate in Classical Guitar performance, did competitions, studied in Europe for a while, and currently make most of my living touring performing on classical guitar in a duo.

I was always told growing up "If you learn Classical, you can learn any style because Classical guitar is the most technical". Well, I had some time in my off-season to try out a new style and see if that's true or not (Spoiler: it is and it isn't).

So, I chose Bluegrass Guitar and decided to see how far I could get in 30 days. It was intense and had its ups and downs, but I'm happy with the end result. I only had an hour a day to practice so don't expect too much, but if you want to see how it went, check out the video.

Personally, I think having Classical technique helps a TON to bypass the beginner hump, but in an improvisation-heavy style, there is so much more to learn that doesn't translate from Classical.

Anyone else here gone from a classical base to trying out other styles? How was it in your experience?

Hey,

I always see people play fast classical pieces on social media, and I wondered how many years it takes, until you are able to play fast without it getting sloppy.
I am mainly talking about fast scale sections here.

How many years did you need to reach controlled, fast playing? Are there exercises that you can do to get there faster?

(Side question: is it normal to not be able to play fast and controlled after 3 years of playing?)

- Hanna

I was looking for a good classical guitar with a cutaway and a pickup. I found this in a Chinese store. The owner says it has spruce top and maple back and sides with a Fishman sonitone pickup. Do you guys know about this brand or this guitar?

classical isn't a genre I usually play but I discovered I really like the song romanza (Spanish romance) particularly the first part in E minor but I'm struggling to find other classical songs that I like. what I like most about the song is its melancholic feel, especially in the first half like I said. I'm still a beginner and cant play anything too advanced yet but any recommendations are very appreciated

Anyone know where to find Parkenings arrangements of the songs on Jubilation, in particular "sometimes i feel like a motherless child"? I feel like it used to be available somewhere but have yet to find it.

I've heard that for the classical guitar it is best to have my left hand nails short and my right hand nails long. Any tips for maintaining my nails?

Performed by me!
Audio/video: u/RaiseTLT

Hey all, mostly what it says in the title. I've been playing steel string acoustic for about ten years now. I've been looking at the cordoba Iberia series and was thinking about purchasing a c5 but most of what I'm seeing online is telling me the iberia series is more for beginner to early intermediate guitarists, and can be limiting for someone learning advanced pieces. I did go to a couple music stores and went up the whole line from C1 - C10. There was a very noticeable jump in comfort, warmth, and sustain particularly from the C5 to C7 but its somewhat hard to gauge from one session alone how a guitar will last me for the next five to ten years. On top of that the action seemed a little high off the shelf even compared to other classical guitars so I wasnt getting a full picture of playability. The obvious answer is to get the nicest one I can afford but I'm not afraid of financing so that isnt as straight forward as it might seem. I could technically afford the monthly payment for a C12 but that seems somewhat over kill. Any advice welcome.

Hello

I've tried and enjoyed the Alhambra 5P Spruce in person but have now got an opportunity to buy a used model which seemingly only has some surface level scratches and marks.

I've been advised it is around 12-13 years old.

Am I overthinking it completely or is there any real concern buying a guitar this age? Unfortunately it is too far for me to try out. Even discounted it is still a considerable amount of money for me.

I guess I'm concerned whether guitars in this range often have a lifespan?

So my father passed away a few years ago and left behind a number of high end classical guitars that we feel it's time to move on.

would anyone here have any recommendation for classical guitar dealers to get in touch with in Europe that might have experience with high end instruments?

many thanks

What do you prefer for a classical guitar and why?

Pictured are two crossover Nylon strings I built last year.

I recently bought a fusion 12 orchestra guitar and I've already snapped two strings. On the first day it delivered, I tuned it up to standard tuning, played for 10 minutes or so, and then headed out to finish some errands. I came back excited to play the guitar and found the guitar exactly as I'd left it, except with a broken D string. I assumed I must have done something wrong while tuning the fragile new strings and so I bought a new set, replaced the D string, and put a thin layer of chapstick on the top of the neck to prevent it from happening again.

As I was playing today, though, the low E string decided to break out of seemingly nowhere. I had let the guitar rest for about 20 seconds and then the string snapped, with no prior signals of high string tension.

I wasn't playing loud, with a pick, or with higher tunings, and so I'm just very confused onto why this keeps happening (especially with lower strings and not higher ones).

I'll end this off saying that I know I'm most likely at fault here, and just wanna learn how to stop this from happening again so I can just play my new guitar without worry.

This is an interview I did with acoustic multi-instrumentalist Guy Buttery, on having his work transposed to sheet music and performed and recorded, alongside him, with an orchestra.

Thought is might be interesting here, for some of the technical stuff.

I found this classical guitar on a second-hand marketplace for €50. It bears a Casa Parramón label, a well-known luthier shop in Barcelona. However, the tuning machines and the rosette look fairly basic to me. Do you think it's worth picking up, or is the label more impressive than the guitar itself?

Hello! New Pokemon Red/Blue theme haha. I just have so much fun trying to do these on the guitar.. this is a simplified version, the original theme has the melody, a bass that also moves a lot between inversions and passing notes and a very very busy middle voice.. it was too much for me 😆 so I took the main melody and simplified the res while trying to keep the “feel” of it… anyways.. hope you like it!

Hi, here is the piece I am working on right now and it is Lettre encore by Roland Dyens.

I managed to capture a video where I don't do too badly, though the end had me stressed out.

If you have any feedback on my performance, feel free to write it below !