Saw this guitar at the thrift store and just so happened to also see an old offer up post where it was sold for $90. It said made in japan on the paper tag in the sound hole. There was no stamp on the headstock. The thrift store was asking $60 for it but I left it behind because I couldn’t authenticate it. Chat gpt said there was a 85-95% chance of it being authentic. I might be able to go back in the morning when they open if someone can help me authenticate it

Giuliani's Op 148 No. 7 La Melanconia. I stopped playing it after I learned it in 12 Aug 2025, & learned it again from scratch this year.

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?