Christopher Berg
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190051105
- eISBN:
- 9780190051143
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190051105.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies
The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of exercises, études, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Students are encouraged to work in multiple chapters, ...
More
The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of exercises, études, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Students are encouraged to work in multiple chapters, simultaneously depending on advice from a teacher or their own assessment of what they need. The author’s dual perspective, as an active performing artist and as a teacher who has trained hundreds of guitarists, results in a combination of pedagogical thoroughness and artistic insight. The book opens with a large section devoted to establishing a thorough knowledge of the guitar fingerboard through a systematic and rigorous study of scales and fingerboard harmony, which will lead to ease and fluency in sight-reading and reduce the time needed to learn a repertoire piece. The chapters cover scales exercises and studies, repeated notes, slurs, harmony, arpeggios, melody with accompaniment, counterpoint, and florid/virtuoso studies. Each section contains text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies to open a path to interpretive freedom in performance. Exploring advice found in the standard pedagogical literature for guitar that effectively places constraints on a student’s long-term development, the book offers information designed to help students recognize and overcome these constraints. When the book presents the simple version of a technique, it does so through consideration of the technique’s advanced version. Many guitar composers are represented but there are also transcriptions of relevant lute music that expand the scope of the book. The book is designed to serve as a companion for years of guitar study.Less
The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of exercises, études, and pieces organized according to technique or musical texture. Students are encouraged to work in multiple chapters, simultaneously depending on advice from a teacher or their own assessment of what they need. The author’s dual perspective, as an active performing artist and as a teacher who has trained hundreds of guitarists, results in a combination of pedagogical thoroughness and artistic insight. The book opens with a large section devoted to establishing a thorough knowledge of the guitar fingerboard through a systematic and rigorous study of scales and fingerboard harmony, which will lead to ease and fluency in sight-reading and reduce the time needed to learn a repertoire piece. The chapters cover scales exercises and studies, repeated notes, slurs, harmony, arpeggios, melody with accompaniment, counterpoint, and florid/virtuoso studies. Each section contains text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies to open a path to interpretive freedom in performance. Exploring advice found in the standard pedagogical literature for guitar that effectively places constraints on a student’s long-term development, the book offers information designed to help students recognize and overcome these constraints. When the book presents the simple version of a technique, it does so through consideration of the technique’s advanced version. Many guitar composers are represented but there are also transcriptions of relevant lute music that expand the scope of the book. The book is designed to serve as a companion for years of guitar study.
Christopher Berg
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190051105
- eISBN:
- 9780190051143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190051105.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies
This chapter lays out the scope and intended use of The Classical Guitar Companion. It explores how guitarists and teachers can create unique and distinctive curricula of study for themselves or ...
More
This chapter lays out the scope and intended use of The Classical Guitar Companion. It explores how guitarists and teachers can create unique and distinctive curricula of study for themselves or their students to help them acquire and develop fundamental techniques and foundational knowledge. Included are practice guidelines applicable to each chapter of the book. Because all new learning requires a finely honed foundation of prior knowledge and skill, the introduction presents advice that will help guitarists transform their foundational work into advanced technique and a deeper understanding of the instrument. This work will help guitarists meet the artistic and technical demands of advanced guitar literature. The introduction also explores those best served by the book: those studying the classical guitar (whether novice or advanced); guitarists wishing to fill gaps in their background; new guitar teachers looking for guidance with curricula; and guitarists interested in the rich pedagogical heritage of the instrument.Less
This chapter lays out the scope and intended use of The Classical Guitar Companion. It explores how guitarists and teachers can create unique and distinctive curricula of study for themselves or their students to help them acquire and develop fundamental techniques and foundational knowledge. Included are practice guidelines applicable to each chapter of the book. Because all new learning requires a finely honed foundation of prior knowledge and skill, the introduction presents advice that will help guitarists transform their foundational work into advanced technique and a deeper understanding of the instrument. This work will help guitarists meet the artistic and technical demands of advanced guitar literature. The introduction also explores those best served by the book: those studying the classical guitar (whether novice or advanced); guitarists wishing to fill gaps in their background; new guitar teachers looking for guidance with curricula; and guitarists interested in the rich pedagogical heritage of the instrument.
