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Guitar lesson: How To Improvise The Classical Guitar Way
Peter Edvinsson
When I was a fifteen years old guitarist playing rock solos and
classical guitar pieces I remember that I had a desire to be
able to improvise on my guitar in a classical manner.
Nowadays I have developed this skill and I love to improvise in
the style of composers like Sor, Tarrega, Paganini or others or
just trying to find myself somewhere among the notes. These
special moments are a form of meditation. They clear my mind and
also helps me as a composer to stimulate my creative abilities.
The most important reason for learning classical guitar
improvisation is that it's fun!
If you learn classical guitar improvisation it will benefit you
in many other ways too:
1. It will be easier for you to memorize classical guitar sheet
music.
2. You will find it easier to compose your own guitar pieces in
a classical guitar style.
3. You can make up your own techniqal exercises on your guitar
on the go.
4. You will understand your guitar better.
There are many ways to develop classical guitar improvisation.
How?
You can start with major scales, experimenting with easy chords,
or easy classical guitar pieces. The most basic requisite is
that you want to learn this art and with this desire you will
find ways to practice classical guitar improvisation in all your
guitar playing.
I will just mention using classical guitar pieces in this
article. But how do you begin?
May I suggest that you begin with an easy melody with just one
voice or maybe a two voice piece with bass notes on open
strings. Learn a couple of bars by heart and play the melody
over and over again and try to change the melody slightly
without losing the classical touch.
The ultimate exercise is to use advanced classical guitar solos.
If you think about it you will realize that classical guitar
pieces are filled with wonderful licks, more or less complicated.
These licks can be developed and added upon to give you material
that will help you developing your improvisational skills.
For example, take a two bar passage in a classical guitar piece
that you like and practice it until you master it and then
memorize it.
Now you can play around with the passage, break it down, change
it, analyze it and so on. If you want to improve as an
improvisational guitarist and musician you can regard classical
guitar pieces as collections of very musical licks just waiting
to be used.
I hope these hints will motivate you to reap the benefits from
improvising the classical guitar way.
About the author:
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit
his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and
learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.co
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