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Since of the release of The Classical Guitar Companion (Oxford University Press) and Practicing Music by Design: Historic Virtuosi on Peak Performance (Routledge), I've removed materials from this page that are now in those two books. The articles on mental strategies, fingerboard harmony, as well as some 19th-century etudes are now gone, but I do plan to offer new articles, exercises, editions, and transcriptions in the future.
Scores & Exercises
Frédéric ChopinOp. 28, No. 20
This piece is featured in Chapter 6 of my Practicing Music by Design: Historic Virtuosi on Peak Performance (Routledge). Pianist Alfred Cortot used this prelude to illustrate some important practice techniques, and I used Francisco Tárrega's transcription for guitar in my book. (Tárrega transposed the piece from c minor to c-sharp minor.) The phrase markings are Chopin's, modified by Cortot. I have omitted Tárrega's fingerings.
Price: FREEOrpheusOnFire
Advanced Left Hand ExercisesContinuous Slurs/LH Independence
These exercises combine left-hand finger independence with slurs: some fingers must hold notes while others perform slurs continuously. The fingers not performing the slurs are also required to move to form other notes while the slurred notes continue. These exercises help create mental and physical independence. As one of Chopin's most important pupils put it, "It is not the exercise, per se, that one practices, but the development of the hand by means of it." This exercise is for advanced guitarists.
Price: FREEOrpheusOnFire
Articles and Study Guides:
The Virtuoso TeacherThe re-Imagination of Guitar Pedagogy
A newly typeset and revised version of Christopher Berg’s 24-page article on teaching. This work explores ways to develop healthy and productive reacher/student relationships in the applied studio to help students realize their full potential.
The PDF of the article is free and you can also read it online here. If you prefer MOBI or EPUB versions to read on your Kindle or or Apple's Books app, in addition to PDFs, check out the version on Leanpub.
LeanPub creates three versions for you: PDF (for Mac or PC), EPUB (for iPad, iPhone, Android, and other ebook readers), MOBI (for Kindle), provides a mechanism for providing author feedback, and will notify you of any updates.
Price: FREE
Giuliani Revisited Study Sheetfor use in conjunction with Giuliani Revisited
Why not work on two things at the same time? My original conception for Giuliani Revisited was to have a fold-out page with I-V-I progressions in all major and minor keys to help develop a stronger sense of key while studying arpeggio patterns.
The fold-out page wasn’t feasible at the time, but now there’s a sheet to place on your music stand so you can cycle through all the keys while you work on right-hand patterns. Some of the right-hand patterns in Giuliani Revisited require six-note chords and they are given on this sheet. Because of this, the voice leading isn't as elegant as it would be with four-note chords.
This sheet can also be used with any of the numerous publications of Giuliani’s original 120 right hand exercises, but you’d be missing out on all kinds of arpeggio goodness!
Price: FREE
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